Jeffery Taubenberger

Jeffery Karl Taubenberger is an American virologist. With Ann Reid and Johan Hultin, he was the first to sequence the genome of the influenza virus which caused the 1918 pandemic of Spanish flu. He is Chief of the Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution Section, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health. Taubenberger's laboratory studies viruses, including influenza A viruses (IAVs), which are the pathogens that cause yearly flu epidemics and have caused periodic pandemics, such as the 1968 outbreak that killed an estimated one million people. His research aims to inform public health strategies on influenza: seasonal flu; avian flu, swine flu, and pandemic flu, which can arise from numerous sources and spread quickly because humans have little to no immunity to it. He served as acting director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health from April, 2025, through May, 2026. It was announced on May 21, 2026, during a subcommittee hearing of the US Senate Appropriations Committee, that he had stepped down from his Acting Director role.