The Sandra L. Clark Immunology Education Fund

The Sandra L. Clark Immunology Education Fund endowment was established by Professor Edward Clark with the help of friends and colleagues in memory of his sister, who was infected with HIV-1 and died of AIDS in 1992 at age 34. Sandra was a nurse and strongly supported immunology education and research as a means to combat AIDS and other diseases of the immune system.

The Sandra L. Clark Immunology Education Fund provides awards and fellowships for students in the Immunology Graduate Program. Two to three graduate students each year are eligible for a Clark Fund Foreign Travel Award of up to $1,500 each (but may be higher under special circumstances). Criteria for awards: 1) the scientific content of the meeting differs from the student's area of research; 2) the meeting is one to which the student would not otherwise be able to attend; 3) the travel is to a small, interactive meeting with novel scientific and/or cultural exposure; 4) the travel is for an advanced graduate student; 5) some matching travel support is available, 6) the student will have the opportunity to present his/her work if the meeting is in the student's area of research.

The Sandra L. Clark Immunology Education Fund also provides support for the annual Sandra L. Clark Endowed Lecture, presented at the Annual Department Retreat, and an award for best poster at the retreat. Graduate students in the Department of Immunology select the speaker each year.

2003 Clark Lecture - September 9, 2003
Abul Abbas, University of California, San Francisco
"T cell tolerance and autoimmunity"

2004 Clark Lecture - September 14, 2004
Philipa Marrack, HHMI/National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver
"T cells, T cell receptors and MHC"

2005 Clark Lecture - September 12, 2005
Stephen M. Hedrick, University of California, San Diego
"Is the immune system an evolutionary parasite?"

2006 Clark Lecture - September 12, 2006
Peter C. Doherty, The University of Melbourne, Australia
"Adventure with killer T cells"

2007 Clark Lecture - September 11, 2007
Marc K. Jenkins, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
"On the trail of naive epitope-specific CD4+ T cells in normal individuals"

2008 Clark Lecture - September 9, 2008
Michel C. Nussenzweig, The Rockefeller University, New York

Updated 7/2/07