What is your role with Pediatrics Open Science, the new open access journal from the American Academy of Pediatrics?
Associate Editor
What made you want to pursue a leadership role in journal publishing?
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has an obvious leadership role in communications to pediatricians. The new AAP journal Pediatrics Open Science will offer another opportunity for pediatricians involved in research projects to communicate their results to a national and international audience of pediatricians.
What are your primary research interests?
Viral infections of children and their pathogenesis, especially those caused by the human herpesviruses. Also, vaccines to protect against viral infections.
What excites you about the field of pediatrics?
The diseases that affect children need to be correctly diagnosed and treated in order to avoid complications or adverse events later in the adult life of the same child. That is the challenge of pediatric medicine. The reward is to make the correct diagnosis.
Do you have any words of wisdom for future researchers?
Because the cost of research continues to increase, in the future it is likely that individual university medical centers will select different diseases as a focus for their medical center. Junior-level researchers will need to carefully select their initial faculty positions to be sure that their research interests match those of the medical center that is recruiting them.
Why do you think open access is important for the future of pediatric research?
The progress of research in many fields within pediatric medicine is so rapid that all articles need to be published open access to be read by any researcher in any country. Open access is particularly important for junior-level faculty.
What does a typical day in your work week look like?
I have had many positions over decades in my department, so the duties have changed considerably from year to year. Basically I have carried out both basic and translational research as my major academic focus; in addition, I have given lectures as part of the microbiology curriculum to medical students, I have been an infectious diseases consultant on the clinical service, and I have been an administrator of a pediatric division. I have enjoyed being a mentor to undergraduate students, graduate students, medical students, pediatrics fellows, and junior level pediatrics faculty.
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