Stefan Raunser is a structural biologist whose research focuses on understanding molecular mechanisms underlying cellular processes in the healthy and diseased organism. His pioneering structural studies have led to groundbreadking discoveries in the areas of muscle and cytoskeletal research as well as toxicology. Raunser is Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Adjunct Professor at Technical University Dortmund and Honorary Professor at University of Duisburg-Essen. With his research group, he develops and uses a multi-disciplinary approach, including biochemical reconstitutions, high-resolution electron cryomicroscopy (cryo-EM) and electron cryotomography (cryo-ET) primarily to investigate the structure of macromolecular complexes that play a crucial role in muscle contraction, the dynamics of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton and bacterial infections. A detailed understanding of these processes is of great importance as they ultimately serve to develop pharmaceutical measures to combat disease. He has authored over 130 papers in the fields of structural and molecular biology and has given over 200 lectures and seminars around the world. He is a scientific member of the Max Planck Society, an elected member of the North Rhine Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and EMBO.