Confidences de Salon: Carlos Robalo Cordeiro

Carlos Robalo Cordeiro is the ERS Secretary General. He is the Head of the Pulmonology Department at Coimbra University Hospital and Full Professor of Pulmonology at Coimbra Medical School (Coimbra, Portugal). He was President of the Portuguese Society of Pulmonology (2010–2015) and a member of the WASOG Executive Committee (2011–2016). His main field of interest is interstitial lung diseases.

Did you always dream of being involved in medical research/healthcare?

This ambition came naturally from the environment in which I grew up.

What is the best advice you had when you were starting your professional career?

Nothing happens without work.

What advice would you give someone at the beginning of their professional career?

Never give up on a good idea.

What has been the greatest change to make a difference in your field in your lifetime?

The advances in the field of medical imaging, which are always progressing.

What do you foresee being the biggest challenge in your field in the next 10 years?

The ageing of the population together with socioeconomic inequalities will be a global challenge for the future of respiratory disease. It will be important to adapt all our resources to these needs.

What is your favourite scientific breakthrough from any field?

The discovery of DNA, it was a truly disruptive moment.

How do you see the future of the ERS?

The same way I see the future of pulmonology: increasingly professional, more personalised and more global.

When are or were you happiest?

With a family weekend, as simple as it is fundamental.

What do you dislike most?

The defects that I would not want to have: distrust and envy.

Who has been your greatest inspiration?

The patients.

Whom would you most like to thank?

Professionally, my father; personally, my wife.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Maintaining a sense of humour that has allowed me some success.

Who are your favourite authors?

Fernando Pessoa is the irreplaceable writer/poet/prose/essayist/philosopher. But American literature from the beginning of the last century or more recently the work of Paul Auster, as well as the harnesses designed by Haruki Murakama fill my imagination.

Who are your heroes in real life?

Pope Francis is a good candidate, as are Che Guevara and John Lennon. All visionaries, irreverent and revolutionary.

Where would you most like to live?

In a country where elegant Nordic efficiency, Italian patrimony beauty and the best of Portuguese gastronomy coexist. Europe is probably the best place in the world to live.

What is or was your greatest journey?

Italy, any destination, is always unique and different. India, for a diversity as intense as it is magical.

What qualities do you appreciate most in your friends?

Honesty and the ability to fulfil it at all times throughout life.

What qualities do you appreciate most in your colleagues?

Honesty and the ability to fulfil it at all times throughout life.

What is your personal motto?

To continue to face with a smile all that's happening at my turn.

What do you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses?

Strength: to be alive; weakness: not to own the time.