"I did not have a grand plan to really become a virologist. I more like slid into it..." says Peter Palese - head of the department of microbiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, member of the American Academy of Sciences, corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Science, member of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee, editor of the Journal of Virology, public opinion leader when the world faced SARS in 2004, author of about 300 publications - one of the pioneers of modern medical research. Even without a grand plan, it seems that Peter Palese has slid into quite something...

"It is all about opportunities"
"One can advance in the United States in a very effective way professionally, without any politics." Palese recaps his past 36 years in the US, having received numerous awards and honors such as the presidency of the American Society of Virology in 2004 and the Robert Koch Award, which was awarded with €100,000 in 2006, to name only recent ones.

"Forty years ago, the difference between what one could achieve in Austria or in the US was even more pronounced," he explains. "At the Department of Microbiology at Mount Sinai, I became a full professor when I was only 33 years of age, something unthinkable in Austria at that time. I would have had to join a political party to get anywhere close. Here no one asks you about any political affiliation."