Dr. Kourí has been devoted to research focussing on health problems that have an important impact in the countries of the Region, in particular those related to the microbiology and epidemiology of infectious diseases. He has had a career in medical education, teaching at universities both inside and outside of Cuba.

He is currently Vice President of the Cuban Academy of Sciences. Dr. Kouri has been honored on many occasions for his contributions to science and medicine. Among the most impressive is the highest honor granted to a Cuban citizen, the Hero of the Work of the Republic of Cuba. He has also been awarded the Carlos Finlay Medal, the highest honor granted to scientists in Cuba. He has been the Assistant Director of Research at the National Scientific Research Center (CNIC), the Associate Dean of Research, School of Medicine at the University of Havana, the Associate Dean of the University of Havana, and the National Director of Research and Graduate Education for the Ministry of Higher Education. In 1979, he was named and continues to serve as the Director of the Institute of Tropical Medicine Pedro Kourí of the Cuban Ministry of Public Health. Since 1990, he has also directed the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center for Training and Research on Medical Malacology, Biological Control of Vectors and Intermediary Hosts.

Dr. Kourí is a prolific writer and has been published in both Cuban and international scientific and medical journals. More than a third of his writings are related to Dengue and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever. He is member of the publishing boards of several Latin American journals. He has been elected member of several international scientific societies, among them, the Academy of Sciences of New York, the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the American Society for the Advancement of Science, the Czechoslovak Society of Parasitology, the Dominican Society of Infectious Diseases, Guatemalan Society of Parasitology.

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