Vincent Cottin is Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Coordinator of the National Reference Centre for Rare Pulmonary Diseases at the Louis Pradel Hospital and Claude Bernard University Lyon, France. The center has pioneered the clinical care and research of patients with rare and orphan lung diseases for many years and has set up the OrphaLung network of 21 expert centers throughout France. The center has been recognized as the only center in France to be part of the European Reference Network for interstitial lung disease (ERN-Lung, ILD). Professor Cottin’s research interests include rare ‘orphan’ pulmonary diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). More specifically, he has contributed to characterizing and individualizing the syndrome of combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema. He is an investigator and member of the Steering Committee or Data Safety Monitoring Board for many clinical trials on IPF. Professor Cottin has served as elected Head of the ERS Clinical Assembly from 2009 to 2012. He has been Chief Editor of the European Respiratory Review and is currently Section Editor of the European Respiratory Journal and Associate Editor of Respiration. He is an appointed Fellow of the European Respiratory Society (FERS) and was awarded the ERS Gold Medal of IPF.