The 97th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) was successfully held at Boston, USA from 29 April to 3 May, 2017. This meeting was also a celebration of the association’s centennial [1917–2017]. Taking this opportunity, AME has done a series of interviews with distinguished experts on the meeting and provided a chance for young Chinese cardiothoracic surgeons and researchers to disabuse themselves of the questions encountered in daily clinical practice and researches.