Past Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients

Lori West, MD, DPhil

ISHLT Past President Lori West, MD, DPhil was presented with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award on 11 April, 2024 at the 44^th Annual ISHLT Meeting & Scientific Sessions in Prague.

Dr. West, Professor of Pediatrics, Surgery, Medical Microbiology/Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine/Pathology at the University of Alberta, Director of the Alberta Transplant Institute in Edmonton, Scientific Director of the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program (CDTRP), has been at the forefront of pediatric and adult heart transplantation for more than three decades. Her pioneering work in the development of cross-compatible transplantation practices has significantly increased the survival rates of infants born with congenital heart disease. Dr. West's research into the immunological barriers to heart and lung transplantation has led to groundbreaking protocols that have dramatically improved outcomes for transplant recipients of all ages. Dr. West built a national framework inclusive of all streams of research across all organ transplants, demonstrating the transformative power of collaborative team science.

As ISHLT’s 27th President, Dr. West strived for more substantial inclusion of members from all parts of the world and advocated for Society activities to address prevalent issues in developing countries. Notably, her leadership in the international consortium that established global standards for antibody testing has revolutionized the field. This standard is now integral to the organ matching process, ensuring that patients around the world receive transplants that are less likely to be rejected. Her innovative approaches to the management of pediatric transplant patients has also led to the adoption of new, less invasive surveillance techniques that have become the gold standard worldwide.

Beyond her scientific contributions, Dr. West has been a fervent advocate for policy change to improve organ donation systems globally. Her efforts have been instrumental in the development of ethical frameworks that guide organ transplantation practices, ensuring they are equitable and accessible to those in need. Dr. West's dedication to education is evident in her role as a mentor to the next generation of transplant specialists. She has educated and inspired countless medical professionals through her teaching, publications, and participation in global forums. Finally, in tribute to the legacy of pioneers in our field, Dr. West established the ISHLT History Archives, a library of 30+ video interviews memorializing past accomplishments that have informed the evolution of heart and lung transplantation internationally.

Watch Dr. West's 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award Lecture and interviews on her career and contributions to the field on YouTube.

Jon Kobashigawa, MD

ISHLT Past President Jon Kobashigawa, MD was presented with the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award on 20 April, 2023 at the ISHLT 43^rd Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions in Denver, CO USA.

After earning his undergraduate degree at Stanford University, Dr. Kobashigawa completed his medical degree at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He performed his internship, residency, and cardiology fellowship at the UCLA Medical Center. He is currently Director of the Advanced Heart Disease Division, Director of the Heart Transplant Program, and Associate Director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. He is also the DSL/Thomas D. Gordon Professor of Medicine at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a Clinical Professor of Medicine/Cardiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

A past president of the ISHLT, Dr. Kobashigawa has served on many Society committees and task forces, including the ISHLT Research Oversight Committee, the Finance Committee, and on the Editorial Board for The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. He was a contributing writer to the 2006 and 2010 ISHLT Guidelines for the Care of Cardiac Transplant Candidates. He has been active in a number of other societies, including as Chairman of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Committee on Heart Failure and Transplantation; as a member of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) National Thoracic Committee and Membership/Professional Standards Committee; on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Transplantation (AST); and many more.

Dr. Kobashigawa's contributions to heart transplantation are numerous, but perhaps most notable is his organization of several international Consensus Conferences to discuss critical issues in the field. The resulting consensus statements, on which he served as Chair and lead author, have been instrumental in advancing the discussion of key topics in heart transplantation and often in developing needed guidelines in these critical areas. Some key accomplishments from his consensus conferences have included the revision of the ISHLT heart transplant biopsy grading scale; the establishment of the clinical diagnosis/relevance of Antibody-Mediated Rejection and circulating antibodies in heart transplantation; greater attention to transplant nursing as a crucial partner in patient care; and contributing to the development of the 2018 UNOS Donor Heart Allocation Policy.

Finally, Dr. Kobashigawa is a remarkable leader and mentor, forging a path for the next generation of heart transplant practitioners. Much of his career has been dedicated to the training and professional development of students, residents, fellows, and junior faculty. For more than 20 years, he has offered a formal summer research internship program to undergraduates, graduate students, and medical students. More than 200 students have participated in this internship opportunity since it was established in 1999, with 100% of these students publishing their work and more than 90% going on to a career in medicine. He has mentored more than 70 residents and fellows through the research process, as well as serving as a clinical faculty attending physician with responsibilities for research and training.

