Professor Dr Dr Dirk Dressler is due to retire at the end of September as Head of Movement Disorders Section at Hannover Medical School (MHH).

Professor Dressler was appointed at MHH in 2008 as Germany’s first professor of movement disorders, with the task of establishing the Movement Disorders Section there. His appointment coincided with a period of rapid change, when movement disorders were gaining increasing international recognition as one of the key areas of neurology and when they were established as a one of the main subspecialties of neurology. This development was driven by major breakthroughs such as the development of the dystonia concept, the introduction of botulinum toxin therapy and the establishment of deep brain stimulation, in each of which Dressler played a key role. ‘I consider it real stroke of luck, that MHH – and in particular the then Head of Neurology, Professor Dengler – immediately embraced the idea of a movement disorders centre. This enabled us to establish Hannover as one of the world’s most active centres in this field’. During the COVID-19 crisis and due to changes at MHH, Dressler shifted his activities more and more abroad, particularly to Asia. ‘China, Korea and India are now the regions where scientific progress takes place – also in neurology. Europe and Germany in particular have lost much of their international scientific influence over the last 10 to 15 years’, says Dressler.

From October, Dressler will continue his medical work at the International Neuroscience Institute (INI) in Hannover and in his private practice in Hamburg. In addition, he will take on operational roles at WisperBio, a pharmaceutical biotech start-up in the US that he co-founded. ‘And, incidentally, we’ve just launched a major investment programme at our farm in Tuscany. Every farewell is a new beginning, too’, says Dressler with a broad smile.