Norbert Stefan is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetology, Vascular Medicine, Nephrology and Clinical Chemistry at the University of Tübingen, Germany. He is currently holder of a Heisenberg-Stipend from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). After graduation from medical school in 1997 he worked as an MD and performed in vivo research in the field of the pathophysiology of obesity and type 2 diabetes at the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Tübingen (Professor HU Häring). From 2000 to 2003 he was a fellow at the NIH, NIDDK, Phoenix (Dr C Bogardus) and did research in the field of the pathophysiology of obesity and type 2 diabetes with Pima Indians. He has been Head of Clinical Research of the Tübingen Lifestyle Intervention Study (TULIP) since 2003. In addition to his work as a clinical endocrinologist/diabetologist, he supervises multiple research projects with a main focus on cause and metabolic consequences of body fat distribution, fatty liver and physical fitness in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He has received research support and grants from national and international organisations, was selected for the Rising Star Symposium of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes Annual Meeting in 2007 and is (co-) author of over 130 original research papers, reviews and book chapters.