Dr. Rik L. de Swart graduated as biologist in 1990, obtained his PhD in 1995 and established his own research group at the department of Viroscience at the Erasmus in Rotterdam. Since May 2021 he is employed as virologist at Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) in Lelystad (0.8 FTE), but also remains affiliated as associate professor of Virology with Erasmus MC (0.2 FTE). Rik de Swart has a long track-record in paramyxovirus and pneumovirus virology and vaccinology: his research projects in Rotterdam primarily focused on interactions of measles virus (and closely related animal morbilliviruses) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) with the immune system. He used recombinant viruses expressing fluorescent reporter proteins to identify the target cells of measles virus during the early, intermediate and late stages of infection. In addition, the immune amnesia model was developed to explain the mechanism of measles immune suppression. At WBVR in Lelystad Rik was involved in projects involving the use of Newcastle disease virus (an avian paramyxovirus) as vaccine vector, and studies on the pathogenesis of peste des petits ruminants virus (a small ruminant morbillivirus) and bovine respiratory syncytial virus (a bovine pneumovirus and close relative of human RSV). In addition, he contributed to the development of cell systems based on airway epithelial cells cultured at air-liquid interface (collected from different animal species) as models of respiratory virus infection.