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= Bette Korber = Bette Korber is a computational biologist focusing on the molecular biology and population genetics of the HIV virus that causes AIDS. She has contributed heavily to the efforts to obtain an effective HIV vaccine. Korber is a Scientist in Theoretical Biology and Biophysics at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She has received the Edward Orlando Lawrence Award, the Department of Energy's highest award for scientific achievement.

Early Life and Education
Bette Korber grew up in Southern California and received the BS in Chemistry in 1981 from California State University, Long Beach, where her father was a sociology professor, her mother graduated in nursing, and her sister graduated in journalism. From 1981-1988, she worked with Iwona Stroynowski in Leroy Hood's laboratory on her graduate project at California Institute of Technology. She received the PhD in Chemistry in 1988. From 1988-1990 she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. She became a Visiting Faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute in 1991, continuing in that visiting position until 2011.

Research
Bette Korber conducts her research at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where she began in 1990 and became a Fellow in 2002. Her approach involves applying computational biology to the design of a vaccine against HIV, the AIDS virus. She first became interested in HIV when a close friend of Korber's and her fiancé's at California Institute of Technology contracted one of the first cases of AIDS in Pasadena, CA. She said,“We learned a lot about HIV while he was sick. But there was no treatment for him and he died in 1991. I decided when I graduated from my PhD program that I wanted to work on HIV.” Several years later, looking back on this event, she described its effects this way: “I hate HIV,” she says, her voice rising with emotion. “I lost a couple friends to it. HIV kills in horrible ways. I think of what the epidemic has done to Africa and it motivates me.” Korber oversees the HIV Database and Analysis Project at Los Alamos. She and her team have built a global HIV database of over 840,000 sequences from publications of the viral genome. In addition, the database focuses on the small regions (called epitopes) within the virus that can be recognized by antibodies, and evaluates the evidence for the strength of each epitope. Also, there are data on the immunological profiles of individuals resistant to HIV. She and many other researchers have applied the data to devise possible treatments and vaccines against HIV. Her work has resulted in design of vaccines now being tested in clinical trials. In recognition of her research, Korber received the 2018 Feynman Award for Innovation, the first woman at Los Alamos to receive one. She recalled that at CalTech when few women were there, she took a class with physicist Richard Feynman and became friends with him. She said, "'At a time when kindness seemed rare, I really appreciated his generous spirit and encouragement. I think he would have been pleased about this award.'”

Personal Life
Bette Korber married physicist James Theiler in 1988. They have two sons. In addition to her absorption with HIV science, Korber performs on Irish flute and Celtic drum and has made several recordings. Out of her concern for the impact of AIDS on those with few financial resources, she contributed $50,000 from her EO Lawrence Award to help establish, along with family and friends, an AIDS orphanage in South Africa, working through Nurturing Orphans of AIDS for Humanity (NOAH). She has joined the Board of NOAH. She also contributed to the distribution of Earth Boxes of maintenance-free portable gardens to orphanages, clinics, and schools in Africa.

Awards and Honors
2018 Richard Feynman Award for Innovation

2014, selected to Thomson Reuters Corporation's 100 Most Influential Minds of the Decade

2004, Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award

2001, Distinguished Alumna of CSULB

1997, Elizabeth Glaser Scientist, for work on pediatric AIDS, presented by Hillary  Clinton