Steven Specter, Ph.D.

Steven Specter, Ph.D.

University of South Florida, Morsani College of Medicine

Steven Specter, Ph.D., is professor emeritus, Department of Molecular Medicine, University of South Florida, Morsani College of Medicine. He has a B.A. in biology and Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa.

Specter was a post-doctoral fellow in experimental immunology, then Director of Clinical Virology at Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia. He was appointed associate dean for pre-clinical education in 1997, student affairs in May 2001-2014, admissions in 2002-2008 and alumni affairs 2014-201. He served as annual Clinical Virology Symposium Chair 1985-2020, Chair of the Clinical Immunology Division of ASM, editor in chief of the ASM Cumitech series, President of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology and President of the Florida Branch ASM. 

Specter served on numerous journal editorial boards and professional councils. Research included retrovirus induced immune deficiency and effects of abused drugs on immunity. He authored over 175 scientific publications and edited 12 books. He received 2 outstanding teaching awards (1991, 1996) and the Theodore and Vanette Askonas-Ashford Distinguished Scholar Award, University of South Florida (1997). Specter received a CDC Grant as principal investigator for a project on capacity building assistance for global HIV/AIDS microbiology laboratory program development on behalf of ASM from September 2005-2014. Most recently, Dr. Specter served as the ASM Membership Chair from 2017 to 2023.