Julian Bess, Jr. received his B.S. in Biology from Virginia Tech in 1977 and his M.S. in Biomedical Sciences from Hood College in 1981. He began working at the (now) Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research in 1977 in the Viral Resources Laboratory and later trained in the Protein and Immunochemistry Laboratory directed by Dr. Steve Oroszlan. After receiving his M.S., he became the supervisor of the Biochemistry unit of the Biological Products Laboratory directed by Dr. Larry Arthur. In 1983 he began supervising both the Biochemistry and Production units, which are now collectively known as the Biological Products Core laboratory of the AIDS and Cancer Virus Program.
