Rainer Spanagel studied biology at the Universities of Tübingen and Munich and pursued his early training in behavioural pharmacology and neurochemistry at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) in Martinsried. In 1990, he moved to the MPI of Psychiatry in Munich and became head of the addiction research group and was awarded a lectureship in Pharmacology and Toxicology. In 2000, he relocated to the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, a leading European institution for biological psychiatry, to become scientific director of the Institute of Psychopharmacology. Professor Spanagel has been awarded many scientific prizes, most notably the Sir Hans Krebs Award for his seminal gene x environment studies in rodents, the James B. Isaacson Award he received for his continuing achievements in alcohol research, and the Reinhardt Koselleck Award for innovation in neuroscience. He has published more than 300 articles, is Editor-in-Chief of Addiction Biology and coordinates the national activities on electronic medicine for addictions.