ABSTRACT

In 50 years, what are you going to tell your grandkids about the COVID-19 pandemic? More importantly, what are you going to tell them about how you and your generation took the lessons from COVID-19 to make our society more resistant and resilient to disease? COVID-19 highlighted many of the inequities in our public health system; to solve these issues it's going to take everyone, not just those in healthcare and medical sciences. We need engineers, data scientists, policymakers, communicators, sociologists and artists. In short, we need contributors from all majors and disciplines to help ensure a future where everyone has the best chance at living a life free of disease.

Matt Koci, Ph.D., grew up in the Richmond, VA area playing soccer and developing an interest in science and math. He attended Virginia Tech with the original goal of becoming an engineer, but thanks to an undergraduate research experience in a tumor immunology lab, he ended up majoring in biology with a concentration in microbiology and immunology. After Virginia Tech, he went to the University of Georgia where he got his master's degree and Ph.D. focused on viral pathogenesis. After a short post-doctoral research position at the University of Wisconsin studying how viruses evade antiviral drugs, he joined the at NC State. His lab works to understand the immune mechanisms which allow an animal to recognize, respond, eliminate and develop resistance to pathogens.

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