Dr. Curtis received his medical degree from the Georgetown University School of Medicine. After a clinical residency in internal medicine and a year as Chief Medical Resident at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, he spent two years as a Clinical Immunology Fellow at the National Institute on Aging, NIH. He then trained in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) at the University of California San Francisco, then joined the UCSF faculty at the San Francisco VA. Dr. Curtis was previously Chief, PCCM Section at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System (VAAAHS, 1990-2014) where he was scientific director of a Research Enhancement Award Program center in tobacco-induced lung diseases (1999-2012). He has held leadership roles in multiple COPD clinical trials, including the ongoing SPIROMICS, SOURCE, and COPDGene® studies. He is an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine and past-Chair of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Scientific Assembly on Allergy, Immunology & Inflammation, from which he received a lifetime scientific achievement award in 2019. He received the Roger B. Grekin award from VAAAHS (2017); the John B. Barnwell award (named for the University of Michigan’s first Pulmonary Division Chief), VA’s highest award for clinical research (2019; and a Distinguished Achievement Award from ATS (2024). Dr. Curtis is an avid cyclist and downhill skier who enjoys cooking and eating many international cuisines, and reading, especially fiction and world history.