Prof. Dr. Richard Van Hillegersberg attended medical school in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In addition, he is the chair of UGIRA  the Upper GI International Robotic Association, and council member of the ISDE (International Society of Diseasrs of the Esophagus) and the ESDE (European Society of Diseasrs of the Esophagus). In 1993 he received his PhD with honors at the Department of Surgery, Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. From 1994 to 2000, he was trained in General Surgery in Rotterdam. From 2001 to 2002 he was a fellow of Surgical Oncology at the Academic Medical Center and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Netherlands Cancer Center Amsterdam. Since 2003 he has been appointed as a staff surgeon at the University Medical Center Utrecht. From 2009 he is a full professor of gastrointestinal oncology. His research is focused on Upper GI minimally invasive and robotic surgery, surgical imaging, and genetic profiling. He has authored over 15 chapters in textbooks concerning robotic foregut surgery and over 500 articles in international peer-reviewed journals. Since 2018 he has been chairman of the Educational committee of the European Society for Diseases for the Esophagus (ESDE) and member of the education committee of ISDE, he is associate editor of Diseases of the Esophagus and Digestive Surgery, founder and chairman of the Upper GI International Robotic Association (UGIRA).