Doctor of Medicine from the University of Zulia, in Maracaibo (Venezuela), PhD from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston (USA). Adjunct professor at the Human Virology Institute, School of Medicine, University of Maryland in Baltimore (USA). Consultant for the Global Health Committee at the International University of Florida in Miami (USA); a Robert Koch Fellow from the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin (Germany). He worked for the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research in Caracas (Venezuela), the World Health Organization in Geneva (Switzerland), and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle (USA). He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine of Venezuela and of the Latin-American Academy of Sciences.