I first learned of Dr. Carlo Urbani in January 2018 when his son Tommaso sent me a letter inviting me to an event to commemorate the 15th anniversary of his father’s death. I admit that until then I was unaware of Dr. Urbani’s story and how, in 2003, he was the first to identify Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), a new and deadly disease, which eventually led to his death. Hearing his story and meeting his family moved me a lot, so I decided to remember him at the opening of the World Health Assembly (WHA), which took place a few months later. I dedicated a plaque to him, which is now exhibited in the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, as a sign of our gratitude, but it also can remain as a sign of his life, his work, and his sacrifice for staff and visitors. In Geneva we went over the entire sequence of events, starting from February 2003, when the Chinese Ministry of Health announced a mysterious outbreak of atypical pneumonia in the p...