Cardiovascular Diabetology awards Associate Editors of the Year 2025

Professor Dídac Mauricio is a Full Professor of Medicine at the University of Vic & Central University of Catalonia and Director of the Department of Endocrinology & Nutrition at Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona. He also serves as Scientific Director of CIBERDEM, Spain’s national diabetes research consortium. He holds an MD from the University of Barcelona, a PhD from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and has specialized in endocrinology and nutrition. His ample research focuses on diabetes management, particularly cardiovascular complications, and multicenter clinical trials with direct patient-care impact. Having an h-index of nearly 70, he has contributed almost 400 peer-reviewed and highly cited articles, many of them in the most prestigious scientific journals. He is also recognized for his leadership in multicenter clinical trials and collaborative research networks at both the national and international levels. In addition, he is past President of the Diabetes Advisory Council of Catalonia and member of several editorial boards. 

Since joining Cardiovascular Diabetology in 2021 as Associate Editor, he has collaborated with our journal promptly and effectively, co-edited the ongoing collection “Cardiometabolic and hepatic interconnections: from mechanisms to clinical implications”, and has been particularly active in promoting the journal’s visibility, fostering innovations in scientific communication through video summaries and blog contributions. With this award, Cardiovascular Diabetology recognizes his scientific achievements, editorial excellence, and invaluable contributions to strengthening the journal’s position as a leading reference in the fields of cardiovascular and metabolic research. 

Read the Q&A with Professor Dídac Mauricio to find out what he has learnt from his most challenges experiences as Associate Editor.

Francesco Paneni is Professor of Cardiology at the Medical Faculty of the University of the Zurich. He is Senior Cardiology Consultant and Head of the Cardiometabolic Division at the Department of Cardiology, Zurich University Hospital. He is also Director of the Center for Translational and Experimental Cardiology (CTEC) at the Zurich University Hospital and Group Leader of the Cardiovascular Epigenetics lab within CTEC. He earned his MD and PhD at the University of Rome “Sapienza”. During his training, he worked as research fellow at Mount Sinai Medical Centre under the supervision of Prof. Fuster. After his PhD, he trained as a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Cardiovascular Physiology, University of Zurich and the Center for Molecular Medicine at the Karolinska Institute. A main goal of the Paneni lab is to characterize the role of environmental stress and chromatin remodelling in cardiometabolic diseases, including atherosclerosis, microvascular dysfunction, diabetic vascular complications and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Prof. Paneni received several awards from the European Society of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, namely the “Circulation Research Best Manuscript Award” and the “Early Career Outstanding Investigator Award”. He is author of 205 peer-reviewed articles in esteemed journals and was invited to give keynote lectures at prestigious meetings worldwide. He is past Nucleus Member of the ESC Credential Committee and is currently Nucleus Member and Coordinator of the ESC Working Group of Cellular Biology of the Heart. Finally, he is remote reviewer for the European Research Council and panel member for the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Research Council of Finland.  

Professor Paneni joined Cardiovascular Diabetology in 2022 as Associate Editor. Since then, he has fulfilled his editorial duties with outstanding efficiency, handling numerous manuscripts and consistently making well-founded editorial decisions. Together with Dr. Era Gorica, he served as Guest Editor of the collection “Cardiometabolic HFpEF with focus on type 2 diabetes mellitus,” a successful series of 45 articles published in 2024–2025 that represents the most up-to-date perspective on this important clinical topic. Beyond his editorial responsibilities, Professor Paneni has been proactive in suggesting initiatives to expand the journal’s scope and visibility and has contributed valuable ideas that have strengthened its impact within the cardiovascular and metabolic research community. 

Read the Q&A with Professor Francesco Paneni to find out why he enjoys being Associate Editor for Cardiovascular Diabetology.