Professor Dr Martin Exner is a leading European expert in environmental and public health hygiene and has a wide-ranging involvement in hygiene policy in Germany.

Graduating in medicine from the University of Bonn in 1977, Professor Exner first became involved in public hygiene as scientific assistant at the Hygiene-Institute of the University in Bonn.

In 1986, Professor Exner became Department Head of Transmissible Diseases and Environmental Hygiene of Cologne Health Department and during the period of 1988 to 1994, he was Managing Director of the Hygiene-Institut des Ruhrgebietes in Gelsenkirchen. In 1994 Professor Exner became Professor for Hygiene at the medical faculty of the University of Bonn and since that time has also been Director of the Institute of Hygiene and Public Health of Bonn which is Collaborating Center of the WHO for Drinking Water Hygiene.

In addition to university assignments in research and lecturing, Professor Exner devotes much of his time to environmental hygiene issues, including water and hospital hygiene. Other areas of expertise include food hygiene, general epidemic hygiene, home hygiene and social hygiene. Professor Exner is also very interested in community health matters such as hygiene in schools and kindergartens which directly relate to the health of the family, as well the spread of infections resulting from new, emerging pathogens.

He was President of the Society of Hygiene and Environmental Medicine in Germany, and is currently Vice President of the German Society of Hospital Hygiene. He is a member of the German Hospital Hygiene Committee of the Robert-Koch-Institute, Berlin, and Chairman of the Disinfection Committee of the German Association for applied Hygiene and Chairman of the German Drinking Water Committee of the German Ministry of Health. He also sits as Vice Chairman of the Professional Association of Medical Practitioners for Hygiene and Environmental Medicine.

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