Mark Tompkins is the Director and Principal Investigator of the Center for Influenza Disease and Emergence Research (CIDER), a NIAID Center of Excellence in Influenza Research and Response (CEIRR) at the University of Georgia. He received his doctorate in Immunology from Emory University and then studied immune mechanisms of autoimmune diseases as a National Multiple Sclerosis Society Postdoctoral Fellow before joining the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the FDA where he studied immunity elicited by influenza vaccination. Dr. Tompkins joined the University of Georgia in 2005. He was awarded a Senior Fulbright Scholar Award in 2012 and worked at the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness. Dr. Tompkins’ research and training programs focus on understanding the host response to emerging and re-emerging respiratory pathogens, pathogen-pathogen interactions, and vaccine-elicited immunity.