Rate My Professor Sven Plein

Professor Sven Plein is Professor of Cardiology (Clinical) in the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds, where he also heads the Department of Biomedical Imaging Science since 2017 and serves as Joint Lead of the Advanced Imaging Centre. He earned his MD from Philipps University Marburg, Germany, in 1995, and his PhD in Medicine from the University of Leeds in 2004. His early career was supported by prestigious fellowships, including British Heart Foundation Junior Research Fellow (2001-2003), Wellcome Trust Intermediate Research Fellow (2006-2010), and British Heart Foundation Senior Clinical Research Fellow (2011-2015). Appointed British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular Imaging in 2016, he holds an honorary Consultant Cardiologist position at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Professor Plein's expertise spans biomedical imaging, cardiology, cardiovascular disease, and magnetic resonance imaging.

His research centers on developing and validating novel MRI techniques, with a focus on myocardial perfusion MRI and their application to clinically relevant questions in disease models and patient studies, particularly in cardiometabolic disease and the cardiovascular effects of diabetes mellitus. As principal investigator, he has attracted over £20 million in grant funding, including a British Heart Foundation programme grant on mechanisms of cardiovascular disease in diabetes mellitus. Author or co-author of over 350 original research, review, and position papers, his work has advanced quantitative cardiovascular magnetic resonance methods to improve patient outcomes in high-risk populations such as those with diabetes and immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. Professionally, he is Senior Associate Editor of European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Imaging, editor of several cardiovascular magnetic resonance textbooks including the new EACVI Textbook on CMR, past President of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, Vice President of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging, and Chairman of the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging. He lectures locally, nationally, and internationally on cardiovascular imaging topics.