Dr. Eduardo Ortega-Barría

National Secretary of The National Secretariat of Science, Technology and Innovation

He was born in Chorrera City , Panama. He finished his medical studies at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara, Mexico. Subsequently he did his specialty in Pediatrics at the National Institute of Pediatrics in Mexico City and later the sub-specialty in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Mexico “Federico Gomez”, in Mexico City.

Between 1987 and 1993 he did postdoctoral training in Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, focusing on research in Cellular and Molecular Biology of parasites, among them: Trypanosoma cruzi, Giardia lamblia and Pneumocystis carinii at Tufts University School of Medicine / New England Medical Center, Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases, and served as Instructor in Medicine between 1988 and 1993 at the Department of Medicine, New England Medical Center, Boston Massachusetts.

In 1990, he received the “Maxwell Finland” Young Researcher of the Year Award from the Massachusetts Infectious Diseases Society.

Between 1993 and 1998, he completed postdoctoral training in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Stanford University, and a postdoctoral fellowship in Cellular and Molecular Biology of Toxoplasma gondii in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine.

From 1998 to 2003 he held various leadership positions at the Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies, Panama, at Florida State University-Panama, at the Institute for Advanced Scientific Research and High Technology Services (INDICASAT as in Spanish), of the National Secretariat of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Panama, and at the Pediatrics Hospital of The Social Security Entity, Panama. From 2000-2007 he was an Associate Scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. From 2001 to 2013 he was Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Tropical Medicine, George Washington University, Washington, DC. Dr. Ortega-Barría has authored 98 research articles, 30 textbook chapters on parasitology, pediatrics, infectious diseases and vaccines, and is co-inventor of 2 patents and 2 provisional patent applications in parasitology in the United States.

He served from 2006 to 2020 as Vice President and Director of Medical Affairs and Research and Clinical Development for Latin America and the Caribbean of GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines. Since 2018 he has been a Researcher of the National Research System of Panama. He currently serves as National Secretary of the National Secretariat of Science, Technology, and Innovation.