Professor Paul Herrling is Head of Corporate Research at Novartis, a position he assumed in November 2002. Prof Herrling is also Chairman of the Board of the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases in Singapore, a long-term endeavour to advance medical research in tropical infectious diseases, which historically have received little drugresearch funding. In addition, he oversees the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation in La Jolla, California. Prior to his current position, he was Head of Global Research of Novartis Pharma and a member of the Pharma Executive Committee (PEC). In this capacity, he directed the integration of the research organisations of Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy following their merger in 1996 to form Novartis. Prof Herrling joined Sandoz Pharma in 1975 and held various positions in research at both Sandoz in Basel and Wander in Bern.