Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Richard Lucius, born in 1951 in Geesthacht/Elbe, Germany. Studies of biology at the Universities of Hohenheim and Heidelberg with a diploma thesis and dissertation on the biology of a livestock parasite in West Africa. Following the dissertation work as a postdoc at Harvard University and as a university assistant and lecturer at the Tropical Institute of the University of Heidelberg. Habilitation (third thesis) in theoretical medicine, before taking up a professorship in parasitology at the University of Hohenheim in 1990. Since 1995 Professor and director of the Chair of Molecular Parasitology at the Institute of Biology at Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin. Scientific interests: communication between parasites and their hosts at the level of the immune system; evasion and subversion of the host immune system by parasites. Allergy and inflammatory diseases. Microbiome research.