Dr. Minelli is an anatomist and a plastic surgery resident from Antwerp, Belgium. 

After graduating magna cum laude as a medical doctor from the University of Antwerp in 2017, Dr. Minelli commenced plastic surgery training at the University of Leuven. In 2020, he pursued his interest in facial surgery and anatomy by undertaking a fellowship with Dr. Bryan Mendelson, with whom he commenced a thorough re-evaluation of the human facial anatomy. The significance of his early findings urged a more in-depth investigation, which required Dr. Minelli to embark on a four-year PhD project as the “Tagliacozzi Research Fellow” of the Mendelson Advanced Facial Anatomy Course. During this time, Dr. Minelli and Dr. Mendelson published over ten research articles together in the major plastic surgery journals, receiving awards for “best international paper” (ASJ), “most read paper” (ASJ), “most downloaded paper” (APS), and two times “Editor’s Choice paper” (PRS). His PhD Thesis was publicly defended at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, on December 6th, 2023, under the guidance of Prof. Van der Lei. The international jury included Prof. Foad Nahai, Prof. Basel Sharaf, and Dr. Ruth Graf. The thesis is available on the website of the University of Groningen (https://pure.rug.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/839976125/Complete_thesis.pdf). Dr. Minelli is currently completing his formal plastic surgery training in Belgium with Prof. Moustapha Hamdi at the University of Brussels.

During the course of his studies, Dr. Minelli has dissected over one hundred cadaver hemifaces and has since presented his findings at over thirty international conferences. He has been an anatomy tutor at nine MAFAC courses and at seven other international surgical cadaver courses. Alongside Dr. Bryan Mendelson and Dr. Chin-Ho Wong, Dr. Minelli is the co-editor of an upcoming surgical anatomical atlas on the face and neck.