Head of the CLIMA (Climate & Health Program, ISGlobal, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4843-6180). Founding director of the IC3 climate institute and former head of the LRC-PCB. UVIC Prof. 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 >50 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 ER of AR6 (IPCC2007, 2021). SCM of the DIG of the World Climate Research Program and of the ISIMIP Health Impact Models for IPCC AR6. EBM: PLoS NTD, PLoS Clim and of the OPCC-Pyrenees. TT of the WMO climate & COVID-19. EG Health & Climate for UfM and EU Parliament.
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 such as COVID-19 and flu). An emerging area of my research entails understanding the interaction between climate, air pollution and the aerial microbiome for their effects on human health, with metagenomics, nanotechnology and laser fluorimetry.
Selected publications
- Lopez L, Paul RE, Cao-Lormeau VM & Rodó X 2022, 'Considering waning immunity to better explain dengue dynamics', Epidemics, 41, 100630.
- Lévy L, Robine J, Rey G, Méndez R, Quijal-Zamorano M, Achebak H, Ballester J, Rodó X & Herrmann F 2022. 'Daylight saving time affects European mortality patterns'. Nat. Comms. 13:6906.
- Rodó X 2022, Pandemic preparedness: Forecasting disease: Outlook. Nature | Vol 610 | 27 October 2022 | S13. Q&A.
- Priscitelli P, Miani A, Setti L, De Gennaro G, Rodó X,... et al, 2022, 'The role of outdoor and indoor air quality in the spread of SARS-CoV-2: Overview and recommendations by the research group on COVID-19 and particulate matter (RESCOP commission)', Env. Res., 211, 113038.
Selected research activities
- One-Year Anniversary Nature Computational Science Collection of the Journal highlights our Nature Computational Science (Fontal et al., 2021). Our proposed journal cover as one of the three best in the Covers runners-up of 2021.
- Winner of a Data for Science and Health Discretionary Award 'Dynamic Infectious Disease Risk Platform for Decision Makers'.
- Committe Member of the WMO-WHO Task Team on MAQ and COVID-19.
- Panel Member of the XIEC intelligence network, MSCA EU Seal of Excellence.
- Over 15 Keynote speaker and invited seminars.
- Reviewer for the following journals: Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, ACS Anal. Chem., Proc. Roy. Soc. B, Roy. Soc. Open Science, BMC Public Health, STOTEN, Env. Int., PLoS NTD, Frontiers PH, Frontiers Ped., Epidem. Inf., Trends Parasitol., PLoS Clim.