Nelson L. Michael, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director, Center for Infectious Diseases Research at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAiR). Dr. Michael graduated summa cum laude from University of California, Los Angeles in 1979 with a degree in biology and from Stanford University with M.D. and Ph.D. (cancer biology) degrees in 1986. He trained in internal medicine at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital from 1986-1989. 

Prior to his current position, Dr. Michael served for 29 years in the U.S. Army at WRAIR including 12 years as the Director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) at WRAIR and 8 months as the WRAIR Deputy Commander. He was deployed in 2013 with the 1st Armored Division to the Kingdom of Jordan. Dr. Michael retired from the U.S. Army on 30 September 2018 at the rank of Colonel. MHRP is an international HIV vaccine and remission research program that successfully integrates HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

Dr. Michael guided MHRP through the completion of the RV144 HIV prime-boost vaccine clinical trial, an international collaboration that involved more than 16,000 Thai volunteers and provided the world’s first demonstration that a preventive HIV vaccine was possible. Dr. Michael entered his Army service in 1989 in WRAIR’s Department of Vaccine Research, Division of Retrovirology, and later served as the Chief of the Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Pathogenesis. Dr. Michael served on President Obama’s Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (2009-2016) and the Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Development Team (2020-2022). He currently serves on the Vaccine Research Center Scientific Advisory Working Group (NIAID, NIH).

Dr. Michael’s research interests include SARS-CoV-2, HIV molecular pathogenesis and host genetics, HIV clinical research and HIV/Ebola/MERS Co-V and ZIKV vaccine development. He is a Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine. He serves as a peer reviewer of many scientific journals and is the author or coauthor of more than 450 scientific publications and eight textbooks. 

Honors:

Army Commendation Medal (1992, 1996), Joint Service Commendation Medal (2013), Army

Achievement Medal (1996, 2018), Army Meritorious Service Medal (2004, 2010, 2018), the Defense

Meritorious Service Medal (2013), Legion of Merit (2018), the Hero of Military Medicine (Army)

Award (2013) the Army Civ Svc Medal (2020) and Army Superior Civ Svc Medal (2022)