4 March, 2025
Academic leader, civil servant, activist, friend, and ERS President 1992-93
With sadness, but also with joy in celebrating lives well-lived, the joint farewell ceremony for Roberto Rodriguez-Roisin (1946) and his loving wife for 57 years, Merce (1944), was celebrated on Sunday 2 March in Barcelona.
Over the last five years, Merce had been treated for lung cancer, doing well for most of that time, whereas Roberto lost a short struggle with aggressive pancreatic cancer. Sharing a hospital room until the end, they passed away peacefully just two days apart on February 27 (Roberto) and March 1 (Merce). The ceremony honoured a lifelong partnership full of energy, vitality, activism and scientific achievement, and developing friendships all over the world.
Roberto Rodriguez-Roisin received his MD (1970) and PhD (1975) degrees, with honours, from the University of Barcelona. He trained in respiratory medicine at the Brompton Hospital, London (1973-74). On returning to the Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, Roberto was instrumental in modernising the institution at a time when research was not commonly a part of respiratory medicine and training, becoming the natural leader of a team of young pneumologists developing a research programme there.
From the outset he wished to build a modern pulmonary service with international influence, and without a doubt, he achieved it. He developed a comprehensive programme of respiratory medicine encompassing clinical care, pre- and post-graduate education, and especially, research and innovation. While we accept these elements as routine today, it was certainly not the case when Roberto was starting out, especially the incorporation of research into medical training and care. His programme was well in place by the end of the 1980s and has been recognised globally as one of excellence and innovation.
One of the foundations of Roberto’s Pneumology Unit was the programme of fostering training stays abroad for staff members, which continues to this day. Within such initiatives, Roberto served as a visiting scientist in the Physiology Division of the University of California, San Diego (1980-82) under the leadership of Professor John West. This experience was the cornerstone for the future scientific and academic growth of the team in Barcelona. The expertise in pulmonary gas exchange, acquired during this collaboration was the basis for a highly productive, long-lasting collaboration between the two teams across the Atlantic, under the sponsorship of different competitive grants.
Over three decades, the collaboration produced around 50 highly scored publications on clinical applications of pulmonary gas exchange and exercise with impact in several medical areas, supporting the training of dozens of medical and scientific professionals from different backgrounds. It also generated robust friendships and has been a source of highly rewarding experiences for all involved.
Roberto held many academic and institutional positions at the University of Barcelona during his professional life, including as leader of the Service of Pulmonary Medicine, as Chair of the Department of Medicine, and as Academic Director. Additionally, he received several distinguished scientific honours: “Josep Trueta” Special Award for Scientific Achievement, Catalan Academy of Medical Sciences (1992); “Severo Ochoa” Special Award for Biomedical Research, Fundación Ferrer (1994); Scientific and Technological Merit “Narcís Monturiol”, Generalitat of Catalonia (1998); Career Scientist Distinction, Generalitat of Catalonia (2001).
He made important contributions in other ways to respiratory medicine. In particular, his research and clinical work in the field of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) led to positions first as a member and then as chairman of the international GOLD Committee for many years, paving the way for the inclusion of COPD as one of the priority action targets within the WHO programme for non-communicable diseases (2001).
However, two aspects of Roberto’s personality deserve to be specifically highlighted – his energy and his leadership skills. These became apparent during the merging of the two European respiratory societies (SEPCR and SEP) resulting in formation of the European Respiratory Society (ERS). He was very deservingly elected ERS President for 1992-93. Similarly, he was a key player in development of the Latin American Thoracic Association, founded 35 years ago in Barcelona. He brought the same attributes of energetic and powerful leadership to developing the next generation of professional researchers, clinicians and leaders, many of whom have gone on to achieve wide recognition in their own right.
Beyond his professional achievements and academic honours, Roberto’s remarkable political activism as a young student landed him in jail during the turbulent social and political changes of the late 1960s Franco era in Spain. He saw something, and he did something. He stood up for his beliefs in ways that many of us will not ever have the courage to. He continued this commitment to truth and honesty in the 1970s while building his professional career, contributing in many ways to the quality of the public healthcare system that Spain still enjoys today.
Roberto and his wife Merce, also a physician, have given us a true life-lesson in commitment, activism, scientific and clinical excellence, and high ethical standards that deserve celebration despite the sadness of their loss. A lesson in life and responsibility on both personal and professional levels to be communicated to the broader respiratory community in these moments of great changes and uncertainties. Roberto unwaveringly served his family, his institution, the lung community and the world with distinction, and he will be very much missed.
Josep Roca, MD, PhD
Emeritus Researcher at IDIBAPS
ERS President 2001-02
Peter Wagner, MD
Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Bioengineering
University of California, San Diego
ATS President 2005-06