Luc Mertens MD, PhD

Dr. Mertens graduated from medical school at the University of Leuven in Belgium in 1992. Afterwards, he was a researcher for the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research performing molecular biology research at the Laboratory of Physiology in the University of Leuven, Belgium. This resulted in a PhD thesis on the regulation of expression of the SERCA2 gene in muscle in 1995. Dr. Mertens specialized in paediatrics and paediatric cardiology at the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, and spent one year as a research fellow in the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

In 1999 he became a consultant paediatric cardiologist at the University of Leuven where he worked until 2008. There, he developed his clinical research in the field of paediatric echocardiography with research focused on new echocardiographic techniques to assess cardiac function in children.

He became one of the leaders in the field of paediatric echocardiography in Europe, and was active as Secretary of Imaging Working Groups of the Association for European Paediatric Cardiology (AEPC), Board Member of the European Association for Echocardiography, and Council member of the AEPC. He was involved in developing teaching and accreditation in paediatric echocardiography in Europe.