Christian Benden

Christian Benden (MD MBA FCCP FERS) is a trained Pediatric Pulmonologist, currently Director of the Pediatric Lung Transplant Program at the Division of Pulmonary Medicine of Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.

He is a former Lung Transplant Medical Director, CF Center Director and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Transplant Center, University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland.

Dr. Benden trained in Pediatrics in Hannover (DE) and London (GB). Additionally, he specialized in Pediatric Pulmonology and received training in lung transplant medicine in Hannover, London and Zurich.

Since 2018, Christian Benden is an Adjunct Professor of Pulmonology/Transplant Medicine at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Dr. Benden is a Past Secretary of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) and a former ISHLT Board Member. Further, he is the ISHLT 2018 Scientific Program Chair, a Past Associate Medical Director of the ISHLT Thoracic Transplant Registry, and a Past ISHLT Pediatric Council Chair (2009-2010). Dr. Benden was ISHLT President from 2024 to 2025. Since May 2025, he is the Immediate Past President of ISHLT.

From 2016 to 2019, Christian Benden was Transplantation Group Chair of the European Respiratory Society (ERS). In April 2025, Dr. Benden received the Fellow of ERS (FERS) award to acknowledge his outstanding contributions in research, education and clinical leadership.

Dr. Benden is an Associate Editor of Clinical Transplantation, and a former Editorial Board Member of Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, and former Associate Editor of Pediatric Transplantation.

The clinical research interests of Dr. Benden include pediatric lung transplantation, chronic allograft dysfunction, and advanced cystic fibrosis lung disease.