Members

Ronald C. Kennedy
Professor and Chairman
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

Ronald C. Kennedy was born and raised in Farmington, Connecticut. He attended Rutgers College in New Brunswick, New Jersey where he received a B.A. degree in Microbiology. He attended graduate school at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu where he received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Microbiology specializing in Immunology. He performed postdoctoral studies in the Department of Virology and Epidemiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas where he also became an Assistant Professor. Dr. Kennedy moved to the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas where he became an Assistant, Associate, and then Full Scientist in the Department of Virology and Immunology. He was also an Adjunct Associate and Full Professor in the Departments of Microbiology and Pediatrics at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio. While in San Antonio, Dr. Kennedy was also the Director of a National Institutes of Health (NIH) supported Center for AIDS Research. Following his tenure in San Antonio, Dr. Kennedy became a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. He was also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Director of an NIH supported Nonhuman Primate Research Resource prior to his move to Lubbock to become a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

Dr. Kennedy has received a number of awards and honors including the Chairman of the San Antonio City Council HIV/AIDS Commission, an Advisor to the City of San Antonio, a Citation for Outstanding Service to the Community by the City of San Antonio, an Honorary Director of Kumamoto City Hospital, Japan, and a Provost Senior Research Award from the University of Oklahoma. He has also served on a number of Federal Committees and Panels for the NIH, the Department of Defense, and the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Kennedy has received over $25 million dollars in Federal support for his research activities and his work is presently supported by the NIH. His areas of research interests include HIV infection and AIDS, cancer, hepatitis viruses and maternal-fetal medicine. This research focuses of vaccines and immunology with an interest on mechanism(s) of protective immunity. He has over 200 scientific publications in such journals as Science, Nature Medicine, Cell, and Scientific American. He has been an invited speaker and Chairperson in a number of National and International Scientific Symposia and Meetings and has testified before members of the U.S. Congress on issues related to vaccine safety. Dr. Kennedy has trained a number of undergraduate, graduate, medical students and physicians with regards to research related activities who have attained positions in both the Pharmaceutical Industry and in Academia. He serves on a number of Scientific Journal Editorial Boards and has edited several Scientific Books. His research involves working with emerging infectious disease agents that represent BioSafety Level (BSL) 3 and 4 containment pathogens. He has experience in working in these containment facilities and was involved in the construction and as the Director of the BSL3 facility at the University of Oklahoma. His work also includes the development of models to test and evaluate vaccines and treatments for these emerging infectious agents that are relevant to the human situation.