Claudio Ronco, M.D. founded, and is the current Director of, the International Renal Research Institute of Vicenza (IRRIV) - a focal learning center of International young scientists, engineers and physicians with objectives of developing technology and cures for renal disease. Born in 1951, he grew up in Asiago, Italy, the son of the town doctor. He was previously director of the Beth Israel Renal Research Laboratories in New York, and teaches at both Padua and Bologna Universities. He is Professor of Medicine at the University of Virginia and at the Fudan and Jiaotong Universities in Shanghai. He has published over a thousand scientific works and over eighty books which are used worldwide. Professor Ronco was nominated in 2014 as the John Hopkins University Top Scientist for Kidney Disease.