ALBERT OSTERHAUS

AGE: 58
OCCUPATION: Virologist
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0

PRO: His Rotterdam lab was the first to identify the SARS virus, and the first to detect human infection by the Hong Kong strain of the H5N1 virus, also known as avian influenza. Over the past two decades Osterhaus has discovered more than a dozen new viral pathogens. He has also co-founded two biotech companies.

CON: He upset animal rights activists when he failed to get ethics-board approval, as required by Dutch law, before he infected macaque monkeys with the SARS virus during his experiments.