LAUSR

The President of International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ISPN) (2018–2019) and Professor and Section Head of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, Wolfgang Wagner (Fig. 1) was born in 1954 in Ahrweiler at the northern part of Rheinland-Pfalz province in Germany (Fig. 2). He grew up and attended the elementary school and classic lyceum in Darmstadt (Fig. 3), which is not far from Mainz. In 1973, he started to study medicine at the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, and graduated in 1979. He got the degree of medical doctor (Doctor medicinae) in 1980 with a thesis on lymphocyte transformation. From 1981, he began to work as a resident in anesthesiology at the Vincenz-Hospital, Mainz, for 1 year. Thereafter, he spent 2 years (1982–1984) for research on human EEG at the II. Physiologic Institute, Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. Then, until 1996, he worked as a resident and a consultant neurosurgeon at the Department of Neurosurgery, Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. His research topics at this time were somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP), diagnosis of brain death, and intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring. In 1996, he got the qualification for professorship (Doctor medicinae habilitatus) with a professorial thesis on SSEP in coma and brain death, an interesting topic, and became a private lecturer (“Privatdozent”) in neurosurgery. He moved to Greifswald in northeast Germany (Fig. 3) and worked as a consultant neurosurgeon and private lecturer at the Department of Neurosurgery at Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University for more than 4 years. During this period, his main clinical and scientific activities focused on pediatric neurosurgery, tumor surgery, neuronavigation, neuroendoscopy, and stereotactic and functional neurosurgery. In 2000, he moved back to Mainz as the head and private lecturer of the Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospitals of the Johannes Gutenberg University. He had interests in neuronavigation, neuroendoscopy, ventriculostomy in young infants, and development of new techniques in craniosynostosis surgery. During this time in Mainz until his retirement in 2020, he had many academic and social achievements. From 2002 to 2013, he served as a member of the Scientific Committee of the German Society for Neurosurgery (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie, DGNC). Since 2004, he contributed to the Foundation for Neurosurgical Research of the German Society for Neurosurgery as the secretary. He became a full professor in 2004 and served as the acting chairman of the neurosurgical department in Mainz from 2008 for 3 years. In the German Society for Neurosurgery, he has contributed to the Section of Pediatric Neurosurgery for a long time. From 2007 to 2015, he held the position of Speaker of the Section of Pediatric Neurosurgery of the German Society for Neurosurgery. The group of German pediatric neurosurgery has a number of famous world leading scholars in addition to Professor Wagner (Fig. 4). Many ISPN members remember the leading representatives of the German pediatric neurosurgery group shown on the poster exhibited at ISPN 2013Mainz (Fig. 5). He also played a major role in European Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery (ESPN) as Chairman and Cochairman of the Membership Committee and a member of the Nominating Committee from 2010 to 2018. Wolfgang made his debut at ISPN 2000 Istanbul as a keyboard player rather than a scientist (Fig. 6). He became a member of ISPN 2 years later. Since then, he has shown enthusiastic activities. In 2006, he joined the editorial board of * Kyu-Chang Wang [email protected]