I possess a distinguished career spanning over 25 years in the specialized field of antimicrobial resistance. My expertise and focus lie in the clinical and molecular aspects of antimicrobial resistance, with particular emphasis on Gram-positive organisms. My passion for infectious diseases arose from recognizing their significant impact on public health and their relevance across all areas of clinical medicine.

Cesar A. Arias, MD. MSc, PhD. is the Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases at Houston Methodist Hospital. He is Professor and John F. III and Ann H. Bookout Distinguished Chair and Co-Director Center for Infectious Diseases Research, Houston Methodist Research Institute and Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. Arias is a nationally and internationally recognized physician-scientist conducting NIH-funded basic, translational, and clinical research on mechanisms and molecular epidemiology of antibiotic resistance. His expertise also includes the clinical impact of resistance and the molecular epidemiology of antibiotic-resistant organisms, using state-of-the-art genomic analyses.  He was one of the first recipients of the NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award and has also been the recipient of the American Society of Clinical Microbiology Young Investigator Award and the Infectious Diseases Society Oswald Avery Award for early achievement, among others. Dr Arias was a standing member of the NIH/NIAID Microbiology and Infectious Diseases study section since 2012 and has served a reviewer for the European Union Joint Program Initiative for Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR). He has been active in professional societies including serving in the Program Planning Committee of IDWeek since 2014, serving as Vice-Chair (2018) and Chair (2019). He was elected Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America in 2015 and inducted to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2015 and American Academy of Microbiology in 2019.  He serves as Editor-In-Chief of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Dr Arias also serves as Chair of the Gulf Coast Consortium on Antimicrobial Resistance in Houston (a partnership between 7 institutions in the Texas Medical Center) and is part of World Health Organization Antibiotic Pipeline Panel and the NIH-funded Antimicrobial Resistance Leadership Group.  Dr Arias founded the Molecular Genetics and Antimicrobial Resistance Unit and International Center for Microbial Genomics at Universidad El Bosque, Bogota, Colombia