Paul Zimmet is currently Foundation Director of the International Diabetes Institute, a position he has held since 1985, and Professor of Diabetes at Monash University and is a Professor at Deakin University and the Graduate School of Public Health, the University of Pittsburgh. His epidemiology research in Pacific and Indian Ocean populations (Micronesians, Polynesians and Melanesians and migrant Asian Indians, Chinese and Creoles) has provided new insights into the genetic contribution of Type 2 diabetes and the role of obesity, exercise, nutrition and socio-cultural change. More recently, he led the team that carried out the first ever national diabetes and obesity study in Australia (AusDiab). He is co-editor of the major and widely used text on diabetes - "international Textbook of Diabetes Mellitus" and also co-editor of the recently published "The Epidemiology of Diabetes".