Michael J. Ackerman, MD, PhD, is the Windland Smith Rice Cardiovascular Genomics Research Professor and Professor of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Pharmacology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. As Director of Mayo’s Windland Smith Rice Genetic Heart Rhythm Clinic and the Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory, Dr. Ackerman strives to fulfill the two-fold objective of medical education and biomedical research as stated by Dr. Charles H. Mayo: “to heal the sick and to advance the science.” He has published over 600 articles and chapters across the continuum of basic, translational, and clinical research focusing on the cardiac channelopathies, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and sudden death in the young. Dr. Ackerman has also served as the president of the Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes (SADS) Foundation since 2006. In 2018, he received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Heart Rhythm Society and the Mayo Clinic Distinguished Pediatric Investigator Award.