Dr. Maria Carmen Mir is working as a uro-oncologist in Valencia, Spain. After Medical School at the University of Barcelona, she proceeded with a urology residency at Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona. Thereafter, she completed a urologic oncology fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation between 2011 and 2014, accredited by the Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO). Dr. Mir obtained her PhD on Surgery at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. Her main areas of interest include bladder and kidney cancer clinical and translational research. She obtained a La Caixa Fellowship Grant for overseas training in 2012-2014. She was a member of the EAU-Young Academic Urologists Renal Cancer Group from 2016 till 2021.
Dr. Mir is currently associate editor of Frontiers in Genitourinary Surgery. She is also a current full-board member of European Section of Urologic Oncology (ESOU) within the EAU and a faculty member at EUREP (European Urology Residents Education Programme). She has published more than 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Riccardo Giuseppe Bertolo works as an Assistant Professor of Urology at the University of Verona, Borgo Trento Hospital (Italy). After completing a residency programme in urology, he did a PhD in bioengineering applied to medical surgical sciences at the Polytechnic of Turin (Italy). He also attended a research fellowship in robotic urology at Cleveland Clinic (Ohio, USA).
His surgical activity is focused on urologic minimally-invasive surgery (mostly robot-assisted) for treating prostate, kidney and urothelial cancers and benign ureteral diseases.
Assist. Prof. Bertolo’s research fields predominantly cover urologic oncology, with particular interest in kidney cancer, and technological innovations in minimally-invasive surgery. He has published over 200 papers in the most prestigious peer-reviewed urology/surgery journals and is a reviewer for over 40 peer-reviewed journals.
In 2019, he received the “Bracci Prize” during the annual congress of the Italian Society of Urology (SIU), for the best scientific paper published in an international journal. In 2022, he received the “Matula Award” during the SIU congress for the best urologist scientific curriculum under 40. In 2022, he was awarded as “Reviewer of the Month” by the journal, European Urology, and in 2023, he was awarded “Reviewer of the Year” by the European Association of Urology (EAU) Young Academic Urologists (YAU).
Assist. Prof. Bertolo serves as social-media editor of the Urology Video Journal, and is a member of the editorial board of the Minerva Urology and Nephrology journal. He is a board member of the Young Academic Urologists – Renal Cancer Working Party within the EAU; an associate member of the EAU Robotic Urology Section (ERUS); a board member of the SIU Research Office; and the Italian Group for Advanced Laparo-Endoscopic Surgery (AGILE).
Dr. Teele Kuusk completed her Urology Residency at Tartu University, Estonia in 2015. During Urology training, she was working mainly in Oulu University Hospital in Finland and in Tartu University Hospital in Estonia but also had Pediatric Urology training in Bezmialem Hospital in Istanbul supervised by Prof. Mesrur Selcuk Silay. From 2009-2015 she represented Estonian urology residents in European Society of Residents in Urology (ESRU). After residency she was appointed as a consultant urologist in Hämeenlinna, Finland.
In 2016-2018 Dr. Kuusk was awarded a prestigious clinical and research fellowship by The European Urological Scholarship Programme (EUSP) at center of excellence Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam where she was supervised by renal cancer leading expert Prof Axel Bex. In 2020 she defended her PhD in Utrecht University. In 2020 she was a fellow in Royal Free Hospital Renal Cancer Unit where she was trained in robotic, laparoscopic and open surgery in renal cancer. Most recently, she was appointed as a consultant urologist in Royal London Hospital, Barts Health Trust.
Dr. Kuusk is an author and co-author in 35 peer-reviewed publications and a co-author of a book chapter in Atlas of Lymphoscintigraphy and sentinel node mapping 2nd Ed. From 2018 she is a senior associate member of EAU renal cell carcinoma guidelines panel.