Professor David HO is the Emeritus Founding Scientific Director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center and the Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Medicine, as well as Professor Microbiology and Immunology, at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.  He graduated from Caltech and Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Ho has been at the forefront of AIDS research for 44 years.  His elegant studies unraveled the dynamic nature of HIV replication and revolutionized our basic understanding of this horrific disease.  This knowledge led him to champion combination antiretroviral therapy that resulted in unprecedented control of HIV since 1996.  An automatic death sentence has been transformed into a manageable disease for millions of patients worldwide.  His research team has also devoted considerable efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic by characterizing antibody responses to infection or vaccination, as well as mapping out the rapid evolution of SARS-CoV-2.  Dr. Ho has published ~500 scientific papers and received fifteen honorary doctorates.  He was named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year in 1996 and the recipient of a Presidential Medal in 2001.  He was recognized by the Kingdom of Thailand with the Prince Mahidol Award in Medicine and given the Distinguished Alumni Award by Caltech.  Dr. Ho served as a Trustee for Caltech and MIT, as well as a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers.  He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Academia Sinica, and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.