Professor Born has attained international eminence in the field of cardiovascular pathophysiology and pharmacology. He has made outstanding contributions to knowledge of thrombosis, haemostasis and atherosclerosis, particularly through his fundamental work on blood platelets. He discovered basic mechanisms responsible for platelet aggregation in haemostasis and arterial thrombosis with optical aggregometry, which he devised and which is used worldwide. His recent and continuing elucidation of processes in antherogenesis as well as plaque fissuring has opened up new therapeutic advances in medicine. Professor Born has been active for more than 30 years in advising large and small pharmaceutical companies including ICI, Reckett and Coleman, Merck Sharp & Dohme and Bayer Germany, UK and USA. He has been Professor of Pharmacology successively at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, at Cambridge University where he was Fellow of Caius College and at Kings College London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society and holds eight honorary doctorates from major Universities in Europe and the USA. His other distinctions include the Royal Medal of the Royal Society, the Gold Medal for Medicine of the Jung Foundation and the Paul Morawitz, Robert Pfleger and Alexander-Von-Humboldt prizes. Currently Professor Born is Research Director of the William Harvey Research Institute at St. Bartholomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry.