Prof. David J. Newman is currently an NIH Special Volunteer. He holds a research MSc (1963, organic chemistry, Univ. Liverpool, UK), a DPhil (1968, microbiological chemistry, Univ. Sussex UK), followed by a 2 yr post-doc at the Univ. Georgia (USA) on rubredoxin sequencing, and an MLS (1977, Drexel Univ., USA). After the post-doc He spent 15 years at SKF (now GSK) in the US mainly in antibiotic discovery, then six years in smaller companies still in the USA, mainly dealing with marine chemistry and then in 1991 joined the Natural Products Branch of the NCI covering marine and microbial sources as leads to antitumor drugs. When Gordon Cragg retired as Branch Chief at the end of 2004, he became Branch Chief, retiring in early January 2015. He now is an NIH Special Volunteer (honorary position) with the same branch. He has published over 240 papers/chapters, has held adjunct and honorary positions as a full Professor at the University of Maryland (USA) and at MacQuarrie University in Sydney, Australia (still active). He still publishes on natural products mainly from marine and microbial sources. He is currently a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Chartered Chemist, also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and a Chartered Biologist. He is also Fellow of the American Society of Pharmacognosy and last year he was made an honorary member of that society. He is also an emeritus member of both the American Society of Microbiology and the American Chemical Society.