Dr. Valentin Fuster

Valentin Fuster is a cardiologist and the Richard Gorlin, MD Heart Research Foundation Professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he is physician in chief of Mount Sinai Hospital and director of Mount Sinai Heart. He is co-chair of an advisory committee to the US president on the role of the United States in global health, a member of the European Horizon 2020 Scientific Panel of Health, and president of the training program of the American College of Cardiology. A past president of the American Heart Association and the World Heart Federation, Fuster has been named Doctor Honoris Causa by 36 universities.

Dr. Valentin Fuster serves The Mount Sinai Medical Hospital as Physician-in-Chief, as well as Director of Mount Sinai Heart, the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and the Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health. He is also the Richard Gorlin, MD/Heart Research Foundation Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Fuster was the President of Science and is now the General Director of the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) in Madrid, Spain and also and Chairman of the SHE Foundation (Science for Health and Education).

The innumerable positions he has held include those of President of the American Heart Association, President of the World Heart Federation, member of the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academy of Sciences (where he chaired the Committee for the document on "promotion of cardiovascular health worldwide), member of the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and President of the Training Program of the American College of Cardiology.

After qualifying in medicine at the University of Barcelona, Valentin Fuster continued his studies in the USA. He was Professor in Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases at the Mayo Medical School, Minnesota and the Medical School of Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, and from 1991 to 1994 Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. In 1994, he was named director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai a post he has combined since 2012 with that of Physician-in-Chief of the Hospital.

Dr. Fuster has been named Doctor Honoris Causa by Thirty-three universities around the world, and has three of the most important awards from US National Institute of Health. He is an author on more than 900 scientific articles in international medical journals, and has published as lead Editor of two leading books on clinical cardiology and research, "The Heart and Atherothrombosis and Coronary Artery Disease" and "Hurst's The Heart". He was also named Editor-in-Chief of the prestigious journal Nature Reviews in Cardiology. His contributions to cardiovascular medicine have had an enormous impact on the treatment of patients with heart disease. His research into the origin of cardiovascular events, which have contributed to improved treatment of heart attack patients, was recognized in 1996 by the award of Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research.

Among his many achievements, it is noteworthy that Dr. Fuster is the only cardiologist to have received the highest awards for research from the four leading cardiovascular organizations the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, the European Society of Cardiology and the Interamerican Society of Cardiology.

In 2008, Dr. Fuster received the Kurt Polzer from the European Academy of Science and Arts. In 2009, he received the prestigious international Arrigo Recordati prize for his contribution to advances in the area of cardiovascular imaging. In June 2011 he was awarded the Grand Prix Scientifique of the Institute of France, considered the most prestigious award in cardiology, for his translational research into atherothrombotic disease. Other accolades include the Gold Heart Award, the Lewis A. Conner Memorial and the James B. Eric Achievement Award from the American Heart Association, the Distinguished Service Award and the Distinguished Teacher Award from the American College of Cardiology, the Gold Medals of the American and European Cardiology Societies, also the highest award for Medicine from Erasmus University (Rotterdam). In 2012, Dr. Fuster was named by the American College of Cardiology as one of the Living Legends in Cardiology Medicine, and was awarded the Research Achievement Award, the highest award given by the American Heart Association. In 2013, Dr. Fuster was awarded the Ron Haddock International Impact Award by the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association in recognition of his global leadership. In addition, in 2014, Dr. Fuster was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the ACC's flagship publication and the main American source of clinical information on cardiovascular medicine. In May 2014, King Juan Carlos I of Spain granted Dr. Fuster with the title of Marquis for his “outstanding and unceasing research efforts and his educational outreach work”.

Dr. Fuster, in addition to his dedication to research, is strongly committed to his responsibility to communicate to the public. This commitment has in the last four years produced six books, which have been very positively received and topped the sales lists. This vocation and the clear need to promote healthy lifestyle habits recently led to Dr. Fuster launching the Science, Health and Education Foundation (SHE), which is directed at improving public health, especially in the young.