Robert Weinberg was born in Pittsburg (USA) en 1942. He is a founder member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and Professor of Biology at the Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned his doctorate in 1969. He is considered to be one of the pioneers in the understanding of the genetics of cancer, and is a specialist in the study of human oncogenes and in tumour suppressor genes. He isolated the first carcinogenic gene, the Ras oncogene, and the first tumour suppressor gene, rb, the retinoblastoma gene. His most recent research is focused on new development models, breast cancer and cancer telomerase. The U.S. National Medal for Science (1997) figures amongst his distinctions; he is also a member of the U.S. National Academy of Science.