Pierre Baumann, Dr rer. nat. (PhD), born 1944 in Lucerne (Switzerland) studied chemistry (as well as pharmacology and physiology) at the University of Basle (1963 – 1968), Switzerland. After he received his diploma in chemistry (1968), he moved to Munich, where he realized his doctoral thesis in biochemistry and psychopharmacology at the Max-Planck-Institute of Psychiatry (1968 – 1971) in the laboratory of Norbert Matussek, and at the University of Munich (Feodor Lynen). In 1972, he spent a postdoc stay in the Thudichum Laboratory of H. Himwich and N. Narasimhachari at the State Research Hospital in Galesburg/Ill (USA). Also in 1972, he founded the “Unit of biochemistry and clinical psychopharmacology” (UBPC) at the University Department of Psychiatry (C. Müller), University of Lausanne, Switzerland, as part of the research centre of H. Heimann. 1988 : Specialization in Clinical pharmacology and toxicology (Diploma SKPT: 1988); 1990 : Specialization in medical laboratory analyses (Diploma FAMH: 1990). Successively, privat-docent, then associate professor (1996) and finally full professor of psychopharmacology in psychiatry (2005), he retired in 2007 as an emeritus professor (professeur honoraire). As summarized in an autobiographical record (Baumann P. From serotonin to clinical psychopharmacology and pharmacogenetics. In: Ban, T.A., Healy, D. and Shorter, E., editors, Reflections on twentieth-century psychopharmacology. Budapest: Animula; 2004. p. 475-479), his main research areas comprise: development of biochemical assay methods (e.g. mass spectrometry); pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics of antidepressants and antipsychotics; role of cytochrome P-450 isozymes and MAO in the metabolism of psychotropic drugs, in vivo, and in human liver and human brain, in vitro; clinical relevance of therapeutic drug plasma monitoring and pharmacogenetics; pharmacovigilance in psychiatry; neuropsychopharmacology of psychotropic drugs, especially in relationship with serotonin; clinical phase II-IV studies.