David Ho has been actively engaged in AIDS research for 24 years, and has published over 350 papers on the subject. He received his degrees from the California Institute of Technology (1974) and Harvard Medical School (1978). Subsequently, he did his clinical training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center/UCLA School of Medicine (1978-1982) and Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School (1982-1985), respectively.

Ho has received numerous honors and awards for his scientific accomplishments. He was named Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1996, and was the recipient of a Presidential Medal in 2001. He has been elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Academia Sinica (Republic of China), Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Science in the United States.

Ho served on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, and he currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology, and Board of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Corporation.