Susan Kaech is professor and director of the NOMIS Center for Immunobiology and Microbial Pathogenesis and NOMIS Chair. She is an immunobiologist who aims to understand how memory T cells are produced during infection and vaccination, how they function, and why they can fail to induce long-term immunity during immunization. In particular, she seeks to learn how T cell behavior is suppressed by tumors, in order to create better therapies for cancer using the body's own immune system—an innovative and rapidly moving field called cancer immunotherapy.