Carlos Castillo-Chavez is a Regents and a Joaquin Bustoz Jr. Professor at Arizona State University. Carlos Castillo-Chavez' research program is carried out at the interface of the mathematical and natural and social sciences and puts emphasis on (i) the role of dynamic social landscapes on disease dispersal; (ii) the role of behavior on disease evolution, (iii) the role of behavior, environmental and social structures on the dynamics of addiction, (iv) the identification of mechanisms that facilitate the spread of diseases across multiple levels of organization.

On July 1st, 2008, Carlos Castillo-Chavez became the founding director of the Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center as well as the founding director of the graduate field in applied mathematics in the life and social sciences or AMLSS at ASU and the founder and director of the undergraduate bachelor of sciences degree in applied mathematics in the life and social sciences. Castillo-Chavez is also the Executive Director of two institutes: the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute or MTBI which focuses on providing research opportunities at the interface of the biological, computational and mathematical sciences from the undergraduate to the graduate and postdoctoral levels and The Institute for Strengthening the Understanding of Mathematics and Science or SUMS which focuses on providing college opportunities to high school students. These institutes provide university experiences for students of economically disadvantaged groups with the goal of increasing the number of US underrepresented minorities that earn a Ph.D. and take positions of leadership in the mathematical sciences or in fields that require high levels of quantitative expertise. Carlos Castillo-Chavez’ undergraduate/graduate summer program was established in 1996. This program has been held at Cornell University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Arizona State University (ASU). The American Mathematical Society recognized MTBI’s program as a “Mathematics Program that Makes a Difference” in 2007. SUMS’ efforts were also recognized with a Presidential Mentorship Award in 2002.

Castillo-Chavez’ efforts resulted in the establishment of the David Blackwell and Richard Tapia Distinguished Lecture Series in 2000. The David Blackwell and Richard Tapia Award—an event that currently rotates among all NSF-funded Mathematical Sciences Institutes—was established two years later under the leadership of Castillo-Chavez and David Eisenbud. Carlos Castillo-Chavez spent 18 years at Cornell University (1985-2003) where he held joint professorships in the departments of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology (BSCB) and Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (TAM). Castillo-Chavez has received numerous awards including two White House Awards: a Presidential Faculty Fellowship Award in 1992 and a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 1997; the 2002 Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Distinguished Scientist Award and the 2003 Richard Tapia Award. In 2003, he held the position Stanislaw M. Ulam Distinguished Scholar at the Center for Nonlinear Studies or CNLS at Los Alamos National Laboratory. In 2004, he was named honorary professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University in China. He has been elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and is the recipient of the 2007 AAAS Mentor Award. Carlos Castillo-Chavez was a member of the Arizona Governor’s P-20 Council’s Mathematics Alignment Team in 2008-09. Castillo-Chavez is currently a member of three scientific mathematical sciences advisory boards two in the US and one in Canada, they are: The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis or NIMBioS; Statistical and Applied Mathematics Sciences Institute or SAMSI, and Banff International Research Station (BIRS). Castillo-Chavez is a member of National Research Council’s Board of Higher Education and Workforce or BHEW (2009-2011); is the 12th recipient of the American Mathematical Society Distinguished Public Service Award; and has been elected Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.