Jiri Mestecky (b. 1941), Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Medicine, graduated from the School of Medicine, Charles University in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1964. Postdoctoral studies were then performed at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague in the Department of Immunology headed by Professor J. Sterzl, and at UAB with Professor F.W. Kraus. A sabbatical was spent in 1976 at Rockefeller University, New York, in the laboratory of Professor H.G. Kunkel. Dr. Mestecky has served as a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Immunology, Immunochemistry (Molecular Immunology), Infection and Immunity, Journal of Clinical Immunology, Oral Microbiology and Immunology, and International Archives of Allergy and Immunology. Outside interest include classical music and traveling.