Matthew J Budoff Editor

Matthew J. Budoff is an expert on Coronary Artery Calcification (CAC) and CT Angiography. He is recognized as a leader in the development of CAC Scoring and an innovator in the non-invasive objective detection methods for cardiac disease. He is an investigator in many large pharmaceutical trials and multicenter studies funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Budoff’s research is devoted to advancing procedures that can help doctors identify patients early that are at high-risk for cardiac events and progression of coronary calcium. This early detection can lead to patients being placed on the correct therapeutic path to prevent a heart attack. Additionally, Dr. Budoff’s research focuses on how to maximize the utility of non-contrast CT scans of the heart. His team has shown that supplementary measurements can be evaluated for thoracic aortic calcification, aortic valve calcification, mitral annular calcification, pericardial fat, liver fat, myocardial scar and bone density.
Stephan S. Achenbach is the Chairman of Cardiology and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Erlangen, Germany. His research interests focus on cardiovascular imaging, mainly computed tomography, for the early detection and characterization of coronary atherosclerosis and for the support of coronary and cardiovascular interventional procedures.
Dr. Achenbach was the Founding President of the SCCT from 2005-2007, and served as a Vice President of the ESC for the 2014-2016 period. He is currently a Board Member of ESC and  Chair of the Congress Program Committee and serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. He has received several awards, including the Jan Brod Award for Clinical Research of the Medical School of Hannover, Germany (1999), the Thomas C. Cesario Distinguished Visiting Professorship Award from the University of California Irvine School of Medicine (2007), the Simon Dack Award from the American College of Cardiology (2009), the Gold Medal of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (2015), as well as the Sir Godfrey Hounsfield Memorial Award of the British Institute of Radiology (2016). 
Harvey S. Hecht is an internationally recognized expert in cardiac imaging and preventive cardiology, and is the author of more than 100 publications in peer reviewed journals. After achieving acclaim as a leader in the fields of nuclear cardiology and stress echocardiography, Dr. Hecht pioneered the development of noninvasive coronary computed tomographic angiography (CTA) and is a driving force behind CTA guided percutaneous coronary intervention and the relationship between CTA and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). He was the first to demonstrate the poor relationship between risk factors and atherosclerosis.
Jagat Narula is Professor of Medicine and Philip J. and Harriet L. Goodhart Chair in Cardiology, and the Director of Cardiovascular Imaging Program in Mount Sinai’s Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health. He is the Associate Dean for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Narula has specifically contributed to two major areas including heart muscle cell apoptosis in heart failure, and lipid-rich atherosclerotic plaques that are susceptible to rupture and acute coronary events. He has brought novel experimental strategies to bedside and defined their applicability at the community level. He has served on the Advisory Council on Global Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences.