Pamela J. Fink

Pamela J. Fink is a professor emerita in the Department of Immunology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Fink was the first woman to be editor-in-chief of the Journal of Immunology, serving from 2013–2018. "In recognition of a remarkable career of scientific achievement and contributions to AAI and the field of immunology". She did her Ph.D. work with Michael J. Bevan, working on T cells and their recognition of antigens. In 1985 she and Michael J. Bevan were married.

Research After beginning her scientific work in developmental biology, Fink developed an interest in immunology as a developmental system. She was particularly attracted to how T cells learn how to recognize foreign antigens and protect the body during their development in the thymus. By transplanting the thymus from one animal to another, Fink was able to test the effects of mixing the genetics and environment of T cells and to demonstrate that T cells in the thymus learn environmentally rather than genetically. Fink went on to examine T cell structure and function using tools from molecular biology.

Awards and honors 1989, Scholar, Leukemia Society of America 1994, NSF Career Advancement Award, National Science Foundation, for Biochemical Analysis of the Defective Signaling Pathway in Anergic CD8+ Murine T Cells 2019, Lifetime Achievement Award, American Association of Immunologists 2019, Distinguished Fellow, American Association of Immunologists