Harald zur Hausen studied medicine at the Universities of Bonn, Hamburg and Düsseldorf, gaining his MD in 1960. He was a research fellow at the University of Düsseldorf and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, before being appointed assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. He joined the University of Würzburg one year later, initially as a senior scientist and then as a private lecturer. From 1972 to 1977 he was Professor of Virology at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, and then at the University of Freiburg until 1983. Thereafter, he was appointed Scientific Director of the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg until his retirement in 2003.
Professor zur Hausen has been a member of various research organizations, academies of science, and scientific boards. He was President of OECI, Vice-Chairman of the German American Academic Council and Vice-President of the Helmholtz Society of German National Research Centers. Among others, he received the Robert Koch Award, the Charles S. Mott Prize of the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Award, the German Cancer Award, the Prince Mahidol Award of Thailand and the Federal Order of Merit, as well as six honorary degrees in six different countries. He is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Cancer and on the editorial board of several scientific journals and has organized or co-organized a number of international meetings.