Dr. Jose Esparza

The Global Challenge of Confronting Emerging Epidemics: From AIDS to Zika, and Beyond

José Esparza is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine. He is also the current President of the Global Virus Network (2016). From 2004 to 2014 he was Senior Advisor on HIV Vaccines and Vaccines at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, WA. From 1986 to 2004 he was with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) in Geneva, Switzerland, were he coordinated an international effort to develop HIV vaccines. From 1974 to 1985 he worked at the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC), becoming Professor of Virology and Chairman of Microbiology and Cell Biology. Esparza received his MD degree in Venezuela in 1968 and a PhD in Virology and Cell Biology from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, in 1974. He has published over 185 scientific articles in medical virology, vaccinology and HIV/AIDS. He is a member of the Venezuelan Academy of Medicine and serves in several international scientific advisory boards. He is also a vaccine consultant for several companies.