Claudius Thomé, MD completed his medical education at the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universitaet Munich, Germany and at Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford/Ca., USA followed by his residency in the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Heidelberg, Campus Mannheim (Chairman: Prof. Dr. P. Schmiedek) (1995-2001). He completed several fellowships: 2nd Institute of Physiology, University of Heidelberg; Dept. of Orthopedics, Klinikum Karlsbad-Langensteinbach; Department of Neurosurgery, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, USA; and, Department of Neurosurgery, Mayfield Clinic, University of Cincinnati, USA. His thesis was entitled “Evidence-based spine surgery: Evaluation of new surgical techniques using randomized studies” (2005). Dr. Thomé’s surgical specialties are: cerebrovascular surgery, skull base surgery and complex spine surgery, and his main research fields are: cerebrovascular diseases, neuromonitoring in brain injury (TBI, SAH) as well as evidence-based and minimally invasive spine surgery and regenerative medicine in spinal disease. After his position as Professor and Vice-Chairman at the Dept. of Neurosurgery, University of Heidelberg, Campus Mannheim from 2007 to 2009, he was appointed Full Professor and Chairman of the Dept. of Neurosurgery, Medical University Innsbruck, Austria in 2010. Dr. Thomé has served as Past-President of the Austrian Spine Society and the Austrian Society of Surgery. He currently serves as President of the Austrian Society of Neurosurgery. Dr. Thomé’s commitments in the societies focus on education as Chairman of the Training Committee of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies, as Past-Education Officer of AOSpine Europe and as Past-Member of the education committee of the German Spine Society and the Spine Society of Europe.