Professor Stocker investigates redox processes in atherosclerosis. He significantly developed this discipline through three seminal contributions. First, the discovery of beneficial activities of bilirubin changed clinical practice for the treatment of neonatal jaundice and led to haem oxygenase biology as a new research field. Second, the elucidation of the molecular action of vitamin E in lipoproteins allowed him to disprove the most commonly held hypothesis of atherogenesis, overturning our understanding of the single most common cause of death in Australia. Third, the discovery of a novel pathway that regulates vascular tone and blood pressure offers novel treatments for vascular diseases.