Michael Ming-Chiao Lai (Chinese: 賴明詔; pinyin: Lài Míngzhào; born 8 September 1942) is a Taiwanese virologist. A native of Tainan born on 8 September 1942, Lai graduated from National Tainan First Senior High School and studied medicine at National Taiwan University. After completing his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley in 1973, Lai joined the University of Southern California faculty, where he remained until 2003. While teaching at USC, Lai was elected a member of Academia Sinica in 1992 and a fellow of the American College of Microbiology in 2002. From 1990, Lai was a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator. Upon his return to Taiwan in 2003, Lai was named a distinguished fellow of Academia Sinica. He became a fellow of The World Academy of Sciences in 2006. In 2009, Lai re