Dr Ralph Kohn is a pharmacologist, entrepreneur and musician. He was educated at Manchester University, where he was awarded a BSc, MSc and PhD and received the Wild Prize in Pharmacology. He won postdoctoral fellowships to the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Rome, where he worked and published with two Nobel Laureates, and to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He subsequently joined the pharmaceutical industry in the Research and Development Division of the U S company Smith Kline & French. After 7 years with the company, he was appointed MD of a Swiss biological company. In 1969 Dr Kohn founded his own company, the first specifically Medical Services company in the UK, specializing in the clinical evaluation of new therapeutic substances. In 1991 Dr Kohn set up the Kohn Foundation, which has supported many scientific, medical and artistic projects. Dr Kohn is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. He is an Honorary Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society and the Royal College of Physicians, and a member of Academia Europaea. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006, and he currently serves on its 350th Anniversary Campaign Board. The Kohn Foundation has supported several important initiatives at the Society, including its Science in Society Programme, the Royal Society Kohn Award for Excellence in Engaging the Public with Science, and the Climate Change Unit of the Royal Society Science Policy Centre.