Coordinator of the COVend project, Prof. Dr. Dr. Kai Zacharowski, MD PhD ML FRCA is the Director of the Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy at the University Hospital Frankfurt since 2009. From 2006 until 2008 he was the Chair of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine at the University Hospital Bristol.

His has accumulated expertise in both clinical and basic aspects of patient safety, Patient Blood Management and clotting, big data in anaesthesia and intensive care medicine, innate immunity, cardiovascular and critical care medicine.

Professor Zacharowski received his medical degree from the University of Mainz in Germany and his PhD from Queen Mary, University of London where he was working with the Nobel laureate Prof. Sir John Vane, who discovered how aspirin works. In 2014 he was the recipient of the Lohfert Prize for his contributions to the Patient Blood Management Project. Since 2016 he is one of the few members of the oldest academy of science in the world (Leopoldina).

His scientific contributions are published in peer-reviewed journals such as Nature Medicine, Lancet, NEJM and Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and were awarded with numerous awards for Innovative Clinical Research. He is serving as Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Anaesthesia & Intensive Care Medicine as well as an Editorial Board member of numerous journals in Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Anaesthesia and is the CEO of the Lohfert Foundation and the Founder & CEO of the PBM Foundation. Kai is serving as President of the European Society of Anaesthesiology & Intensive Care for the years 2020-2021 and is practicing Anaesthesia and Critical Care Medicine in Frankfurt.