Ricky Rosselló

Ricky Rosselló
Governor of Puerto Rico Elect
Taking office January 2, 2017
Succeeding	Alejandro García Padilla
Personal details
Born	Ricardo Antonio Rosselló Nevares (1979-03-07) March 7, 1979 San Juan, Puerto Rico, U.S.
Political party	New Progressive
Other political affiliations	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Beatriz Areizaga
Children	1
Mother	Maga Nevares
Father	Pedro Rosselló
Education	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS) University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (MS, PhD)

Ricardo Antonio "Ricky" Rosselló Nevares^{[lower-alpha 1]} (born March 7, 1979) is a college professor and politician and the governor-elect of Puerto Rico. He is also the President of the New Progressive Party which advocates for Puerto Rico to become a state of the United States.

Rosselló came to public life after his father, Pedro Rosselló, became governor of Puerto Rico in 2005. At the time, Ricardo was mostly known for his academic and athletic accomplishments, having represented Puerto Rico internationally in the International Mathematical Olympiads and by becoming a three-time junior tennis champion on the island.

Initially, Rosselló dedicated himself first to the sciences. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering and economics and, later on, graduated from the University of Michigan with a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering.^[1][2] After obtaining his doctoral degree, Rosselló worked as a researcher at Duke University, focusing his work on stem cell research. He then published and presented his research on several venues while obtaining several awards in the process.

But after a few years in academia, Rosselló made his incursion into politics. In 2010, he founded the political advocacy group Boricua ¡Ahora Es! that advocated for changing the current political status of Puerto Rico. After several years of political advocacy, on September 20, 2015 Rosselló announced that he would seek the nomination for governor of Puerto Rico under the New Progressive Party (PNP in Spanish).^[3] A few months later he defeated Pedro Pierluisi on that party's primaries and was then elected governor during the 2016 general election, defeating main rival David Bernier from the Popular Democratic Party (PPD).

Early life and education

Rosselló was born 1979 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the son of Pedro Rosselló, a doctor, and Maga Nevares and is the youngest of three brothers including Juan Oscar (b. 1971) and Luis Roberto (b. 1973). He attended Colegio Marista de Guaynabo. Rosselló's paternal great-grandfather Pedro Juan Rosselló Batle immigrated in 1902 at the age of 23 from Lloseta, Mallorca, in the Balearic Islands, Spain; his brother Juan had also arrived a year earlier.^[4][5][6] During his high school years he was an athlete and a three-time junior tennis champion in Puerto Rico. He was selected to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiads.

He earned a bachelor's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in biomedical engineering and economics, and a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan. As a college student he served as president of the Association of Puerto Rican Students at MIT and was the winner of the Dean’s Office award for outstanding leadership and community service. Additionally, he was the recipient of the office of minority “academic excellence” award and was the youngest deputy leader in the International Mathematical Olympiads in 2000.

As a researcher in college, Rosselló focused on adult stem cell research.^[7]

After graduation, Rosselló worked as a researcher at Duke University. His work in the stem cell research area has been subject of several awards, such as the Biomaterials Conference STAR Award and has been recognized as a Scholar by the International Society of Neurobiology. His works have been published in several academic journals, including the Communicative & Integrative Biology Journal and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.^[7] He is a co-founder of Beijing Prosperous Biopharm, a medical company established in Beijing, China, that has developed various designer drugs aimed at cancer, prostate cancer, neurodegeneration problems, diabetes and HIV.^[8] He has presented his research in various international conferences, including the Society for Biomedical Engineering, Orthopedic Research Society, and the Society for Biomaterials, where he was awarded two STAR research awards for outstanding research. His findings suggest a potential strategy to improve cell-cell communication in 3D, implying that both targeted delivery and cell-based strategies can be used as treatments to enhance communication in 3D living tissue, which can have a significant impact in tissue engineering and cancer therapy.

Political career

Rosselló became involved in politics during the 2008 Puerto Rico gubernatorial election, when his father Pedro Rosselló lost a party primary against the eventual Governor Luis Fortuño. As a Democrat, Rosselló was a Hillary Clinton delegate to the 2008 nominating convention and an Obama delegate to the 2012 convention. In 2008, he had a key role in Clinton's get-out-the-vote efforts for the June 1 Puerto Rico presidential primary, appearing in her final TV ad with several democratic and Puerto Rican political leaders.^[9]

Following this event, Rosselló became a political commentator, writing columns for El Vocero, a daily newspaper published in San Juan, covering politics, science, healthcare and economics topics. Additionally, Rosselló appeared as a regular guest analyst in several political radio talk shows.

