Prof. Dr. Ralf Smeets is the Vice Head of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and the Head of the Division of 'Regenerative Orofacial Medicine” at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany. His academic career started in Aachen at RWTH Aachen University, where he completed his chemical studies in 1995 and studied medicine until 2003. Besides his medical studies, he studied economics at the University of Hagen. He finished his residency as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon and oral surgeon in 2009. In 2011, he became a full W2 professor at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, and was a visiting professor at University Bremerhaven (Germany) until 2015. He has been working as the Head of the Division "Regenerative Orofacial Medicine" of the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.