1982 - 1989 ✧ University of Vienna Medical School, Austria - resident / specialist in training

During my post-Doc education at the Department of Surgery II at the University of Vienna I went through academic surgical training in general, thoracic, cardiovascular, trauma, plastic & reconstructive surgery.

Started my own research laboratory and working group for cell and tissue culture and scanning electron microscopy (together with P Zilla). Our working group was one of the first ever to perform successful clinical tissue engineering surgery. The main result and outcome was the development and introduction of the novel technique of in vitro endothelialization of vascular grafts, a technique which was used routinely in peripheral vascular surgery.

1984   Queen Mary Hospital, University of Hong Kong - Visiting Doctor at the Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Hong Kong, to experience a different clinical environment and see new aspects in cardiac surgery in a different continent.

1987-88  Registrar at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Groote Hospital and Red Cross Children Hospital, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Focus during this time was to receive a broad training in valvular heart and trauma surgery. 

Research - Started own basic research laboratory Tissue Engineering and working group for Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering. The main area of work during this time was the in vitro endothelialization of small diameter vascular grafts for surgical implantation in Baboons and the Endothelialization of biological heart valves.

° Endothelialization of small diameter vascular grafts for surgical implantation in Baboons

° Harvest and culture of micro vessel endothelial cells

° Endothelialization of biological heart valves

12.1987 - Organizer of the International Symposium: Recent Advances in Cardiovascular Surgery - in Memoriam of the First Heart Transplantation 20 Years Ago - at the Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa

1986 - Mission as a Field Surgeon for the International Red Cross during the Cambodian jungle guerilla war at the Field Hospital in the refugee camp Khao-I-Dang near the Thai-Cambodian Border. My duty was to run and be responsible for all surgical activities of this emergency field hospital facility [seen in the Hollywood movie ‘Killing Fields'] responsible for triage, first aid, surgery, preoperative diagnosis and post-operative patient care of military and civilian patients and victims in this war zone.