Kenneth Berns

Kenneth Ira Berns (June 14, 1938 – January 26, 2024) was an American virologist who was a distinguished professor emeritus at the department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Florida College of Medicine.^[1] He is primarily known for his work on adeno-associated viruses (AAV), and his group was one of the first which showed the specificity of the integration of the AAV genomes into the cellular genome.^[2] He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences from 1995-2024.^[3]

He was the president of the American Society for Virology (ASV) for the academic year 1988–1989^[4] and the president of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) for the academic year 1996–1997. He was elected in 2000 a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.^[5]

Berns died on January 26, 2024, at the age of 85.^[6]