University of Arizona Professor of Immunobiology Jeffrey Frelinger, PhD, has been named a distinguished fellow of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI).
The inaugural AAI fellowship program recognizes members for distinguished careers and outstanding scientific contributions as well as their service to AAI and the immunology community.
Dr. Frelinger is a past president of the AAI—the world’s largest professional association for immunologists with more than 7,300 members. He joined the UA College of Medicine – Tucson in 2010 after 27 years at the University of North Carolina –Chapel Hill, where he was the Sarah Graham Kenan Professor of Microbiology and Immunology. For 16 of those years he served as chair of the department.
Originally from Booklyn, N.Y., Dr. Frelinger earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of California, San Diego, and a doctorate in immunology from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. He later served as a fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at Toyko University and a visiting fellow of Trinity College in Oxford University in England. He also was a visiting investigator at the Medical Research Council Radiobiology Unit in Harwell, United Kingdom, and the Laboratory of Viral Diseases of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in Bethesda, Md.
At the UA, Dr. Frelinger studies the human and rodent immune response to various viruses and bacteria. He is collaborating with researchers in the UA Valley Fever Center for Excellence to create a vaccine for Valley fever, a fungal lung infection prominent in the Southwestern United States. Dr. Frelinger’s research has been published in prestigious scientific journals such as Science, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and The American Naturalist.
According to the AAI, election as a distinguished fellow is among the highest honors bestowed by the organization.
It honors active, long-term members — 25 or more years of service — who have demonstrated one or more of the following: excellence in research accomplishment in the field of immunology; exceptional leadership to the immunology community in academia, foundations, nonprofits, industry or government at a national or international level; and notable distinction as an educator.
Dr. Frelinger will be recognized in May at the AAI’s annual meeting, IMMUNOLOGY 2019.
About the UA College of Medicine – Tucson
The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson is shaping the future of medicine through state-of-the-art medical education programs, groundbreaking research and advancements in patient care in Arizona and beyond. Founded in 1967, the college boasts more than 50 years of innovation, ranking among the top medical schools in the nation for research and primary care. Through the university's partnership with Banner Health, one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country, the college is leading the way in academic medicine. For more information, please visit medicine.arizona.edu.