João Luiz M. C. Pinheiro-Franco was born in 1972. He studied medicine at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp), Brazil, and subsequently undertook postgraduate courses in neurosurgery at the University of Strasbourg, France and the University of Tübingen, Germany. Dr. Pinheiro-Franco currently works at the Samaritano Hospital, São Paulo. He is a member of the Editorial Board for the European Spine Journal, member of the Assistant Editorial Board for Spine (Phila Pa – 1976), of the Editorial Board of Clinical Spine Surgery (former Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques) and is also Spine Section Editor of World Neurosurgery, the official journal of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies (WFNS). Dr. Pinheiro-Franco is member of the elected Board of the Brazilian Spine Society (SBC) and of the Spine Committee of the WFNS. In 2013, Dr. Pinheiro-Franco was elected Academic in the prestigious centennial São Paulo Academy of Medicine. In 2014 he was invited by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and participated in the Forum Sustainable Humanity Sustainable Nature - our Responsibility (Vatican, May 2014). He has been a Visiting Surgeon at various centers in the United States and Europe.