X.J. Meng is a University Distinguished Professor of Molecular Virology with joint appointments in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. He received his PhD in Immunobiology from Iowa State University (Ames, IA) and completed his postdoctoral training at NIAID, NIH (Bethesda, MD). Meng has been a faculty member at Virginia Tech since 1999, and he studies mechanisms of virus replication and pathogenesis and develops effective vaccine against emerging viruses. He is an elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences, an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the recipient of Virginia Tech Lifetime Achievement Award for Innovation, recipient of the Inaugural Lorraine J. Hoffman Graduate Alumni Award from Iowa State University, and recipient of the 2017 State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) Outstanding Faculty Award. Meng is the founding director of the Virginia Tech Center for Emerging, Zoonotic and Arthropod-borne Pathogens, and served as the Interim Executive Director of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech. Dr. Meng currently serves as Editor or Editor-in-Chief for four international journals (PNAS, mBio, Virus Research, and Veterinary Microbiology).