Dr Wim van der Poel is appointed as visiting Professor at the National Centre for Zoonoses Research (NCZR) of the University of Liverpool at the 1st of February 2009. Wim is the new coordinator of EPIZONE and works as virologist at the Department of Virology of Central Veterinary Institute of Wageningen UR (CVI). From now on CVI and NCZR will be able to keep even closer contact with each other.