Robert Loddenkemper is Medical Director of Zentralklinik Emil von Behring, Chief of the Department of Pneumology II at Lungenklinik Heckeshorn, Berlin, and Professor of Medicine at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin. He served as European Respiratory Society President in 1998-1999, and was chief editor of the European Lung White Book, the first comprehensive survey on respiratory health in Europe.