Michael W. Russell has officially retired from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University at Buffalo (UB), The State University of New York. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, UK (BA 1966, MA 1970) and the University of Reading, UK (PhD 1973). He has ~50 years of research experience in mucosal immunology especially in relation to the mouth and genital tract, and the biological functions of IgA antibodies. After post-doctoral work at Guy’s Hospital Medical and Dental Schools (London, UK), he was at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the mucosal immunology group (1979 to 2000). He moved to UB as Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and of Oral Biology in 2000, and retired as Professor Emeritus in 2016. Now as Chief Scientific Officer for Therapyx, Inc., his research interests focus on immunity to Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and the development of novel immunological therapies as well as a vaccine against it, based on discoveries made in his laboratory at UB. Together with other leading mucosal immunologists, he published a Perspective article in Frontiers of Immunology (November 2000) calling attention to the need to consider mucosal immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 as an important aspect of immunity to COVID-19. A follow-up review on the importance of mucosal immunity in SARS-CoV-2 infection and the control of transmissions was published in Frontiers in Immunology in August 2022.