Jesus A. Araujo, MD, MSc, PhD

Jesus Araujo, MD, MSc, PhD, is an assistant professor of Medicine and the director of Environmental Cardiology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research focuses on the effects of genetic factors and particulate air pollution on high-density lipoproteins and atherosclerosis.

He has recently been selected by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) as one of six early-stage, tenure-track investigators as 2009 Outstanding New Environmental Scientist (ONES) awardees. This highly competitive, five-year ONES grant award will total $2.6 million that will establish a program to further investigate the effect of environmental pollution on the heart.

After receiving his medical degree at Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, Araujo obtained a master's degree in immunology—and got his first taste for research and science, a critical element of academic cardiology.

In 1994, he came to the United States and completed an internship, residency and chief residency in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York. In 1998, he moved to California where he completed a fellowship in cardiology and a PhD in molecular biology at the University of California in Los Angeles.