Gérard Krause is a medical doctor and epidemiologist with a doctoral degree in tropical hygiene at the University of Heidelberg and board certification in hygiene and environmental medicine, tropical medicine and emergency medicine. Stages of his career included the epidemic intelligence service at CDC in Atlanta, USA, as well as various research and training residencies in England, Latin America and West Africa. From 2000 to 2013, he was head of the surveillance unit and later director of the department for Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin (RKI). In 2005, he received the venia legendi in Epidemiology and Hygiene at the Charité University Medicine in Berlin, where he also founded the Masters of Science Programme for Applied Epidemiology. In 2011, Gérard Krause became full Professor (W3) for Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) and head of the Department for Epidemiology at the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig. He is also chair and founder of the PhD Programme Epidemiology at the MHH, director of the Institute for Infectious Disease Epidemiology at TWINCORE and coordinator of the Translational Infrastructure Epidemiology within the German Centre for infection Research (DZIF). G. Krause is member of various scientific advisory boards of non-for-profit research institutions and has served as president of the German Society for Epidemiology. Current research and development interests include: mobile digital technology for research and disease control; novel diagnostic tools for vaccinology and respiratory infections; and etiological associations between acute infections and non-communicable diseases. In his various positions, G. Krause has been in charge of investigating multiple hospital based outbreaks, and has initiated and is leading various eHealth developments in the field of infectious control and research. He is also initiator and scientific lead of the Surveillance, Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS®; www.sormas.org).