Maximilian Pichlmaier graduated in 1990 as a medical doctor at Cambridge University, UK. He finished his MD thesis in 1992 at the University Erlangen-Nurenberg. His surgical training at Kiel University Hospital and Hannover Medical School Hospital (MHH) led to the board certification as general (1999), vascular (2004) and cardiac surgeon (2007). At the MHH he contributed significantly to the development of the Vascutek Thoraflex Hybrid graft. He became Vice Chairman of the Department of Cardiac Surgery at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich in 2011 and obtained his Ph.D. in 2012. From 2011 he has been in charge of the aortic surgery program, became Associate Professor of Surgery and was recently appointed chairman of the newly founded University Aortic Centre Munich.
