Education and Science, Lithuania, Medicine

Benetis, whose appointment was approved by the LSMU Council on Friday, will take over from Remigijus Zaliunas, the university's long-time rector, on November 4, the university said. 

The new rector's five-year plan for LSMU calls for enhancing the university's international character, and its openness to change and innovation. 

A long-time head of the Clinic of Cardiovascular Surgery and director of the Institute of Cardiology, Benetis led the first heart transplant operation in Kaunas two decades ago and the first lung-heart and lung-complex transplant operation in the Baltic countries in 2007.