Arnold von Eckardstein studied medicine and then specialized in laboratory medicine and clinical chemistry. Since 2001, he is professor at the medical faculty of the University of Zurich and the director of the Institute of Clinical Chemistry of the University Hospital of Zurich (Switzerland; http://www.en.ikc.usz.ch/Pages/default.aspx). His main research interests include risk factors and biomarkers of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases as well as structure, function, and metabolism of high density lipoproteins (HDL) and sphingolipids. He has published more than 350 original and review papers in international peer reviewed scientific journals. Arnold von Eckardstein is the Editor-in-Chief of Atherosclerosis . Currently he also serves as the Secretary of the European Atherosclerosis Society and as an Executive Committee Member of the Working Group on Lipids and Atherosclerosis of the Swiss Society of Cardiology.