Dr. Margo Brinton grew up on a fruit farm between Abbottstown and Hanover. Her grandfather,
Harry Brinton, helped to start the jointure that brought students from Adams county to
elementary, middle and high schools in New Oxford. After graduating from New Oxford High in
1962, Margo went to Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina, where she majored in
Zoology. Her interest in science was initiated by her high school science teacher Mr. Calvin
Roland. Among her college courses, she found those in microbiology to be the most interesting
and decided to pursue a career in infectious disease research. In 1972,she received a PhD in
Microbiology with a specialization in Virology from The University of Pennsylvania in
Philadelphia. Her PhD research advisor, the head of The Wistar Institute, was a pioneer in
developing vaccines for polio, German measles and rabies viruses. To complete her research
training, she next became a post doctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota and then was a
Senior Researcher at Riker Research Laboratories of 3Min St. Paul, MN,where she worked on
antiviral and antifungal drug development. In 1976, she moved back to Pennsylvania where she
was a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Her move back to a university, allowed her to
resume teaching,which she enjoys in addition to doing basic research. In 1989, when her former
husband took a job at the Centers of Disease and Prevention in Atlanta, GA, she moved to the
Department of Biology at Georgia State University in Atlanta GA. In addition to being a
Professor at Georgia State University, she served as the Georgia State University Vice Provost
for Academic Affairs from 1991 to 1994. Her honors include election as a University System of
Georgia Regents’ Professor in 2006 and as a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology
in 2009. She recently received the 2013 Georgia State UniversityDistinguished Professor
Award, given by the Georgia State University Alumni to honor her internationally recognized
research accomplishments and her outstanding teaching and student mentorship.
Dr. Brinton currently teaches PhD-level courses in Molecular Genetics and Virology and
mentors the dissertation research of seven PhD students. She has supported her lab’s research by
successfully competing for grants from the National Institutes of Health and the World Health
Organization since 1976. Her research work is focused on understanding how viruses alter the
cells they infect at the molecular level and how particular variations in human or mouse genes
affect host susceptibility to disease caused by viruses, such as the West Nile virus. To foster the
exchange of information among scientists in her field, Dr. Brinton founded an International
virology symposiumin 1986 and organized this meeting for about 500 scientists every three years
until 2010. In 1991, she started a very successful Southeastern regional virology conference
attended every two years by about 200 scientists working in eight southeastern states.
Margo has four stepchildren and six step-grandchildren. They live in Colorado, West Virginia,
Indiana, and Toronto, Canada. Her hobbies are growing orchids, reading and watercolor
painting. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Brinton Association of America, an
organization that maintains the William Brinton 1704 House near Philadelphia. She has been a
member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, GA since 1996.
The Center Of Puppetry Arts has recently been given the Jim Henson collection by the Henson
family, and the Center will build a new museum wing to house this amazing collection