Jose A. Castro-Rodriguez, MD, PhD, ATSF, was born in Peru and graduated in Medicine from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru (1982-1987), where he also completed his residency in Pediatrics (1988-1991). He was trained as a Fellow in Pediatric Respiratory Diseases (graduated summa cum laude) at the Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile (1994-1996). Later, he took a position as a visiting research scientist and Fellow in Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Arizona, Tucson, US (1997-2000).
One of his significant contributions was the creation of the Asthma Predictive Index (PMID: 11029352) with more than 1,850 citations and incorporated into several asthma guidelines. He was designed as an “ATS Fellow” (2020) and “Master of Latin American Pediatric Pulmonology” by the Latin American Pediatric Pulmonology Society (2018). He was awarded the “Worldwide Scientific Prize” from the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (2002), the “Pediatric Year in Review Paper” at ATS (2001) with more than 1,370 citations (PMID: 10954761), and the “Peruvian Scientific Prize” from CONCYTEC (1993).
Currently, he is a Full Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of Research at the Department of Pediatric Pulmonology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (Santiago, Chile). His main areas of interest are acute bronchiolitis, recurrent wheezing, respiratory infection diseases, and asthma in children (phenotypes, treatment, epigenetic, and fetal programming). He is frequently invited to give keynote presentations in more than 30 countries at international meetings.