Samir Hanash is a pioneer in cancer proteomics and was elected as the Inaugural President of the Human Proteome Organization (HUPO) in June 2001. He is Professor of Medicine at the University of Michigan (UM) where he heads a large research group that focuses on cancer proteomics, and is also on the executive committees of several research associations, including the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). After obtaining a medical degree in 1972 from American University in Beirut, Lebanon, Hanash moved to UM where he studied for his PhD on haemoglobin protein and gene analysis in the Human Genetics department and was awarded the Public Health Service (PHS) Fellowship award in Biochemical Genetics in 1975. After a post-doctoral fellowship in the same department, Hanash took up a Residency position in Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Michigan, during which time he was awarded a Children's Leukaemia Foundation Fellowship Award. Subsequently, he has held the positions of Instructor in Pediatric Hematology (1978-1979), and Assistant Professor (1979-1984) and Associate Professor (1984-1989) of Pediatrics before taking on his present role as Professor of Pediatrics at UM. He is also Director of the Cancer Center Carcinogenesis Program and a member of the Gene Therapy Group and the Genome Center and Computer Task Force at UM. He was awarded the Rothchild Award by the Curie Cancer Institute in 1998. [interview by Joanna Owens]