Dirk Pfeiffer graduated in veterinary medicine at the Justus-Liebig University, Giessen, Germany in 1984. This was followed by postgraduate research towards a Dr.med.vet degree at the same university, as part of which he lived in Colombia for a year to conduct field work. In 1987, he studied for a postgraduate diploma in tropical veterinary medicine at the Free University of Berlin, which involved study trips to Somalia, Kenya, Indonesia and Thailand. From 1988 until 1994, he studied for a PhD from Massey University, New Zealand, and from 1992 until 1999 he worked there as an academic. After that, he held the Chair in Veterinary Epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), London, until his retirement in Oct 2025. Since September 2014, Dirk has been Adjunct Professor at China Animal Health and Epidemiology Centre, Qingdao, China. From 2015 until 2017, Dirk held the role of Chief Epidemiologist at UK Government’s Animal & Plant Health Agency, as a 20% secondment from RVC. From 2016 until his retirement in Oct 2025, Dirk worked at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK) as Chow Tak Fung Chair Professor of One Health, while still maintaining a 20% appointment at RVC. Dirk now holds an Adjunct Professorship at CityUHK and is an Emeritus Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology at the RVC. He has worked in many countries around the world on the epidemiology of animal health and welfare problems, such as bovine brucellosis, bovine tuberculosis, avian influenza and African swine fever. In the last 25 years, he has been particularly active at the science–policy interface through advisory roles for the EU, the FAO, WOAH and a wide range of national governments.