Ron Fouchier (1966) is professor in Molecular Virology at Erasmus MC Rotterdam and deputy head of the Viroscience department. He obtained a PhD in 1995 for HIV/AIDS research at the University of Amsterdam and then continued HIV work at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. In 1998 he started a Molecular Virology research line on respiratory viruses, in particular influenza, at Erasmus MC. His team contributed substantially to the identification and characterization of various “new” viruses, such as human metapneumovirus, human coronavirus NL63, SARS coronavirus, MERS coronavirus, and influenza A virus subtype H16. Currently, his research is focused on respiratory viruses of humans and animals, antigenic drift, and influenza virus zoonoses, transmission and pandemics. He studies influenza viruses in humans, domestic animals and wildlife. Ron is elected member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW), the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW) and Academia Europeae. In 2006 he received the Heine-Medin award of the European Society for Clinical Virology, in 2013 the Huibregtsen award for top innovative science with societal impact and in 2023 the Beijerinck Virology Prize of the KNAW. Fouchier is a web-of-science Highly Cited author.