Dr. Max Ciarlet, Elementary Science
"I am Max Ciarlet and I am happy to return to the Saint Peter school community as the K2 to grade 4 science teacher. Life took me in the direction of becoming a clinical research scientist. After obtaining my BSc in Biological Sciences and my PhD in Microbiology/Virology, I became an Assistant Professor in the Molecular Microbiology and Virology Department at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, Texas). Subsequently, I joined Merck to pursue another dream of mine: to develop a safe and effective vaccine against the main causative viral agent of gastroenteritis in infants worldwide. This rotavirus vaccine has been licensed in almost every country in the world and is helping to save thousands of children's lives in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. My daughter is vaccinated with the rotavirus vaccine that I developed at Merck. Later, I worked on vaccines to prevent respiratory illness due to influenza viruses and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in older adults while at Novartis Vaccines and GSK. Throughout my career, I have authored more than 150 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals and several chapters in scientific textbooks and the encyclopedia of environmental microbiology.
After working for more than 25 years developing vaccines, I realized that it was time to start making a difference here at home, with all our children in the St. Peter community, and I had the privilege to teach science to grades 1 to 8 for three years (2019 to 2021) before I was lured back to the vaccine development world to work on virus-like vaccines targeting respiratory pathogens.
Now, I am coming back home to be an integral part of what makes St. Peter School such a special and warm place where our children thrive together within a Catholic environment. I will help the children discover their passion for their scientific selves through science lessons to add real-world relevance and practicality, and connect science with other disciplines with the goal to allow students to combine several school subjects in a creative, well-rounded investigation. I am a firm believer that children become effective students and analytical thinkers when they learn to integrate different fields of knowledge."
Faculty Profile