Alexander Katalinic is Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Lübeck. He is the Director of the Institute of Social Medicine and Epidemiology and the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, which houses the Cancer Registry of Schleswig-Holstein. From 1986 to 1992, he studied medicine at the University of Erlangen, Germany; he obtained his MD in 1994 and his Habilitation (Venia legendi: social medicine, epidemiology and health services research) in 2004. His research focuses on cancer epidemiology, screening and health service research. He is, among other posts, Chairman of the Association of Population-Based Cancer Registries in Germany and Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Centre for Cancer Registry Data at the Robert Koch Institute. He has contributed to more than 420 research articles in peer-reviewed journals. In 2008, he was awarded the German Cancer Prize.