Professor Dr. Felix A. Rey receives the 2026 Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation Award for Distinguished Achievements in Virology

The Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation Award for Distinguished Achievements in Virology is presented every two years and recognizes outstanding contributions to basic and translational virology at the national and international levels. The prize, worth 50,000 euros, was awarded to Professor Felix A. Rey in recognition of his pioneering work in structural virology and his fundamental contributions to the understanding of viral membrane fusion and entry mechanisms.

Born and raised in Argentina, Professor Rey studied physics at the Instituto Balseiro, where he received his master’s degree in 1981. He then moved to Paris to study biochemistry, where he earned a second master’s degree from the Université de Paris-Sud in 1983. He completed his Ph.D. at the same institution in 1988. For his postdoctoral work, he joined Stephen C. Harrison’s laboratory at Harvard University, where he determined the structure of the envelope glycoprotein of the tick-borne encephalitis virus, which was published in *Nature* in 1995. This work provided the first high-resolution structure of a class II viral fusion glycoprotein and marked a key advance in the field.

In 1995, Professor Rey returned to Paris, where he became a junior group leader and later director of the Structural Molecular Virology Laboratory. In 2004, he moved to the Institut Pasteur, where he became director of the Virology Department and currently serves as head of the Structural Virology Unit.

Over the course of his career, Professor Rey has determined the structures of numerous viral glycoproteins from a wide range of virus families and characterized their interactions with receptors and antibodies. His work has made major contributions to our understanding of viral membrane fusion and entry mechanisms. In addition, his research has revealed structural and functional relationships between viral and cellular membrane fusion proteins.

As the recipient of the 2026 Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation Award for Distinguished Achievements in Virology, Professor Rey embodies scientific excellence, innovation, and a lasting impact on the field. His pioneering work on viral envelope proteins and membrane fusion has fundamentally shaped our understanding of virus entry, virus-antibody interactions, and the structural basis of infection. At the same time, his research has laid important groundwork for the development of antiviral strategies and vaccines and has extended far beyond virology to address fundamental questions in cell biology and evolution.

Equally remarkable is his longstanding commitment to training and mentoring young scientists. His laboratory is widely recognized as an outstanding training environment and has shaped the careers of numerous early-career researchers, many of whom now hold leading positions in virology. In addition, Professor Rey has maintained close ties with the German virology community and has provided important impetus through his long-term involvement in scientific advisory activities.

We are very grateful to Professor Rey for delivering the Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation Award Lecture and sharing his outstanding scientific insights with the virology community.