Ron Dagan is Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. He founded the Pediatric Infectious Disease Unit at the Department of Pediatrics, Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva and served as its director from 1987 to 2014. He still remains part of the staff. His previous appointments include Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatrics, University of Rochester, New York (1993-1998). He obtained his MD degree in 1974 (Hadassah School of Medicine, Hebrew University, Jerusalem). In 1982, he embarked on a 3-year Fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Rochester, NY. Prof. Dagan is a member of the Israeli National Academy of Science in Medicine. He has served on the National Advisory Committee on Infectious Diseases and Immunization since 1991. He is a Founding Member of the World Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases (WSPID), a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), and an honorary member of the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID). Prof. Dagan served as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Society of Infectious Disease (ISID; 2010-2016), as President of ESPID (2004-2006), as President of the World Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (WSPID; 2006-2009) and as Chair of the Board of the International Symposia on Pneumococcus and Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD; 2010-2016). Professor Dagan serves on the editorial board of several peer-reviewed journals, including Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Clinical Infectious Diseases and Vaccine. He is a recipient of many grants and awards. He has contributed >550 original articles, reviews and book chapters, and has presented >550 papers at national and international scientific meetings. Professor Dagan has earned international recognition for his research, focusing largely on the epidemiology, manifestations and pathogenesis of vaccine-preventable diseases, and the development and implementation of vaccines; with particular emphasis on pneumococcal vaccines; the epidemiology of respiratory infections in children; clinical aspects of vaccination against antibiotic-resistant pneumococci; the pathology of otitis media, prediction of bacteriological response to various antibiotics.