Hans-Hilger Ropers studied medicine in Freiburg and Munich. From 1984 to 1997, he headed the Institute for Human Genetics at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and in 1994, he became Director at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (MPIMG) and Professor for Human Genetics at the Free University in Berlin, Germany. From 2008 and 2014, he also served as Secretary of the Biomedical Class of the (former Prussian) Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science (BBAW). Since 2014 he is Director emeritus (active) at the MPIMG as well as Clinical Geneticist and Senior Adviser at the Institute of Human Genetics, University of Mainz, Germany.