Ricardo also published a book that depicted the accomplishments of his father’s administration (1993–2000). All copies of the limited edition print were exhausted in one day. To diffuse the message, he allowed the material to be public domain, and published it on the La Obra de Rosselló website for everyone to read.^[10]

Boricua ¡Ahora Es!

In 2012, Rosselló founded Boricua ¡Ahora Es!, a political advocacy group that advocates changing Puerto Rico's current political status. The movement featured a grass-roots educational campaign,^[11] suggesting that involvement of the international community may be necessary for the United States government to take action.^[12] Boricua ¡Ahora Es! actively campaigned during the 2012 Puerto Rico status referendum.

Gubernatorial campaign and Plan for Puerto Rico

Since 2012, Rosselló was mentioned as a potential gubernatorial candidate for the 2016 election cycle.^{[13][14][15][16][17]} During 2013, Rosselló began organizing a group of collaborators to build what he called Plan para Puerto Rico (Plan for Puerto Rico). This plan would serve as a blueprint to deal with the economic and political problems and Puerto Rico and by being built years before a candidacy, it would represent a more complete and realistic political agenda.

During 2014, Rosselló utilized his political platform to perform several protest events against the policies of incumbent Governor of Puerto Rico Alejandro Garcia Padilla. Some of these events included a march against a proposed Value Added Tax.

On September 19, 2015, he confirmed his intention to run for Governor of Puerto Rico in the 2016 election,^[18] and held a campaign rally the next day at Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan that surpassed the previous attendance record held by Ricky Martin. At the rally, he endorsed Jenniffer González, a Republican, for Resident Commissioner.^[19]

On June 5, 2016, Rosselló won the New Progressive Party primary against incumbent Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi, thus becoming the party's candidate for governor and heading to the general election against PPD candidate David Bernier.^[20] Rosselló made Puerto Rican statehood the central issue of his campaign, and he views statehood as the key to economic recovery.^[21]

On November 8, 2016, Rosselló defeated five other gubernatorial candidates and was elected Governor of Puerto Rico, receiving 41% of he vote. He will be sworn in on January 2, 2017.

Personal life

Rosselló married Beatriz Isabel in 2012. They have a daughter together, Claudia, born on August 21, 2014.^[22] He has two brothers. He has gone to South America to work alongside other stem cell doctors in developing better stem cell treatment.^[23]

Publications

Research

Rosselló, RA; Chen, C-C; Dai, R; Howard, JT; Hochgeschwender, U; Jarvis, ED (2013). "Mammalian genes induce partially reprogrammed pluripotent stem cells in non-mammalian vertebrate and invertebrate species". ELife. 2: e00036. doi:10.7554/eLife.00036. PMC 3762186. PMID 24015354. 

Rosselló, RA; Kohn, DH (2010). "Cell communication and tissue engineering". Communicative & integrative biology. 3 (1): 53–6. doi:10.4161/cib.3.1.9863. PMC 2881242. PMID 20539784. 

Rosselló, RA; Wang, Z; Kizana, E; Krebsbach, PH; Kohn, DH (2009). "Connexin 43 as a signaling platform for increasing the volume and spatial distribution of regenerated tissue". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106 (32): 13219–13224. doi:10.1073/pnas.0902622106. PMC 2726403. PMID 19628695. 

Rosselló, RA; Kohn, DH (2009). "Gap junction intercellular communication: A review of a potential platform to modulate craniofacial tissue engineering". Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials. 88B (2): 509–518. doi:10.1002/jbm.b.31127. PMC 2744807. PMID 18481782. 

Hansma, P; Turner, P; Drake, B; Yurtsev, E; Proctor, A; Mathews, P; Lelujian, J; Randall, C; Adams, J; Jungmann, R; Garza-De-Leon, F; Fantner, G; Mkrtchyan, H; Pontin, M; Weaver, A; Brown, MB; Sahar, N; Rosselló, R; Kohn, DH (2008). "The bone diagnostic instrument II: Indentation distance increase". Review of Scientific Instruments. 79 (6): 064303. doi:10.1063/1.2937199. PMC 2678790. PMID 18601422. 

Books

Ricky Rosselló (October 2004). La Obra de Rosselló. Compilation of the administrative achievements of the Rosselló administration. 

Ricky Rosselló (2012). Un Mejor Puerto Rico Es Posible. Editoria Universidad de Puerto Rico. ISBN 978-0-8477-0481-1. Analysis about the colonial status of Puerto Rico.  ^[24]

Notes

References