T32 PIRE Director

Program Director – Stephen Tomlinson, Ph.D.

Dr. Tomlinson is Professor and Vice Chair for Research and Faculty Development in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. He earned his doctorate at Cambridge University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Florida. In 1991, he was appointed to the faculty of New York University School of Medicine, and he moved to MUSC in 2000. Dr. Tomlinson has an outstanding record of funding from federal sources and foundations, and has been continuously funded by the NIH since he became an independent investigator. In 2011, he was appointed as a PI/Research Health Scientist with the Veteran’s Administration.

Dr. Tomlinson has authored more than 140 publications and is a highly interactive and collaborative scientist, as evidenced by numerous joint publications with other MUSC faculty. He is also a recognized educator at MUSC and has trained 8 Ph.D. students and M.D./Ph.D. students, numerous summer/rotation and medical students, and more than 20 postdoctoral fellows. A total of 10 of his students/postdocs have received individual extramural fellowship funding (not from training programs). His primary departmental responsibility as vice chair is mentorship, and as such he developed, instituted and directs a new program to develop the research careers of junior faculty.

Dr. Tomlinson also has entrepreneurial experience; his work in the area of complement regulation has been the foundation for 25 invention disclosures and 132 patent applications in more than 50 countries, with 53 patents issued. He was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2015.