Jason McLellan is a professor of molecular biosciences and the Welch Chair in Chemistry at The University of Texas at Austin. He researches viral and bacterial proteins, and his work to understand how these proteins are structured and how they function has factored into the development of vaccines and potential treatments for deadly pathogens that have impacted the lives of billions of people. Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, he developed a method for engineering key proteins in coronaviruses and respiratory viruses for use in vaccines. The associated technologies from his research are now found in many leading vaccines against COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a virus especially dangerous for young children and seniors. He is the winner of multiple scientific awards, including the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology, the Park MahnHoon Award, the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Medicine, the Golden Goose Award, the William Prusoff Memorial Award and the Viruses Young Investigator in Virology Prize. His research and expertise have been featured in multiple media outlets including CNN, Fox News, USA Today, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post and National Geographic. Dr. McLellan earned a B.S. in chemistry with an emphasis in biochemistry from Wayne State University and his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He conducted his postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center. He previously served on the faculty at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.