Peter Paul Rosso

Pedro Pablo Rosso Rosso (Spotorno, Italy, August 27, 1941) is a Chilean pediatrician and academic. He was rector of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile between 2000 and 2010 and a tenured professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the same university. In 2012 he was named Professor Emeritus.

Since 2009 he has been president of the Organization of Catholic Universities of Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2012 he was appointed by the President of the Republic of Chile, with the approval of the Education Commission of the Senate, member of the National Council of Education.

In 2017 he received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the Catholic University.

Biography

His parents are cousins José Pedro Rosso M. and Laura Rosso B., Chileans of Italian origin, who married in Valparaíso in 1929 and settled in Spotorno in 1934, where the family had its origins. His father, a well-to-do intellectual, was mayor of Spotorno for two years. Pedro Pablo was born on August 27, 1941 in that Italian city.

In 1945 the family returned to Chile, beginning their basic studies at the Scuola Italiana in Valparaíso and pursuing humanities at the Scuola Italiana in Santiago.

In 1959 he entered the undergraduate program of the Faculty of Medicine of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, where he obtained the title of surgeon in 1966. He specialized in pediatrics between 1966 and 1969 at the Roberto del Río Hospital in the chair of the doctor Julio Meneghello.

In 1966, he married Mary Rose Streeter Prieto and they have three children: María Pía, Juan Pablo and José Luis. Linked to the Schoenstatt Apostolic Movement, he belongs to the XVI Course of the Family Federation.

Academic activity

Between 1970 and 1972, he completed a fellowship in the area of growth, child development, and nutrition in the Department of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University, in New York. In 1972, he began working as an assistant professor and researcher at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in the same city.In 1975 he was appointed director of the Master's Program at the Institute of Human Nutrition; in 1978, he was appointed Associate Professor of Pediatrics; in 1980 he was appointed Director of the Doctoral Program; and in 1982 he took over as director of the Growth and Development Division, always at the same institute. During this period, Dr. Rosso did much of his scientific work, which includes more than one hundred publications, book chapters, and the monograph Nutrition and Metabolism in Pregnancy (Harvard University Press).

He returned to Chile in 1984. He joined the Catholic University School of Medicine, reorganizing scientific research in medicine from his position as executive secretary of the Scientific Research Commission. In 1990, the Medical Research Center of the same university was created, a project promoted by Rosso and of which he began to serve as director.

He was also a visiting professor at the University of Puerto Rico and at the University of San Marcos in Lima.

Deanery

At the end of 1991, he became dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the Catholic University, a position in which he was re-elected in 1995. The search committee of that faculty proposed him for a third term, and he had to decline his candidacy for having been appointed rector of the university in March 2000.

During his term as dean, he promoted various projects, among which are the reform of the undergraduate curriculum of the Medicine career, the expansion and diversification of specialist training programs, the construction of a teaching headquarters in the area southeast of Santiago, the creation of the Divisions of Medicine and Surgery and the Bioethics Center, the start-up of the Cancer program, later the Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza Cancer Center, and the Infectious Diseases, Geriatrics, Family Medicine, Intensive Medicine and Humanistic Medical Studies. Another significant project was the creation of the Doctoral Program in Medical Sciences.

Rectorate

Rosso as rector of the PUC in 2008.

Dr. Rosso's first term as rector began on March 11, 2000. His development plan for the university was based on the Apostolic Constitution of Catholic Universities "Ex Cordae Eclesia" and was reflected in the Development Plan 2000-2005.

According to this, it was specified in 4 axes:

• Structure of a new educational project that contemplates the development of general training in all careers and establishes standards of teaching and use of Spanish and English.
• Increased research in the theological, humanistic and scientific area and host and promote high-level artistic creation.
• Establishing an active dialogue with society, improving its links with social, political and intellectual bodies in the country.
• Efficient management to meet educational objectives and create new development projects.

Regarding these foci, many works arose such as the Center for Public Policies, the Puente UC program, the Penta UC center, the National Bicentennial Survey, the MIDE UC center, Elementary for social housing, the family health network Áncora, and the UC Empresa programs.

Regarding Channel 13, the television channel of the University, it sought to improve the quality of programming and achieve greater consistency between this means of communication and the university mission. At the same time, an internal reorganization process began, which resulted in the first favorable economic results after several years of losses.

At the end of 2004, the Holy See, through the Congregation for Catholic Education, appointed Dr. Rosso for a new five-year term at the proposal of the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Santiago de Chile and Grand Chancellor of the university, Archbishop Francisco Javier Card. Errázuriz Ossa, beginning his new term in March 2005.

In his second term, the admission system through general degrees (called College UC) was inaugurated.

Researcher

Rosso has conducted research in the areas of fetal growth retardation, mother-infant exchange, and maternal nutrition. His main contribution in this field was the demonstration that the process of fetal retardation, associated with maternal malnutrition, is due to less utero-placental flow, a finding that revealed the fallacy of the concept that the fetus is an effective "parasite". maternal". The application of the «Model curve for weight gain in pregnant women», developed by doctors Rosso and Mardones, which allows evaluating the normality of weight gain in pregnant women, has been applied in Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Uruguay.

Rosso has made 124 publications in journals and books with international circulation, highlighting his monograph Nutrition and Metabolism in Pregnancy published by the University of Oxford in 1990. He is an ad hoc reviewer. i> from numerous journals: Journal of Nutrition, Journal of Pediatrics, Life Sciences, Pediatric Research, Pediatrics, Science and others. He was a member of the editorial board of the Nutrition Research journal.

He has written and lectured on topics related to Medical Education, Bioethics and History of Medicine.

Participated in the "Expert Panel for Quality Education" during the first government of Sebastián Piñera.

In May 2017, he received the academic degree of Doctor Scientiae et Honoris Causa for his contribution, nationally and internationally, to pediatric nutrition and Higher Education.

Awards and distinctions

• Agnes Higgins Award, awarded by the March of Dimes/Birth Defect Foundation of the United States.
• Distinction of the American College of Nutrition.
• McCollum Award from the American Institute of Nutrition.
• Special Prize Ligures of the World (Speciale Liguri nel Mondo Award 2003), granted by the Presidency of the Region of Liguria, Italy, in 2003.
• Order to the Merit of the Italian Republic, rank of Knight.
• Doctor Scientiae et Honoris Causa, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Memberships

• Academic number of the Chilean Academy of Medicine since June 23, 1999. Address of Incorporation: “The medical thinking of the nineteenth century: The obstacles to the incorporation of the scientific method”. Address by Dr. Benedicto Chuaqui.
• It belongs to a dozen scientific societies of its discipline in the United States, Europe and Latin America.
• President of the Association of Faculty of Medicine of Chile (1996-2000).
• Vice-President of the International Federation of Schools of Medicine of Catholic Universities (1994-1996).