Valdis Pirags MD is professor of medicine at the University of Latvia. He is, at the same time, head of the large Clinic of Internal Medicine at the Pauls Stradiņš Clinical University Hospital in Riga, Latvia, as well as being head of the Research Consortium on Main Diseases Affecting the Life Quality and Life Expectancy of the Latvian Population in 2006-2009, and the Latvian National Research Programme in Biomedicine and Public Health (2009-2018). He is a former president of the Latvian Association of Endocrinology (1999-2008) and a former president of the Baltic Atherosclerosis Society (2004-2006), as well as being one of the founders and a board member of the European Society of Endocrinology (2006-2009). He is also a full member of the Latvian Academy of Science. Prof. Pirags graduated the Medical Academy of Latvia in 1990 and received his Dr. med. magna cum laude from the Ruhr-University of Bochum, Germany in 1995. On his return to Latvia in 1996, he continued his work on the effects of hyperglycemia on cellular signaling pathways and genetics of type 2 diabetes mellitus. More recently, he has also been working on epidemiology of diabetes mellitus in Latvia and creation of the Genome Database of the Latvian Population. In 2012, he received the Pauls Stradins Award of the Latvian Academy of Science. Dr. Pirags has authored or coauthored more than 200 original scientific articles, book chapters, and abstracts in Latvian and international journals.