Avery August, Ph.D., is a professor of immunology in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. He received his undergraduate degree in medical technology at the California State University at Los Angeles. After receiving his degree, he spent a year in the master's program in biochemistry at the same institution, then entered the graduate program in immunology at the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York City. After receiving his Ph.D., he took a postdoctoral fellowship in the Laboratory of Molecular Oncology with Professor Hidesaburo Hanafusa at The Rockefeller University in New York City.

Following stints at the R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute, August was an assistant professor, associate professor, professor and distinguished professor in the Department of Veterinary & Biomedical Sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. In 2010, he was appointed Chair of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University in Ithaca. In 2018, he was named a HHMI Professor and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Cornell, and is currently Deputy Provost at Cornell University.