New Rector of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences has been elected
October 23, 2020
Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (LSMU) has a new leader. Professor Rimantas Benetis was elected Rector for a five-year term at the LSMU Council meeting held on October 23. The elected Rector will take office on November 4; he will replace the academician, Professor Remigijus Žaliūnas, who has been the leader of the University since 2002.
Professor Rimantas Benetis is a well-known cardiac surgeon in Lithuania and abroad, a long-term head of the Cardiovascular Surgery Clinic and the director of the Institute of Cardiology.
In 2001, the Professor led the team of cardiac surgeons, who performed the first heart transplant operation in Kaunas. In 2007, Professor Rimantas Benetis performed the first lung and heart and lung complex transplantation in the Baltic States.
The Professor has published 457 scientific publications, presented reports at international conferences and congresses, and gained experience in prestigious foreign medical institutions. In 2003, Professor Rimantas Benetis was awarded the Cross of the Officer of the Order of Merit for Lithuania; in 2018, the Cross of the Officer of the Order of the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas, and since 2010, he has been an honorary Professor of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The concept of the five-year program of the University activities presented by the elected Rector envisages fostering the internationality of LSMU and openness to change and innovation. “Today, I see the University as Europe’s leading University of Health Sciences for the prosperity of society, whose mission is to create, accumulate, systematize and disseminate scientific knowledge, the latest scientific and study achievements, teach and educate a creative, honest, enterprising, accomplished, healthy, independent and entrepreneurial personality, to foster democracy and prosperity, to develop a healthy and educated society,” says the elected Rector of LSMU.
According to him, the University needs an energetic, active, innovative and listening community that unites students, graduates, academic and non-academic staff, is not afraid of change, open to new ideas and global competition.
“Only a community that bases relationships on goodwill and seeks an agreement leading to a culture of community and trust, is able to implement the idea of an international University open to change and innovation," says the Professor.
Preservation of institutional memory and traditions, adoption of good practices, fostering of the University’s core values – respect for life, academia, community, openness, justice, professionalism, development of all the University’s main activities with special attention to research, science-based studies, increasing the University’s international cognizance are only a few highlights from the concept of activity presented by the elected Rector.
