Albert Starr

Albert Starr (1926-), is a noted cardiovascular surgeon and pioneer, inventor of the Starr heart valve, who resides and practices in the Portland, Oregon area. Starr is Medical Director of the Providence Heart and Vascular Institute. (source: Oregonian, 8/23/2007)

Albert Starr was born on June 1, 1926, in New York, New York. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia College (now Columbia University) in 1946 and his Doctor of Medicine degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1949. He then went on to do his internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital and his residency in general and thoracic surgery at the Bellevue and Presbyterian Hospitals of Columbia University. He was an assistant in surgery at Columbia University until 1957, when he moved to Oregon—having been enticed, in part, by the Oregon Heart Association's promises to help fund his research and to take him salmon fishing. There he worked for the Crippled Children's Division at the University of Oregon Medical School (now the Oregon Health and Science University). Starr was an instructor in surgery when he met Lowell Edwards in September 1958. Starr has said of this meeting, "He was in his 60s and I was in my 30s, but there was no generation gap between us. (See http://www.ctsnet.org/home/astarr)

2007 Lasker Award

On September 15, 2007, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation announced the 2007 Lasker Award winners which included 2 surgeons:

*Dr. Alain F. Carpentier, 74, Georges Pompidou hospital in Paris
*Dr. Albert Starr, 81, of the Providence Health System in Portland, Oregon
*Dr. Ralph M. Steinman, 64, of Rockefeller University in Manhattan
*Dr. Anthony Fauci, 66, an internationally known immunologist

Dr. Steinman and Dr. Fauci will each receive $150,000 and Dr. Starr and Dr. Carpentier will each receive $75,000. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/health/16lasker.html?ref=us New York Times, 4 Winners of Lasker Medical Prize] ]

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