Gemma Figtree is a Professor in Medicine at the University of Sydney. She co-leads the Cardiovascular Theme for Sydney Health Partners, an NHMRC Advanced Health Research and Translation Centre, and is the Chair of the University of Sydney’s multi-disciplinary Cardiovascular Initiative. She completed her Ph.D. at Oxford University in 2002 and was supported by a Rhodes Scholarship, making fundamental discoveries regarding estrogen’s actions and factors regulating NO/redox balance in the cardiovascular system. She is committed to improving the care for heart attack patients by using her knowledge of molecular and cellular biology to develop methods of identifying those at the highest risks of adverse outcomes and discovering novel therapies to prevent and treat various medical events, which is inspired by her clinical work as an interventional cardiologist. She has dedicated herself throughout her career to unravelling key mechanisms underlying the susceptibility and responses to heart attacks, with studies extending from the bench to large cohort studies and clinical trials. She serves as a member of the Editorial Board of leading international cardiovascular journals, including Circulation and Cardiovascular Research, as well as being a founding editorial board member for Redox Biology and an Associate Editor for Heart, Lung and Circulation.