Rodó i López, Xavier
ICREA Research Professor at Institut de Salut Global Barcelona (ISGlobal).
Experimental Sciences & Mathematics
Short biography
Head of the CLIMA (Climate & Health Program at ISGlobal, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4843-6180). Founding director of the IC3 climate institute and former head of the LRC-PCB. MSc in engineering, completed his PhD in 1997 (UB) on the simulation of extreme ecosystems under climate forcing. Visiting fellow at Princeton and UCSD, and COLA-IGES associated scientist. Background in numerical ecology, climate dynamics and climate impact modeling. Taught ecology, advanced statistics, climate dynamics and sustainability and led/participated in 46 research projects. Over 20 postdoct fellows. Co-chair of CLIVAR-Spain (-2007), SSC of the MEDCLIVAR-ESF, CA and ER of the AR4-WGII and AR6 (IPCC2007, 2021). SCM of the Drought Integration Group (DIG) of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP) and of the ISIMIP Health Impact Models for IPCC AR6. Board Member, Nature Sci. Reports `Earth & Environmental Sciences' and of the OPCC to monitor climate change in the Pyrenees.
Research interests
The interplay between climate and health, where I attempt to uncover how climate impacts a wide range of diseases. I also work on climate dynamics, particularly the origin and predictability of El Niño and towards improving translational climate services for health, in particular for extremes. I am interested in the development of new statistical techniques and on improving computational models with different levels of complexity. The former to disentangle the interplay between intrinsic (e.g. immunity, demography, malnutrition) and extrinsic factors (e.g. climate, environment). For instance, the modeling of climate-driven infectious diseases (from waterborne, to foodborne, vectorborne and airborne diseases), both in endemic regions and in epidemic conditions (e.g. fringe areas of deserts and highlands in Africa and Asia). An emerging area of my research entails understanding the interaction between climate, pollution and the aerial microbiome for their effects on human health.