Col. Nelson Michael, M.D., Ph.D.

Director, US Military HIV Research Program, MHRP

Nelson L. Michael is the Director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program  (MHRP) at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Col. Michael has guided MHRP through the completion of the RV144 HIV vaccine study in Thailand, which provided the world’s first demonstration that a preventive HIV vaccine was possible. He has also been recently involved in vaccine development for Ebola, MERS-CoV, and Zika virus. Col. Michael currently serves on President Obama’s Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, is a Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University and serves on multiple Advisory Boards for the NIH, PEPFAR and other international organizations. He graduated summa cum laude from University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in biology, and from Stanford University with MD and PhD (cancer biology) degrees. He trained in internal medicine at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital. Col. Michael has co-authored more than 260 papers in the peer-reviewed scientific literature.

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