Each year, the George Mason University Alumni Association recognizes and honors outstanding alumni, students and faculty members for their achievements and contributions to the university during its Celebration of Distinction, held this year on April 16. Among the awards presented are Alumnus of the Year and the Alumni Service Award.

Jeffery Taubenberger

Alumnus of the Year

Jeffery Taubenberger, MD, PhD (BS Biology ’82), is not just an infectious-disease scientist, he’s a pandemic detective — the Sherlock Holmes of influenza. In 2005, Taubenberger solved a medical mystery, identifying the specific cause of the 1918 pandemic that killed nearly 50 million people. The culprit: an influenza virus that began in birds and adapted to humans.

Pandemics occur every 30 to 40 years on average — the last one was in 1968 — so Taubenberger’s research is more than mere “historical curiosity,” as he puts it.

“We’re using it to investigate what mutations allow such viruses to adapt to humans and how it causes disease,” says Taubenberger, a senior investigator with NIH’s Laboratory of Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Md. “This information can be crucial for developing new drugs and vaccines.”

His papers on the 1918 virus were widely acclaimed — Taubenberger was ABC News’ “Person of the Week” in October 2005 — but his motivation is the simple exhilaration of discovery.

As a child, he was always interested in biology, a passion that grew in eighth grade when he met William Drohan, a scientist from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). By 10th grade, Taubenberger was doing science fair projects in Drohan’s lab.

“I was looking at the possible genetic components to cancer,” he says. Taubenberger arrived at Mason as a 16-year-old freshman, played oboe with Mason’s orchestra while working part time for NCI, and composed a piece that the orchestra performed his senior year.

Someday he hopes to return and take music classes, but until then, you’ll find him in the lab, performing research that could save millions of lives.