Jeffery K. Taubenberger, M.D., Ph.D., was named the Acting Director of NIAID in April 2025. He oversees a $6.6 billion budget that supports research to advance the understanding, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. He is a Senior Investigator in the intramural research program, and serves as Chief of the Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution Section, and Deputy Chief of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Taubenberger’s research interests include influenzavirus and coronavirus biology and evolution, pathophysiology, clinical and translational research, and development of broadly-protective vaccines. Past research accomplishments include the sequencing, reconstruction, and characterization of the virus responsible for the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed 50-100 million people worldwide. He has published over 300 papers and book chapters and is a frequent speaker at national and international meetings. He is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Academy of Microbiology. He has received numerous awards, including Outstanding Alumnus Awards from both George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University, the 2006 Joseph Kinyoun Award from NIAID, and the 2022 Ed Nowakowski Senior Memorial Clinical Virology Award from the Pan American Society of Clinical Virology.
Prior to coming to NIAID in 2006, he served as Chief of Molecular Pathology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) in Washington, DC, a position he held since 1994. He received a B.S. in Biology from George Mason University in 1982, and an M.D. in 1986 and a Ph.D. in 1987 from the Medical College of Virginia of Virginia Commonwealth University. He did his residency in anatomic pathology at the National Cancer Institute. He holds dual board certifications in Anatomic Pathology and in Molecular Genetic Pathology.