Pr. Iain Mattaj was born in St. Andrews, Scotland. He studied biochemistry at Edinburgh University (UK) and completed his PhD studies at the University of Leeds (UK). Following his PhD, Pr. Mattaj carried out postdoctoral research at the Friedrich Miescher Institute (CH) and then at the Biocentre, University of Basel (CH) before joining EMBL Heidelberg as a Group Leader in 1985. He became Coordinator of the Gene Expression Unit at EMBL in 1990 before being promoted to the position of Scientific Director in 1999. Pr Mattaj was appointed Director General in May 2005.