Watch Dr. Kobashigawa's 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award Lecture or an interview about this honor, his career, and his contributions to the field by Lara Danziger-Isakov, MD and Sharon Hunt, MD, ISHLT Past President and past Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient.

Hannah Valantine, MD, FRCP, MBBS

Hannah Valantine, MD, FRCP, MBBS, a longstanding member of the ISHLT, was presented with the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award on 28 April, 2022 at the ISHLT 42^nd Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions in Boston, MA USA.

Dr. Valantine received her MBBS from London University, completed her cardiology fellowship at Stanford, and earned her Doctor of Medicine from London University. She has worked in the field of transplantation for over 35 years, initially working as a laboratory researcher and mentee of Dr. Norman Shumway at Stanford University, where she would later join the faculty and rise to the rank of Professor of Medicine. She recently served as a tenured senior investigator at the National, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute intramural research program. Dr. Valantine has more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, multiple patents, and sustained NIH funding. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020.

Dr. Valantine has generated novel insights into the mechanisms involved in the development of cardiac allograft vasculopathy, the impact of cytomegalovirus infection on allograft health and disease, and the development of non-invasive assays for monitoring graft health. These major contributions have led to enhanced understanding of the mechanisms of post-transplant complications and have informed new treatment modalities that have improved length and quality of life after heart transplantation. Dr. Valantine also led the first-ever study of donor-derived cell-free DNA (ddcfDNA) for diagnosis of acute rejection. More recently, she led the Genomic Research Alliance for Transplantation (GRAfT), which has validated this work in both heart and lung transplant patients in a multicenter prospective cohort study, which began in 2015.

Finally, Dr. Valantine has been a leader in scientific equity, diversity, and inclusion over the course of her career. At Stanford, she was Senior Associate Dean for Leadership and Diversity, and ran programs to increase diversity and inclusion, as well as leadership training workshops for female and minority faculty. She was appointed as Chief of Scientific Workforce Diversity for the Director at the National Institutes of Health, and in this capacity, established a series of innovative national programs and policies aimed at increasing the representation of women and minorities in science across the United States. She is now recognized as a leader, innovator, and driver of change in the movement to achieve equity, diversity, and inclusion in medicine.

You can watch Dr. Valantine's 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award Lecture on YouTube.

David O. Taylor, MD

David O. Taylor, MD (1959-2020) was recognized as an inspiring leader in the field of advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology. Dr. Taylor was a professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, where he served as director of the Heart Failure and Transplantation Fellowship. He provided exceptional service, education and leadership to the advanced heart failure and heart transplant cardiology communities in a multitude of capacities during his lifetime.

Dr. Taylor devoted much of his professional time to the transplant community, including serving in many roles with ISHLT. He served as program chair for the 21st ISHLT meeting in Vancouver in 2001 and as ISHLT President in 2012-2013. He continued to contribute to ISHLT in important ways after concluding his presidential term: by serving as chair of the Standards & Guidelines Committee and serving as chair of task forces on Education and the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.

Dr. Taylor received the ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award on 25 April, 2021 at the ISHLT 41^st Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions, the Society's first fully virtual meeting.

James K. Kirklin, MD

James K. Kirklin, MD, a cardiac surgeon who has made significant scientific and surgical contributions in the fields of heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support devices, was named an ISHLT 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award winner.

Dr. Kirklin has had a long and distinguished career focused on cardiac transplantation and mechanical circulatory support in the treatment of advanced heart failure in pediatric and adult patients, as well as surgical repair of congenital cardiac defects. Among his many achievements, Dr. Kirklin was the first surgeon to bridge an infant with single ventricle to successful heart transplantation using the Berlin Heart VAD. He also led the surgical team that implanted the Berlin Heart on the youngest baby at that time ( 17 days old) to receive extended mechanical support (136 days) to successful heart transplantation. He holds the James K. Kirklin Chair of Cardiovascular Surgery at UAB, formerly the John W. Kirklin Chair in Cardiovascular Surgery, named for his father who was also a pioneer in cardiovascular surgery.

Dr. Kirklin served the Society as ISHLT President from 2009-2010. He received the ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award on 24 April, 2021 at the ISHLT 41^st Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions, the Society's first fully virtual meeting.

Watch Dr. Kirklin's 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award Lecture or hear from his colleagues on his service to ISHLT and contributions to the field of heart and lung transplantation.

