Akiko Iwasaki is Sterling Professor of Immunobiology at the Yale University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of immune defense against viruses at mucosal surfaces, which are a major site of entry for infectious agents.
Dr. Iwasaki has been a leading scientific voice throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and is well known for her Twitter advocacy on women and underrepresented minorities in the science and medicine fields. She is the director of the Center for Infection and Immunity and is at the forefront of several long COVID investigations, including the Mount Sinai-Yale Long COVID study, Yale LISTEN study, and Yale Paxlovid trial. She was named to the 2023 STATUS ultimate list of leaders in life sciences.
Dr. Iwasaki has received many awards and honors, including the 2023 Else Kröner Fresenius Prize for Medical Research, and has been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator since 2014. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018, to the National Academy of Medicine in 2019, and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021.
She received her doctorate in immunology from the University of Toronto and completed her postdoctoral training with the National Institutes of Health before joining Yale’s faculty in 2000.
Professor Nathan Ahlgren will present Dr. Iwasaki for the degree of Doctor of Science.