Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), has been named R&D Magazine's 40th Annual Scientist of the Year. Fauci pioneered the field of human immunoregulation by making some basic scientist observations that now are the foundation for understanding the regulation of the human immune response. Dr. Fauci has also contributed significantly to the understanding of how the AIDS virus destroys the body's defenses, and he also defined the ways in which HIV is transmitted through the body. He devotes considerable personal research time to identification of the mechanisms of the HIV infection and the scope of the body's immune response to the AIDS retrovirus. Dr. Fauci had a Jesuit education at Regis High School in New York, New York, and at Holy Cross College in Massachusetts and credits the Jesuit training for his dedication for excellence. Dr. Fauci also attended the Cornell University Medical College for his MD and did internship and residency at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. He manages by example and flourishes in an environment of curing or alleviation of serious life-threatening diseases. The biggest challenge currently faced by Dr. Fauci and the NIAID is the potential threat from pandemic flu. NIH will spend about $119 million on influenza research to study the pathogenicity of pandemic influenza viruses, transmission of influenza viruses among different animal species, and the ways in which animal to human transmission takes place.