Malik Peiris is a clinical and public health virologist at The University of Hong Kong. His current work is on human, zoonotic and pandemic influenza viruses and on emerging coronaviruses such as MERS coronavirus and has an interest on emerging viruses at the animal-health interface. In 2003, he played a key role in the response to SARS, in particular, in identifying a novel coronavirus as the cause of SARS.