David Rubinsztein is Professor of Molecular Neurogenetics and a UK Dementia Research Institute Professor at the University of Cambridge. He is Deputy Director of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research and a UK Dementia Research Institute Group Leader. He has made contributions that reveal the relevance of autophagy defects as a disease mechanism and to the basic cell biology of this important catabolic process. Rubinsztein was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2004), EMBO member (2011) and Fellow of the Royal Society (2017). He was awarded the Graham Bull Prize (2007), Thudichum Medal (2017), Roger de Spoelberch prize (2017) and the Goudie Medal (2020). He was identified as a Clarivates Analytics Highly Cited Researcher (2018, 2019, 2020).