Dr. Pier Luigi Meroni has been trained in Internal Medicine-University of Milan, was nominated Full Professor in Internal Medicine in 2001 and in Rheumatology in 2005 (head of the Department of Rheumatology till 2017); he is now Director of the Immunorheumatology Research Laboratory – IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano-Milan. His scientific interest has been focused on autoimmune diseases, in particular, the pathogenesis of SLE and APS. He has published more than peer-reviewed 650 papers. H-index: 84 (Scopus), n. 8 TIS,Top_Italian_Scientists_Biomedical_Sciences. He was co-chairman of the IVth & 12th International Congress on Antiphospholipid Antibodies, and of the Vth International Congress on Autoimmunity. Dr. Meroni received the Roussel Prize in 1997 for the studies on the age-associated immune deficit, the EULAR Prize in 2005 for the research on APS, and the AESKU Prize for life contribution to autoimmunity (2014). He was the first Italian Master of the American College of Rheumatology in 2014. He has been Chairman and then a member of the IUIS/WHO/AF/CDC Committee for the standardization of diagnostic tests for rheumatic diseases, Italian Representative of the European Autoimmunity Standardization Initiative, founder of the IFCC Working Group Harmonization Autoimmune Serology Testing, and president of the Forum Interdisciplinare Ricerca Malattie Autoimmuni.