Mariano Sanz is professor and chair of periodontology at the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain) and a professor in the faculty of Odontology at the University of Oslo (Norway). He graduated in medicine in 1981 from the University Complutense of Madrid, from which he received a degree in stomatology in 1983 and where he qualified as a Doctor of Medicine in 1985. He received his speciality in periodontology from the Universtiy of Califormia in Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1987. He has received honorary doctorates from the University of San Sebastian in Santiago (Chile), the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) and the University of Coimbra (Portugal). Since 2005, Prof Sanz has been chair of the ETEP research group on the aetiology and therapy of periodontal diseases, whose main lines of research are oral microbiology, bacterial-host interactions, and antimicrobial approaches in the treatment of gingivitis and periodontitis. The research group has conducted clinical trials to measure the efficacy of different approaches to periodontal regeneration surgical protocols using dental implants, and therapeutic approaches to treat peri-implantitis. Prof Sanz has published 230 articles in scientific journals, written 50 book chapters, and has participated as an invited speaker at more than 200 scientific events in the last five years. He is an associate editor of the Journal of Clinical Periodontology and Evidence-Based Dental Practice and a member of the editorial boards of various other dental journals. He has been awarded the Jens Waerhaug Research Prize by the Scandinavian Society of Periodontology (1984), the Outstanding Service Award from the International Association for Dental Research (2015) and the IADR Straumann Award in Periodontal Regenerative Medicine (2015). He is a member of the executive committee of the European Federation of Periodontology (EFP) and chair of its workshop committee. He has previously served the EFP both as president (1993-1994) and secretary general (1998–2005). He is president of the Osteology Foundation, president of the International Association for Dental Research’s continental European division, and president-elect of the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE).