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Pioneering virologist and alumnus Taubenberger was the first scientist to sequence the genome of the influenza virus that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic. That scientific journey took him from the lab to the permafrost of Alaska. Today, as chief of the Viral Pathogenesis and Evolution Section, Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, he and his laboratory study a number of viruses, including influenza A viruses, which are the pathogens that cause yearly flu epidemics and have caused periodic pandemics, such as the 1968 outbreak that killed an estimated one million people. His research aims to inform public health strategies on several important aspects of flu: seasonal flu; avian flu, which circulates among birds and has infected humans in the past; swine flu, which circulates among pigs and has infected humans in the past; and pandemic flu, which can arise from numerous sources and spread quickly because humans have little to no immunity to it.