Konrad E. Bloch is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. His is a specialist in pulmonary, internal and critical care medicine. He is also a certified sleep specialist and former director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the University Hospital Zurich. His research includes studies on physiologic and clinical effects of altitude in healthy individuals and in patients with respiratory disease as well as clinical investigations in sleep related breathing disorders and pulmonary hypertension.