In the name of the Swiss Society of Neuroradiology (SSNR) we are sad to communicate the passing of one of its founding members, its honorary member and past president, Prof. Antonios Valavanis (Fig. 1). In 1988 he cofounded together with O. Schubiger, P. Huber and E.W. Radü the SSNR, and he was President of the Society for two periods, from 1993 to 1999 and from 2001 to 2010. He has a long and illustrious career behind him: in 1994 he was appointed titular professor at the University of Zurich and head of the Clinic of Neuroradiology at Zurich University Hospital (USZ). This was for Switzerland an important event and thereafter neuroradiological clinics and units would be established in the main centers in Switzerland. Together with Prof. Peter Huber from Bern, he is considered one of the founding fathers of neuroradiology and the founder of one of its main historical branches.