Michael Hess, MD

Before his death in 2019, Michael Hess, MD was a heart failure cardiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, where he published more than 200 research papers and three books and was revered as a teacher, earning a dozen outstanding teacher awards. Dr. Hess is credited with founding ISHLT when he convened an international group of cardiologists and cardiac surgeons at the first informal meeting of the ISHLT at the 1980 AHA meeting in Miami; and the first formal meeting on 14 March, 1981. His vision for the ISHLT included a venue for the discussion of cardiac transplantation, which became the Annual Meeting, a scientific registry, a truly international Society, and an independent Journal. All of these ideas have become realities in the modern incarnation of ISHLT.

Dr. Hess served the Society as the first ISHLT President from 1981-1982. He received the ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award on 24 April, 2021 at the ISHLT 41^st Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions, the Society's first fully virtual meeting.

John Wallwork, FRCS

John Wallwork, FRCS qualified at Edinburgh University and trained in cardiothoracic surgery in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Adelaide in South Australia. Prior to being appointed as Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon at Papworth Hospital in 1981, he spent two years as Chief Resident at Stanford University Medical Director from 1997 to 2002. In October 2002 he was awarded an honorary Chair in Cardiothoracic Surgery by the University of Cambridge. He became Director of Research and Development at Papworth Hospital in 2007 and remained in that position until his retirement 2011.

In 1984 Professor Wallwork performed Europe’s first successful heart-lung transplant and, in 1986 together with Professor Sir Roy Calne, he performed the world’s first heart-lung and liver transplant. Professor Wallwork was Director of the Transplant Service at Papworth Hospital from 1989 to 2006 and retirement 2011. Professor Wallwork returned to Papworth Hospital as Chairman after in February 2014 after spending thirty years at the forefront of transplant surgery and research at the Trust. He currently serves as an Emeritus Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge.

Professor Wallwork served the Society as ISHLT President from 1994-1995. He received the ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award on 3 April, 2019 at the ISHLT 39^th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions in Orlando, FL USA.

O. Howard Frazier, MD

O. Howard "Bud" Frazier, MD is recognized by the Society for his efforts over more than 30 years as a pioneer in the treatment of severe heart failure and in the fields of heart transplantation and artificial devices used either to substitute for or assist in the pumping action of the human heart.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Dr. Frazier explored experimental work toward developing an implantable left ventricular assist device (LVAD) to aid the failing heart and in 1986, he implanted the first LVAD with the Hemopump.® In 2003, he implanted the first HeartMate II,® a device that has since become the most widely used implantable LVAD in the world. In 2011, Dr. Frazier implanted the first successful continuous-flow total artificial heart using two HeartMate II® LVADs to replace a patient's failing heart. He has also performed over 1,300 heart transplants and implanted more than 1,000 left ventricular assist devices - more than any other surgeon in the world.

Dr. Frazier received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ISHLT 38^th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions in Nice, France on 11 April, 2018.

Drs. Jean and Adrian Kantrowitz

Dr. Adrian Kantrowitz performed the first human heart transplant in the United States in 1967 and pioneered the development of mechanical devices to prolong the life of patients with heart failure. Over six decades of surgical practice, he designed and used more than 20 medical devices that aided circulation and other vital functions. In 1971, Adrian successfully implanted a ventricular assist device in a man suffering from chronic heart failure who returned home as the world’s first recipient of a left ventricular assist device intended to remain permanently in the body.

Dr. Jean Kantrowitz was instrumental in focusing petitions for federal coverage of cardiac transplantation at Stanford, and supported Adrian in his vision through the lab to his translational work with the IABP. She prepared grants and budgets and managed business aspects of research through skills in office management. In 1975, she planned and organized a successful child and adolescent psychiatry program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

Adrian and Jean Kantrowitz received the ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award at the ISHLT 36^th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions on 30 April, 2016 in Washington, DC USA.

Sir Terence English, KBE, FRCS

Sir Terence English, KBE, FRCS is a pioneering heart surgeon who led the team that performed Britain's first successful heart transplant in August 1979 at Papworth, and soon established it as one of Europe's leading heart–lung transplant programs, transforming the lives of generations of patients.

English performed the first total artificial heart transplant in the UK in November 1986. A Jarvic 7 heart was used as a bridge to transplantation until a human donor heart could be found and the patient subsequently survived nearly two years.

Dr. English served the Society as ISHLT President from 1984-1986. He received the ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award on 11 April, 2014 at the ISHLT 34^th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions in San Diego, CA USA.

