Dear Colleagues,
On behalf of the Medical Faculty it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 19th annual
meeting of the European Society of Thoracic Imaging together with the Fleischer Society.
Professor Kauczor and his colleagues from the organizing committee can be gratulated for
putting together a very interesting, interdisciplinary programme.
Imaging technologies play a pivotal role in various research foci of our faculty as for
example The Heidelberg Translational Lung Research Center recently established with financial support from the federal government. In this context the integration of the Thoraxklinik
into the University Hospital constitutes a major achievement.
The Ruperto Carola is the oldest university in Germany and medicine was one of the
four founding faculties in 1386. However, I have to confess that for centuries our faculty
did not play a major role in Heidelberg. But then, during the 19th century, a revolution took
place in natural sciences and medicine. Bunsen, Kirchhoff and Helmholtz, with the latter
being Dean of the Medical Faculty for several years, were the scientifi c triumvirate of those
days. In the course of the signifi cant expansion of biomedicine in the late 20th century,
almost all natural sciences as well as the Medical Faculty and the University Hospitals are
nowadays located together on the campus Im Neuenheimer Feld. We undoubtedly benefi
t from a very close and fruitful cooperation with non-university institutions on campus
such as the Max Planck Institute of Medical Research, The European Molecular Biology
Laboratory and in particular the German Cancer Research Center.
Apart from its romantic places such as the Castle, the Old Bridge and the Neckar
Valley, which you can enjoy during the dinner ship cruise on Friday, Heidelberg is mainly
infl uenced by the university with its 12 faculties and almost 4000 scientists. Among the
140 000 inhabitants of Heidelberg are 28 000 students, including 5000 medical students.
We are happy that almost 20% of them are foreigners, who signifi cantly contribute to our
academic and social life. The motto: semper apertus- open for new challenges- has refl ected
the basic ambition of our university for 625 years.
I wish all of you scientifi cally productive and rewarding sessions, but also hours of
relaxation together with colleagues and friends - in any case memorable days in lovely old,
but most vivid Heidelberg.
Claus R. Bartram
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