Francisco Kerdel-Vegas

Dermatologist, academic, ambassador. Son of Oswaldo Kerdel and Sofia Vegas, born in Caracas. He graduated in Medical Surgery from the Central University of Venezuela in 1951 and was dermatology resident at the Massachusetts General hospital (Harvard Medical School) 1951 - 1952, and at the Skin & Cancer Unit at New York University, 1952 - 1954, Master of Science from New York University, 1954. He then returned to Caracas where he began his general medical practice and his work in the Faculty of Medicine at The Central University of Venezuela. He was a member of Trinity College, Cambridge University, UK from 1966-1967. He became the founding Academic Vice Chancellor of Simón Bolívar University in 1968. He was loaned to diplomacy between 1987 and 1999: Venezuelan Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1987 -1992), to UNESCO in Paris (1994 - 1999), and Venezuelan Ambassador to France (1995 - 1999). He has published over one hundred works and various books and is affiliated to universities and medical organisations the world over; Visiting Professor of Dermatology at Columbia University in New York, at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and at the University of London, Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the College of Physicians in Philadelphia. He is Honorary Member of National Academies of Medicine all over the world. His work has been recognised internationally with a number of awards.