Walter G. Land is Professor Emeritus of the LMU University in Munich, Germany. After earning his MD, he spent 4 years specializing in Experimental Surgery, Immunology, and Organ Transplantation at the Institute for Surgical Research, LMU University, Munich. In 1979 he performed the first pancreas transplant in Germany at Klinikum Großhadern, where he subsequently spent almost 30 years as Head of the Transplantation Center. He also held a position as C3 Professor for Surgery and Transplantation Surgery in Munich for almost 20 years, until 2004. After his retirement as a surgeon, he is still scientifically active in the field of innate immunity, while also holding positions as Visiting Professor at Baskent University, Ankara (Turkey) and as Professeur Conventionné at the University of Strasbourg (France). Professor Land has been a co-founder of many European and German Societies, including the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT), European College of Organ Transplantation, the German Transplantation Society, the German Academy of Transplantation Medicine. He is also a member of the Transplantation Society and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and an honorary member of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the European Academy of Tumor Immunology. Professor Land has chaired the European Society for Organ Transplantation and the German Academy for Transplantation Medicine. He is the author or editor of many articles and books and was awarded the Erich Lexer Prize by the German Surgical Society in 1991, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1996, the Bavarian State Medal for Social Merit in 1997, the Millennium Medal of the Transplantation Society in 2000, and the Maharshi Sushruta Prize for Transplantation Biology in India in 2005.