Dr. Stephen Smale is the Vice Dean for Research at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and a Distinguished Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics.  A Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator from 1990 to 2007, Dr. Smale’s research focuses on gene regulation during inflammatory and innate immune responses and during lymphocyte development and leukemogenesis.  Currently serving as the Sherie L. and Donald G. Morrison Chair of Molecular Immunology, he has previously served as Vice Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, Director of Basic and Translational Research for the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, Director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science Education Program, Co-Director of the UCLA-Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program, and founding Chair of the School of Medicine’s Research Initiative in Immunity, Inflammation, infection, and Transplantation (I3T).  Dr. Smale received a degree in chemistry from Cornell University and PhD in Biochemistry from the University of California Berkeley under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Tjian.  Following his doctoral training, Dr. Smale was a Helen Hay Whitney Foundation postdoctoral fellow with Nobelist Dr. David Baltimore at the MIT Whitehead Institute.