Assoc. Prof. Dr. Utku Mahir Yıldırım was born in Ankara in 1978. He completed all his schooling in Ankara and studied at Ankara University Faculty of Medicine between 1997 and 2003. He then received his specialty training in Radiology at Başkent University Faculty of Medicine from 2004 to 2009.

He began his career in January 2010 as a radiology specialist in the Interventional Radiology Unit of the Radiology Clinic at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt Training and Research Hospital. From 2012 to 2023, he worked in the Interventional Radiology Department of İzmir Medical Park Hospital. During this period, he also contributed to medical education, first as an Assistant Professor in the Radiology Department of İzmir University Faculty of Medicine and later as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of İzmir University of Economics.

Dr. Yıldırım played a key role in introducing the chemosaturation method in Turkey. Since 2019, he has been providing training and proctoring to centers across the country that are newly implementing this technique. He is considered among the most experienced practitioners of chemosaturation in Europe. As the first physician to use LIOX in both Europe and Turkey, he also offers training in this treatment modality. In addition, as the interventional radiologist who first introduced radioembolization to a private hospital in the Aegean region, he has been a pioneer in the adoption of innovative methods in interventional oncology.