Valdur Saks is Professor of Bioenergetics and Biochemistry at the University of Grenoble, France, and Head of the Laboratory of Bioenergetics at the National Institute of Chemical and Biological Physics in Tallinn, Estonia. A graduate of Moscow University, he was the long-time head of the Laboratory of Cardiac Bioenergetics in Moscow, Russia, before taking up his present positions. Professor Saks has authored over 220 scientific publications and has received numerous scientific awards, including the USSR State Prize in Science and the Internatinoal "Research and Development" Award sponsored by the U.N. and UNICEF. He is a member of the International Society for Heart Research and of the American Physiological and Biophysical Societies.