Joe Caruso holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. After a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at The University of Texas-Austin, he joined the University of Cincinnati Chemistry faculty and since then he has authored or co-authored greater than 400 scientific publications and presented more than 350 invited lectures at universities, scientific meetings, government and industry labs. His current research interests are in metallomics studies in biomedical research areas and involve metal toxicities and their molecular consequences.

Caruso is a member and Fellow of the American Chemical Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Fellow of the Society of Applied Spectroscopy. He served as first Chair of the RSC Metallomics editorial board. He has been honored many times including the 2000 Spectrochemical Analysis Award given by the Analytical Division of the American Chemical Society, the University of Cincinnati – Excellence in Doctoral Student Mentoring Award in 2006, and in 2007 he received the Rieveschl Award for Distinguished Scientific Research. Recently he was promoted to Distinguished Research Professor and in 2013 he was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry Theophilus Redwood Lectureship.