Ivette Ariela Nuñez received her Ph.D. at the University of Georgia, Athens where she studied avian influenza virus H5N1 and vaccine design. Following her defense, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and at Vanderbilt University performing research on SARS-CoV-2 and influenza B virus. She currently works as a Molecular Virologist at the NIH/NIAID Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick (IRF-Frederick) in Frederick, MD, USA. Here she studies high consequence pathogens such as Ebola virus and SARS-CoV-2 in order to understand, treat and prevent novel emerging viruses.