Stefan H.E. Kaufmann is the Director of the Department of Immunology at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, Germany. Having obtained his academic degrees from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz he spent his time as post-doc at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and later became full Professor for Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Ulm. Professor Kaufmann has authored over 600 scientific publications and has received numerous scientific awards including the Aronson Prize of the State of Berlin, the Smith Kline Beecham Science Prize for Medical Research, the Merckle Research Prize, The Robert Pfleger Prize, The Pettenkofer Prize, The Research Prize of the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology and the Alfred Krupp Prize for Young Professors. He is also member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and the Leopoldina Academy of Natural Sciences and a long-time Editor-in-Chief of the Journal Microbes and Infection.