Michael J Lee MSc, FRCPI, FRCR, FFR(RCSI), FSIR, EBIR, EBIR(ES) graduated from medical school at University College Dublin in 1982, completed 3 years of medical training and obtained the boards in internal Medicine before entering radiology training in 1985. After completing radiology training in Ireland in 1989,  he spent 6 years at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston specializing in Interventional radiology and Abdominal Imaging. He returned to Ireland in 1995 as the Professor of radiology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Consultant Interventional Radiologist at Beaumont Hospital. Professor Lee built up a strong academic department at Beaumont Hospital and RCSI medical school. Research focused on vascular and non vascular IR topics including venous intervention, endovascular intervention for PAD, treatment of visceral artery aneurysms, embolization and the provision of enteral nutrition. He set up an IR teaching course for medical students that became integrated into the undergraduate curriculum of the RCSI medical school. Fellowship training positions were set up in 1996 and close to 40 fellows were trained before he retired in 2022. ​Research output includes 300 papers published in peer reviewed journals, close to 100 book chapters, over a thousand abstracts and close to 300 invited talks including 2 eponymous lectures. He authored a number of textbooks in IR including: 2 editions of Vascular and Interventional Radiology: The Requisites with John Kaufman published in 1999 and 2013, Interventional Radiology for Medical Students published in 2017,  editor with Prof Tony Watkinson of a series of handbooks in IR (5 books in total) and has been one of the editors of the IR section in Grainger and Allison in editions 6 and 7. Professor Lee has held positions in many societies  and has been on the editorial board of many medical journals. In Ireland, he was one of the founders of the Irish Society of Interventional Radiology and the first President from 1996-1998. He has twice been elected to the board of the Faculty of Radiologists and Radiotherapists in Ireland and with Prof Colin Cantwell, applied for Specialty status for IR in Ireland in 2020. Professor Lee has held many positions in the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology Society of Europe (CIRSE) and was President from 2011-2013. During his time with CIRSE, he negotiated an MOU between CIRSE and IRSA to hold the EBIR examination in Australia and New Zealand. He set up the Endovascular committee as a permanent standing committee of CIRSE and and was the first chair, introduced the Endovascular Specialist (ES) certification for IRs, and proposed the idea of an endovascular journal (CVIRE). He has received Gold medals from the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology Society of Europe and the British Society of Interventional Radiology and is an honorary member  of the Greek society of IR, The Czech society of IR, the Chinese society of IR and IRSA. He retired from Beaumont Hospital in 2022 after almost 30 years of practice. He is now the clinical lead of a new national program for Interventional Radiology in Ireland tasked with completing a Model of Care for IR in Ireland which will include a strategy and vision for the future of IR, workforce planning and eventual implementation. He is also currently the President of the IR division at Union of European Medical Specialties (UEMS) in Brussels.