José A.Rodriguez was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He did his undergraduate education at Simon Bolivar University, receiving BS degrees in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. After getting a MS in Theoretical Chemistry at Simon Bolivar University, he moved to the United States to get a PhD in Physical Chemistry at Indiana University, Bloomington. Currently, he is a Senior Scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory and an Adjunct Professor at the Chemistry Department of SUNY Stony Brook. He has co-authored more than 450 articles in the areas of surface science and catalysis.

His research involves the development and use of synchrotron-based techniques (high-resolution photoemission, infrared spectroscopy, time-resolved x-ray diffraction and x-ray absorption spectroscopy) for the characterization of catalytic materials. In recent years his group has been quite active in the development of novel catalysts for CO oxidation, methane conversion, the water-gas shift and CO₂ hydrogenation.