Dr. Siliciano currently holds the title of Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, and throughout his career, has made seminal contributions to our understanding of clinical HIV-1 disease and the HIV-1 latent reservoir. His talk entitled “Understanding Barriers to HIV-1 Cure” provides a succinct account of the difficultly many HIV-1 cure strategies face and offers new insight to help overcome these barriers. He also accepted our invitation to speak openly about his career path with the CVVR Young Investigators Committee and convey practical and honest advice about achieving a successful career in academia.