Robert Jarvik
Robert Koffler Jarvik, M.D. (born May 11, 1946) is an American scientist, researcher, and entrepreneur known for his role in developing the Jarvik-7 artificial heart.
Early life
Robert Jarvik was born in Midland, Michigan, to Norman Eugene Jarvik and Edythe Koffler Jarvik, and raised in Stamford, Connecticut. He is the nephew of Murray Jarvik, a pharmacologist who was the co-inventor of the nicotine patch.
Jarvik is a graduate of Syracuse University. He earned a master’s degree in medical engineering from New York University.
Career
After being admitted to the University of Utah School of Medicine, Jarvik completed two years of study, and in 1971 was hired by Willem Johan Kolff, a Dutch-born physician-inventor at the University of Utah, who produced the first dialysis machine, and who was working on other artificial organs, including a heart. Jarvik received his M.D. in 1976 from the University of Utah. A medical scientist, he did not complete an internship or residency and has never been licensed to practice medicine.
