Dr. Faúndes is an obstetrician and gynecologist graduated in 1955, at the Universidad de Chile. He was Full Professor of Obstetrics, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Chile, since 1971, and Coordinator of the Women’s Health Program of the National Health Service of Chile, 1970-1971.

He left Chile after de 1973 military coup and became consultant of the Maternal Health and Family Planning Program in Dominican Republic, from 1974 to 1976. Then, Senior Associate and Representative of the Population Council in Brazil, from 1976 to 1995. He was Director of the University General Hospital at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) from 1983 to 1984, and of the Women’s Hospital, UNICAMP, from 1991 to 1995.

Full Professor of Obstetrics, Faculty of Medical Science at UNICAMP, from 1987 to 2001 and President of the Center for Research on Women’s Reproductive Health (CEMICAMP), from 1989 to 2002. Internationally, he was Chair of the WHO Committee of Resources for Research, President of the International Association Maternal and Neonatal health (IAMANEH), and of the Latin American Association of Researchers in Reproductive Health (ALIRH).

At the International Federation of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (FIGO), he has been member of several committees along the last 30 years, Chair of the Committee on Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Rights 2005-2007, and since 2008 he is the Chair of the Working Group on Prevention of Unsafe Abortion. He has published over 440 scientific articles and a similar number of abstracts and book chapters. He has published several books, the best known, written with José Barzelatto, is “The Human Drama of Abortion”, which is printed in Portuguese, Spanish and English.