Professor Werner Hacke, born in 1948, was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology, Ruprecht Karl´s University of Heidelberg, Germany from 1987 until 2014. He is now a Senior Professor of Neurology.

He graduated in Medicine at the medical school of the Aachen Technical University (RWTH) and also holds a Master´s degree in Psychology from the RWTH Aachen. He received his Neurology and Neuroradiology training at the Universities of Aachen, Germany, and Berne, Switzerland, and was a guest researcher at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, CA, USA.

He is a board-certified Neurologist, Psychiatrist, and Critical Care specialist.

He had a leading role in the development of Neurological Critical Care, implementation of acute stroke management and hyper-acute Stroke Unit care, intra-arterial and intravenous thrombolytic therapy and has pioneered decompressive surgery for malignant MCA- He was involved with many guideline-changing clinical studies such as ECASS I-IV, CHARISMA, DESTINY and DESTINY II, SPACE I and II, ROCKET AF, and SWIFT PRIME. infarction.

Prof Hacke has received numerous awards including the Feinberg Award for excellence in stroke research, the Karolinska Stroke Award, the WSO Presidents Award, the Mihara Award (Japan), the ESO Science Award and the WSO Leadership in Stroke Award.

He is a Past-President of the German Neurological Society, the German Intensive Care Society, the founding President of the European Stroke Organization (ESO), and a Past President of the World Stroke Organization 2016-2018.

He is Honorary Member of the German Neurological Society, the German Stroke Society, the German Societies of Neurosurgery and of Neuroradiology, the French Neurological Society, an Honorary Fellow of American Neurological Association (ANA), and an Honorary President of Neurocritical Care Society (NCS).

He has published more than 500 articles. His h-index is 139 (google-scholar citations). He was a "highly cited researcher" by Thomson Reuter for several years including 2018-2020. He is the author and editor of the leading German language textbook of Neurology „Neurologie“, which is in its 14th edition, and several other books on Stroke, Intensive Care and General Neurology.

He is happily married for almost 50 years with his wife Monika Hacke, and father of two daughters and a proud grandfather of four grandsons and one granddaughter.

He enjoys travel and cruises, modern art, sports and golfing, good food and wine, reading science fiction and fantasy books, and listening to Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. He stopped riding his Harley Davidson V-Rod, though.