Sharon Hunt, MD

Sharon Hunt, MD, is recognized by the society for her relentless efforts to bring heart transplantation medicine from its inception at Stanford to its current excellence, for her legacy in training and mentoring the many international leaders in our field, for her countless past and ongoing scientific contributions including spearheading the most comprehensive guidelines in heart failure and transplantation, and for her untiring service to the ISHLT as President, Chair of the JHLT Editor Search Committee, Co-Chair of the Heart Transplant International Guidelines Committee and most recently as Chair of the US-based ABIM certification board in Advanced HF and Transplant Cardiology (a certification that has legitimized the field in the US).

Dr. Hunt served as president of ISHLT from 1995-1996. She received the ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award on 19 April, 2012 at the ISHLT 32^nd Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions in Prague, Czech Republic.

Margaret Billingham, MD

Margaret Billingham, MD, was a founder of the field of cardiac transplantation pathology who developed the “Billingham’s criteria” that doctors still use to grade heart transplant rejection.

As director of cardiac pathology emeritus and professor of pathology emeritus at the Stanford University Medical Center, she left behind a curriculum vitae spanning 50 years and more than 50 pages. Best known for her work in the field of pathology of cardiac transplant rejection, she also made major contributions to research into the toxicity of the chemotherapy drug adriamycin and the development of heart biopsy techniques.

In 1966, as a pathology resident and postdoctoral fellow in surgical pathology at Stanford, she impressed colleagues with her efficiency and interest in cardiac pathology. It was an era of excitement in that field—Norman Shumway, MD, PhD, would perform the first successful heart transplant in the United States at Stanford in 1968—and Billingham became interested in the pathology of cardiac transplant rejection. Along with visiting scientist Philip Caves, MD, she developed methods of diagnosing transplant rejection from tiny snippets of heart tissue. She would carry on that work through her appointment as an assistant professor of cardiac pathology in 1975, associate professor of pathology in 1981 and professor of pathology in 1988.

Dr. Billingham became the first female president of the ISHLT in 1990. She was honored with the ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award on 21 April, 2010 at the ISHLT 30^th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions in Chicago, IL USA.

Sir Magdi Yacoub, MD

Sir Magdi Yacoub, MDSir Magdi Yacoub, MD, is Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London and Founder and Director of Research at the Harefield Heart Science Centre (Magdi Yacoub Institute) overseeing over 60 scientists and students in the areas of tissue engineering, myocardial regeneration, stem cell biology, end stage heart failure and transplant immunology. He is also Founder and Director of Magdi Yacoub Research Network which has created the Qatar Cardiovascular Research Center in collaboration with Qatar Foundation and Hamad Medical Corporation.

Professor Yacoub established the largest heart and lung transplantation program in the world where more than 2,500 transplant operations have been performed. He has also developed novel operations for a number of complex congenital heart anomalies. He was knighted for his services to medicine and surgery in 1991, awarded Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998 and Fellowship of The Royal Society in 1999.

He was honored with the ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award on 23 April,, 2004 at the ISHLT 24^th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions in San Francisco, CA USA.

Keith Reemtsma, MD

Keith Reemtsma, MD, is credited with being the first to show that nonhuman organs could be transplanted into humans and function for a significant period. He achieved that by giving six humans chimpanzee kidneys in the first chimpanzee-to-human organ transplants in 1963 and 1964. In 1964, he transplanted a kidney from a chimpanzee to a woman who then lived with it for nine months.

In addition to performing cross-species transplants, known as xenotransplantation, Dr. Reemtsma was an expert in all kinds of human transplants. For 23 years, he was chairman of the department of surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, where he helped create a leading heart transplant center.

He was honored with the ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award on 21 April, 1999, at the ISHLT 19^th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions in San Francisco, CA USA.

Norman Shumway, MD

Norman Shumway, MD, was a pioneer of heart surgery at Stanford University, and the first to perform a successful heart transplantation in the United States.

As a member of Stanford’s cardiovascular research surgery program, Shumway began conducting heart transplants on dogs. About one month after South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first human heart transplant, Shumway performed the operation on a 54-year-old man whose heart had been damaged by a virus infection. The surgery was a success, although the patient died 14 days later.

The low long-term survival rates—most patients died soon after surgery because of organ rejection or infection—led many doctors to abandon the procedure by the early 1970s. Shumway, however, continued to improve the operation and advanced a drug that prevented organ rejection. Largely through his efforts, heart transplantation became a viable operation in the 1980s.

In 1981 Shumway was part of a team that performed the first successful heart-lung transplant. His other major achievements included such open-heart procedures as the transplantation of valves.

He was honored with the ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award on 15 March, 1996, at the ISHLT 16^th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions in New York, NY USA.