Wolfgang Preiser has a background in medicine with specialization in medical virology in Germany and the U.K. He holds two doctorates (Dr. med. and Dr. med. habil., >PhD equivalent). Since 2005 he has been Head of the Division of Medical Virology at Stellenbosch University, attracted by the combination of an enormous routine diagnostic workload as part of the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) Tygerberg with the ability to employ sophisticated state-of-the-art methods (albeit to a lesser extent than in industrialised countries) in an academic setting. This enables him to address scientific questions of relevance to sub-Saharan Africa.