Fabiola Leon-Velarde Servetto is a Peruvian physiologist who has devoted her research to the biology and physiology of high altitude adaptation.

She obtained a BSc. in Biology (1979), an MSc (1981) and DSc (1986) in physiology at Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, Perú. She is currently President (Rector) of Cayetano Heredia University (UPCH). She was  Vice-President for Research of UPCH and Chairwoman of the Department of Biological and Physiological Sciences at the same university. She has been Vice-President of the International Society for Mountain Medicine and has undertaken collaborative research with the human respiratory section of the Laboratory of Physiology at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, where she has been invited to be Fellow of Queen’s College.

She has been a consultant in diverse national and international institutions, including the International Center of Research for Development of Canada, on the health problems in the Andean Region and of the International Labour Organization. In the last years she has participated as a Consultant in the Antamina Mining Project and at the Andean Organism of Health. She is Review Committee member of the National Council of Science and Technology [CONCYTEC], the National Agency for Scientific and Technological Promotion (SECYT-FONCYT) and the International Foundation for Science (IFS).

Dr. Leon-Velarde has a vast scientific production and has been published in more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in international scientific journals. She is also author of chapters in several books about altitude sickness and related topics particularly in the Andes. She is a member of important scientific societies such as The American Physiological Society and the Academy of Sciences of Latin America.