Prof. Dr. Erik van der Heijden, MD, PhD is a pulmonary physician and research group leader of interventional pulmonology at the Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen (The Netherlands) and President of the European Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology (EABIP). His primary clinical and research focus is the development of novel, image guided diagnostic and therapeutic transbronchial procedures and interventions for peripheral pulmonary lesions. He has more than 20 years of experience in pulmonary medicine and thoracic oncology. He is the program director of the national reference-, training and expert center for advanced image-guided navigation bronchoscopy and member of the multidisciplinary team at the Radboudumc center for central airway diseases. He leads the Radboudumc interventional pulmonology program, a high-volume tertiary referral center for advanced endoscopic procedures and training. His work has been instrumental in the adoption and implementation of cone beam CT guided navigation bronchoscopy in the Netherlands and is internationally recognized for its clinical impact and innovation.