Infections are one of the most challenging aspects of human society.
Most of the progress we have made in improving quality of life has been a result of preventing infectious diseases. When I was in medical school, I saw how little we could do about infections. I got more and more interested in the prevention and understanding of infectious diseases, and I have stayed with this area of medicine for the past four decades. There are unique opportunities to devise and implement approaches to prevent disease related to infectious agents. It's one of the few areas in modern medicine where you don't make money by treating disease.