Stefan K. Plontke is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Halle (Saale), Germany. He studied Medicine at the Humboldt-University Medical School (Charitè) in Berlin (Germany) and Aberdeen (UK) with clinical electives at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston, and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (USA). He trained as an otolaryngologist at the University of Tübingen (Germany), Chairman: Professor Dr. med. Dr. h.c. mult. Hans-Peter Zenner. For his doctoral thesis, he worked in the auditory research lab of James C. Saunders, Ph.D., at the University of Pennsylvania (USA) on the regeneration of hearing after noise-induced hearing loss in the chicken. Stefan K. Plontke became an extraordinary Professor of Otorhinolaryngology at the University of Tübingen in 2009. Since 2001, he regularly worked with Alec N. Salt, Ph.D., at Washington University in St. Louis (USA) and also led the 'Inner Ear Pharmacology Lab' and the 'Clinical Trials Group' at the 'Tübingen Hearing Research Center' focusing on pharmacokinetic principles of and drug delivery to the inner ear. Since 2010 he is full Professor and Chairman of the Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg in Halle (Saale), (Germany). He received several research prizes from various scientific national and international societies and teaching prizes from the Universities of Tübingen and Halle. Prof. Plontke was President (2020/2021) of the German Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery and member of the steering committee of the 'German Study Centre for Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery'. He is regional secretary for Germany and member of the 'Working group research' of the European Academy of Otology & Neurotology (EAONO), member of the board of directors of the Prosper Menière Society, member of several editorial boards and editor in chief of the Journal 'HNO' (SpringerNature). His clinical research interests focus on otology, including cochlear implants and implantable hearing systems, on lateral skull base surgery, neurotology, audiology, inner ear pharmacology including drug delivery to the ear and outcome parameters for clinical trials. He currently is principle investigator of a large multicenter nationwide trial on sudden hearing loss.