José Alejandro Luchsinger received his MD degree from the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas. He completed an internal medicine residency program including one year as chief medical resident at St. Luke's Hospital in New York City. He also completed a General Medicine Fellowship at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) and obtained an MPH in epidemiology from the Mailman School of Public Health at CUIMC. He has been a faculty member since 1999. His research has focused on the relation of vascular, metabolic, and dietary on aging outcomes, primarily cognition, in diverse populations. He conducts cohort studies and clinical trials. He is the director of the Center on Aging and Health Disparities (CAHD) in the Division of General Medicine. The CAHD is the home for the Northern Manhattan Center of Excellence in Minority Health and Health Disparities at Columbia University, funded by NIMHD, and various research projects in aging, minority health, and health disparities.