Elio Riboli is Head of the Division of Epidemiology, Public Health and Primary Care at Imperial College, London. He has conducted important research on the effects of alcohol, tobacco and occupational exposures in the aetiology of cancers of the respiratory and upper GI tracts. He initiated and became the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer - EPIC. Recognising the enormous potential of storing DNA and blood he established the first dedicated large-scale population biobanks. This vision has provided an international resource for investigation of metabolic and genetic factors in cancer and other chronic diseases. Recently, he has led research showing a major effect of abdominal obesity in colorectal cancer and as predictor of all cause mortality.