Luigi Bonavina MD FACS (Hon.) is a full professor of surgery at the University of Milan Medical School and Director of the Department of Surgery at IRCCS Policlinico San Donato. After his general and thoracic surgical training at the University of Padua Medical School, he completed a Post-doctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Chicago and Creighton University. His current clinical practice focuses on the surgical management of esophageal disease via minimally invasive transoral, thoracoscopic, and laparoscopic approaches. He has served as a Visiting Professor in several academic and non-academic institutions around the world. He currently serves as an Associate Editor for Updates in Surgery, the official journal of the Italian Society of Surgery, and is a Member of the Editorial Board of the World Journal of Emergency Surgery. He has been nominated Honorary Member of the American College of Surgeons and of the Association of Laparoscopic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. He is an active member of the Italian Society of Surgery, European Surgical Association, Académie National de Chirurgie, American Foregut Society, International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus, Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, and World Society of Emergency Surgery. He has also served as past president of the European Foregut Society.