Ricard Cervera, MD, PhD, FRCP is Senior Consultant and Head at the Department of Autoimmune Diseases, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, Director of the Research Team on Systemic Autoimmune Diseases at the Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) of Barcelona, Professor and Director of the Chair UB-GSK on Autoimmune Diseases, Coordinator of the Masters’ on Autoimmune Diseases and Academic Vice-Dean at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona (UB), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Dr. Cervera qualified in Medicine in 1983 from the Universitat de Barcelona and in 1988 obtained his PhD degree for his thesis on anticardiolipin antibodies. His post-doctoral experience included two years at the Lupus Research Unit, The Rayne Institute, St. Thomas' Hospital, London, England. In 1995, together with Drs. Miguel Ingelmo and Josep Font created the Department of Autoimmune Diseases of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, a pioneering centre in Europe devoted to develop high quality clinical, academic and research work on these conditions. Dr. Cervera is founder member and Executive Board member of the European Lupus Society and the Spanish Society of Systemic Autoimmune Diseases (current Vicepresident) as well as member of the Catalan, Spanish and International Societies of Internal Medicine, the Spanish Society of Rheumatology and the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR), Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) of London, and Honorary Member of the Argentinian, Mexican, Peruvian, Equatorian, Colombian, Slovak and Hungarian Societies of Rheumatology, and the Society of Clinical Immunology of the Community of Madrid. He is past-coordinator of the European Working Party on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (Euro-Lupus Group) (1990-2008) and the European Forum on Antiphospholipid Antibodies (2009-2017) and founder member of the Lupus Academy. He is also founder member and Executive Committee member of the Antiphospholipid Syndrome Alliance for Clinical Trials and International Networking (APS ACTION) and the Lupus Nephritis Trials Network (LNTN) and co-coordinator of the European multicenter projects PRECISESADS (Molecular reclassification to find clinically useful biomarkers for systemic autoimmune diseases) and 3TR (Taxonomy, Treatment, Targets and Remission). Dr. Cervera is also the chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of the Catalan Association of Lupus Patients and Medical Advisor to Lupus Europe (European Federation of Lupus Patient Associations). He has organized many international workshops, symposia and courses on autoimmune diseases, and has been the chairman of the 6th, 8th and 11th International Congresses on Autoimmunity, the 1st, 2nd and 5th Latin-American Congresses on Autoimmunity, the 5th Meeting of the European Forum on Antiphospholipid Antibodies and the 8th European Lupus Congress. Among other awards, he has received the Prizes of the "5th European Conference on Systemic Lupus Erythematosus", EULAR 2003 and EULAR 2005 and the Award to the Professional Excellence of the College of Physicians of Barcelona - 2014. Dr. Cervera has presented over 500 invited lectures and has published more than 1,000 scientific papers (h index: 93), including original articles at New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Annals of Rheumatic Diseases, Arthritis and Rheumatism, American Journal of Medicine and Medicine (Baltimore). His academic activities include invited Professorships in several European and Latin-American Universities. He is co-editor of 30 books, including The antiphospholipid syndrome, Vascular Manifestations of Systemic Autoimmune Diseases and Diagnostic Criteria in Autoimmune Diseases, among others. He is also member of the Editorial Board of 20 medical journals and Associate Editor of the journals “Lupus Science & Medicine” and “European Journal of Internal Medicine”. His current major research interest includes clinical and epidemiological aspects of systemic autoimmune diseases, particularly systemic lupus erythematosus and the antiphospholipid syndrome, with special focus on its “catastrophic” variant, acting as the coordinator of the “CAPS Registry”.