Philippa Marrack

Marrack completed both undergraduate (1967) and Ph.D. (1970) at Cambridge University in New Hall, Cambridge. During her Ph.D., Marrack worked at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology with Alan Munro, where she began to study the differences between T cells and B cells. Alan Munro became her thesis advisor; she became the graduate student that worked with him due to his interest in working with a relative of John Marrack. John Marrack was Philippa Marrack's grandfather's brother, and a very well-known immunologist in the 1930s. Marrack notes that he indirectly influenced her to pursue the study of immunology.

Marrack then moved to La Jolla, San Diego with her first husband and completed postdoctoral work with Richard Dutton at the University of California, San Diego. She credits Dutton as having a tremendous impact on her career during her fellowship, as he taught her how to write, lecture, and run a lab, as well as how to think critically.

Marrack met her lifelong partner and current husband, John W. Kappler, as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego. Her first faculty position was at the University of Rochester, where she taught an undergraduate immunology course. The pair launched a joint lab at the University of Rochester. At the same time, she received independent funding from the American Heart Association and American Cancer Society to study T cells. Marrack obtained an associate professorship at the University of Rochester, followed by faculty positions at the National Jewish Health, Denver, Colorado and the University of Colorado Denver. She was also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Throughout her career, Marrack has published over 300 peer-reviewed journal articles. Her numerous citations and journal articles places her as the third most influential researcher in the nation and distinguishes her as top female researcher.

Professional activities

Marrack has served on editorial boards and many scientific journals including Cell, Science, and the Journal of Immunology. She has also served on various boards and panels for the American Cancer Society, the National Institutes of Health, and the Burroughs Welcome Fund. From 1986 to 2017, Marrack was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. From 1995 to 2002, Marrack served on the American Association of Immunologists Council and served as president of the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) from 2000 to 2001. She has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States since 1989, and a Fellow of the Royal Society in Great Britain since 1997. She is also the current Ida and Cecil Green professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Research at National Jewish Health and a distinguished professor at the University of Colorado Denver. She joined the faculties of National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 1979.