Sven Hammerschmidt received his PhD in Microbiology in 1996 (Hannover, Germany) and habilitated in Microbiology in 2002. From 1996 until 2003 he was working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research. From 2003-2007 he was a Group Leader at the Research Center for Infectious Diseases at the University of Würzburg. His first appointment as Associated Professor was 2007 for Cellular Microbiology at the Max von Pettenkofer-Institute for Hygiene and Medical Microbiology at the LMU Munich. In 2008 he took over the Chair of the Department Molecular Genetics and Infection Biology and was appointed as Professor for General and Molecular Genetics at the University of Greifswald in Germany. Sven Hammerschmidt is analyzing the host-pathogen interactions of pneumococci on the molecular and cellular level and research projects are especially focused on the identification and molecular characterization of bacterial adhesion and virulence factors, the immune evasion mechanisms and defence mechanisms against oxidative stress. Further research priorities are the elucidation of the cross-link between pneumococcal fitness and pathophysiological processes to define protein-based vaccine candidates as well as the epidemiology of pneumococci.