Director, Center for Influenza Disease & Emergence Research
Professor, UGA Athletic Association Distinguished Professor in Virology and Immunology
University of Georgia
Topic: Animal models of influenza
Dr. Mark Tompkins is the Director and Principal Investigator of the Center for Influenza Disease and Emergence Research, a NIAID Center of Excellence in Influenza Research and Response (CEIRR) at the University of Georgia. He received his doctorate in Immunology from Emory University and then studied immune mechanisms of autoimmune diseases as a National Multiple Sclerosis Society Postdoctoral Fellow before joining the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the FDA where he studied immunity elicited by influenza vaccination. He joined the University of Georgia in 2005. Mark’s research and training programs focus on understanding the host response to emerging and re-emerging respiratory pathogens along with pathogen-pathogen interactions and vaccine elicited immunity. Mark was awarded a Senior Fulbright Scholar Award in 2012 and most recently was appointed the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor in Virology and Immunology.