Franz Castro

Franz Castro is a Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center, focusing on quantitative methods to address health disparities among people with disabilities, particularly intersecting with race/ethnicity and socioeconomic factors. He holds an MD from the University of Panama, an MSc from Johns Hopkins, and an MPH in Quantitative Methods from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

His research spans health equity, social determinants of health, and global burden of disease studies, with recent work analyzing disability disparities in STEM, vaccination rates, and child mortality. Key publications examine geographic inequalities in sanitation, education, and disease prevalence across low- and middle-income countries.

Scientific Awards:

• 2020 Presidential Scholar (Harvard University)
• 2018 New Voices in Global Health Winner (World Health Summit)
• 2017 WHO Alliance for Health Policy Essay Competition Runner-up
• 2016 French Young Ambassador for Human Rights

Dr. Castro's work bridges public health, epidemiology, and policy analysis, with affiliations to major research networks like the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study and Local Burden of Disease (LBD) Collaborators.