Prof. R. Willems finished his specialisation in Cardiology in 2002. He got PhD in medical sciences on the topic “Mechanisms of remodeling underlying atrial fibrillation” in 2005. After a clinical fellowship in cardiac electrophysiology at the University of Calgary, Canada, he was appointed at the University Hospitals Leuven, where he is currently medical responsible of the non-invasive cardiology unit and the clinical cardiac electrophysiology unit. In his clinical work he is mainly focused on device therapy for cardiac arrhythmia. He actively participates as researcher in the division of Experimental Cardiology of the department of cardiovascular sciences and is appointed professor at the KU Leuven. His research is focused on the non-invasive risk prediction of sudden cardiac death and the pathophysiology of atrial fibrillation. He is supported as a clinical researcher by the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders since 2010.