Prof. Dr. Pierre Van Damme obtained his PhD in epidemiology and public health in 1994. He was for more than 35 years active in vaccine, clinical trial and infectious disease research. Since 2000 he is a full professor in Vaccinology at the University of Antwerp, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and teaches vaccinology in national and international courses. Pierre Van Damme is director of the Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination (CEV, University of Antwerp), which he founded in 1994. The CEV is a WHO Collaborating Centre for the WHO European Region for the control and prevention of infectious diseases. With Arnaud Marchant he set up the recently founded European Plotkin Institute for Vaccinology, an initiative to accelerate the evaluation of vaccines for pandemic and endemic pathogens. Pierre Van Damme has been for more than 25 years a regular advisor for national and international organizations, including the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group, and the World Health Organization (European Regional Office and Headquarters). He has been appointed as chairman of the European Technical Advisory Group of Experts on communicable diseases and vaccines for the WHO European Region (ETAGE) (2005-2015). Pierre Van Damme obtained several awards: the Research Award of the University of Antwerp, the Belgian Social Medicine Award ‘Jean Van Beneden’ for his work on the introduction of universal hepatitis B immunization programs; the prestigious Bill Marshall award of the ESPID society (2014); the ACRP (Association of Clinical Research Professionals) with the European Outstanding Leadership Award (2017); the prestigious Paul Harris Fellowship by the Rotary Foundation 2017); the Balmis distinction Award (Almeria, Spain, 2017), the AHA Antwerp Innovation award (2019) and the science communication award UAntwerpen (2021). He is a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine since 2008.