UNC Lineberger member J. Victor Garcia, PhD, a professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology at the UNC School of Medicine, presented the Honorary Diversity Lecture at the 2017 American Society for Microbiology Microbe annual meeting, which was held June 1-5 in New Orleans.
Garcia delivered the inaugural Honorary Diversity Lecture on June 3 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), which is an organization with 50,000 members world-wide that seeks to advance microbial sciences across the globe.
Garcia was recommended by the American Academy of Microbiology Board of Governors for this honor, which goes to an under-represented minority microbiologist who is both an accomplished scientist and speaker. Through the honor, the society seeks to highlight exceptional work from an outstanding minority speaker to provide more diversity to the program and showcase a role model for trainees.
“I am humbled by this terrific honor that showcases the type of outstanding opportunities provided by UNC to under-represented minority investigators to excel at a national and international level,” said Garcia. “UNC is a place where everyone can thrive and succeed.”
Garcia’s lecture focused on pre-clinical models developed and implemented at UNC that are used to evaluate novel tools to prevent, treat and cure HIV/AIDS.