Dr Charalambos Billinis, DipECZM, is the Rector of the University of Thessaly.He is a Professor of Virology and Viral Diseases and the head of the Wildlife Ecology, Zoonoses & GIS Research Team, at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Thessaly. He was qualified as a Veterinarian from the School of Veterinary Medicine of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in 1993. In 1998 he was awarded a PhD thesis in “Microbiology & Infectious Diseases” at the same University. He had been elected as the Dean of the School of Health Sciences, Head of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Head of the Faculty of Public and One Health and Vice Rector of Finance, Planning and Development of the University of Thessaly. He has become a de facto Diplomate of the European College Zoological Medicine (Wildlife Population health). He had the pleasure to successfully supervise seven (7) PhD theses. He has a research experience of 32 years in microbiology, in infectious diseases, in public health and in ecology programs. His research interests, focuses on the study of microorganisms that cause disease in animals (pet, farm, wildlife and zoo animals) and can be transmitted from animals to humans, on the identification and molecular characterization of infectious agents, on the identification of new and unknown pathogens, on the development of programs for the molecular epidemiological surveillance of infectious diseases and on the diagnosis of infectious diseases by applying both traditional and modern methods of diagnosis. His present research focus is the role of wildlife in various infectious diseases of concern to animal and human health. He is an experienced EU partner, having participated in 27 EU funded projects. He has more than 210 refereed publications in the field of infectious diseases.