Virus taxonomy—a taxing task

Excerpt

After spending the first two decades of his life in Brussels, Marc H.V. van Regenmortel moved to South Africa, where he completed a PhD (University of Cape Town). He spent two years as an International Fellow of the US Health Service at Berkeley and then became a Professor of Virology at Universities in France and South Africa, before taking up the position of Director of Research of the CNRS Immunochemistry Laboratory at the University of Strasbourg (1978-2001), where he continues to work as an Emeritus. He supervised 30 PhD students and published widely on his subject (400 research and review papers and several books). He served in lead functions of the International Union of Microbiological Societies (IUMS; General Secretary, 1990-99; Chair of the Virology Division, 1994-2000), of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV; President, 1996-2002; co-editor of the 7th Report of the ICTV on Virus Taxonomy, 2000), and of the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (Advisory Board, 2000-2010). He developed an interest in industry, serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the biosensor company BIACORE (1995-2005). He acted as Editor-in-Chief of Archives of Virology (1998-2018), of the Journal of Molecular Recognition (2012-present), and served as Associate Editor on several other scientific journals. …