Martin Rickenbach goes into retirement the 1st of August 2015. He has been the head of the Swiss HIV Cohort Study data centre for the last 20 years. In 1995, when the data centre was transferred from Zurich to the CHUV, he took over the leadership from Bruno Ledergerber. Together with all the data managers and Yannick Vallet, he contributed to the high quality of the data from the SHCS. He also implemented various quality controls that are of major importance for such a project. He was a quiet leader but highly appreciated by the data managers, the SHCS participants and the international collaborators for his endeavours to provide a top service for the researchers and laboratories. He also played an important role when integrating the Swiss Mother and Child Cohort into the SHCS in 2004. An endless problem he was confronted with was the constant change in HIV/AIDS data collection due to the ever changing face of the HIV-epidemic, in particular from the clinical side. Consequently, the database permanently had to be adapted, a never-ending challenge for a data centre and its leader.

The SHCS wants to express its gratitude to Martin Rickenbach for his dedication and the high quality of his work and wishes him all the best for the future!