Prof. Dr. Massimo Padalino is the director of the congenital cardiac program lead and Associate Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Bari since January 2024, formerly at the University of Padova. He came back to Padova in 2004 and started working as a staff pediatric and congenital cardiac surgeon at the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery section of the University of Padova. He completed his PhD in Cardiovascular Sciences in 2008 at the same University, where he subsequently achieved his Master's in Cardiovascular Pathology (2010) and in Pediatric Cardiology (2014). He has been an associate professor of cardiac surgery since 2019, and teaches students in the Medical School at the University of Bari and students in the Nursing School. He is a senior surgeon with more than 1500 surgical procedures. He is a member of EACTS, AEPC, ECHSA, SICP, and SICCH, and is chairman of the ECHSA Research Committee. He is a Fellow of ESC and appointed reviewer for several journals in cardiac surgery. His research interests are Surgery, Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine, Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health, and Transplantation.