Rate My Professor Barry Rouse

Professor Barry T. Rouse serves as the Lindsay Young Distinguished Professor of Microbiology in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and Veterinary Medicine at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he has been on the faculty since 1977. A veterinary graduate of the University of Bristol in 1965, he obtained an M.Sc. from the University of Guelph in 1967, a Ph.D. in 1970 after postdoctoral work at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia, and an honorary D.Sc. from the University of Bristol in 1997. Named a Distinguished Professor in 1994 and a UT Institute Professor in 2017, Rouse pioneered research on viral immunology and immunopathology, particularly herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) infections in mice. His studies focus on mechanisms of tissue damage in the eye, such as herpetic stromal keratitis, and the nervous system, examining roles of proinflammatory T cells, regulatory T cells, neutrophils, cytokines, chemokines, neovascularization, and immunometabolism.

With continuous NIH funding since 1978 totaling over $20 million, Rouse has produced more than 425 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, cited over 26,600 times, ranking him in the top 2% of scientists worldwide. Notable publications include "Natural regulatory T cells in infectious disease" (2005) and "Immunity and immunopathology to viruses: what decides the outcome?" (2010). He has earned the 2022 AAVMC Excellence in Research Award, 2018 AVMA Lifetime Excellence in Research Award, Alcon Award for vision research, Humboldt and Fogarty Fellowships, and numerous lectureships. Rouse has mentored nearly 80 postdoctoral fellows and graduate students to successful careers and contributes to editorial boards, grant reviews, and international lectures.