Paul Thomas is a Member in the Department of Immunology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN and an adjunct Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center. His work focuses on understanding the principle of T cell receptor recognition and specificity during development, infections, and in tumors. Dr. Thomas obtained his undergraduate degree in Biology and Philosophy at Wake Forest University. He did his PhD training at Harvard University, working on the innate immune response to Schistosoma-associated carbohydrates and their role in promoting Th2 responses. From there, he moved to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital for a postdoctoral fellowship with Peter Doherty on T cell responses in the influenza model. In 2009, he started his own lab St. Jude.