Awardees

Dr. E Rene Rodriguez’s journey into cardiovascular pathology began during his time in medical school, where a stint as a visiting student and later an assistant physician in Anatomic Pathology at the National Institute of Cardiology in Mexico City ignited his passion for the field. This early experience served as the foundation for his future endeavors after he obtained his medical degree from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana – Xochimilco in January 1982.

In August 1982, Rene embarked on a four-year fellowship at the Ultrastructure Section, Pathology Branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, MD, under the mentorship of leading experts in the field of cardiovascular pathology.  Rene then transitioned into Anatomic and Clinical Pathology residency training at The George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC. 

In 1990, Rene assumed the directorship of the Cardiovascular Pathology Unit at Rush Heart Institute in Chicago, IL. During his tenure at Rush University, he also undertook the responsibility of directing Autopsy Pathology services. In 2000, Rene took on the role of Director of Clinical Services in Cardiovascular Pathology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. His leadership and contributions solidified his reputation as a respected figure in cardiovascular pathology.

Since 2004, Rene has served as the Director of Cardiovascular Pathology and Director of Autopsy Pathology at The Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH. In addition to his extensive professional experience, he is a Professor of Pathology at the Cleveland Clinic College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. His outstanding contributions to the education of cardiovascular medicine fellows was duly recognized with a teaching award in 2015.

His academic impact include more than 200 manuscripts and book chapters covering his multidimensional expertise in the field from basic science to clinical cardiology. He played a pivotal role in revising the criteria for antibody-mediated rejection in cardiac transplantation during his tenure as Chair of heart sessions at the Banff Conference in Allograft Pathology and later of the Pathology Council of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation.   

Throughout his career, Rene has been dedicated to advancing the field of cardiovascular pathology through his clinical expertise, leadership, and scholarly contributions. His commitment to nurturing the next generation of cardiovascular pathologists truly exemplifies the spirit of the 2024 SCVP Distinguished Achievement Award.

John P. Veinot

Dr. John Veinot is an exemplary physician, educator, investigator, and administrator who has made significant contributions to the field of cardiovascular pathology and to the SCVP over many years.

John received his M.D. from Dalhousie University in Halifax, N.S., in 1988, followed by residency in Anatomical Pathology at Queen’s University in Kingston, ON, and Cardiovascular Pathology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. In 1994, he joined The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa, where he remained until his recent retirement from anatomical pathology practice.

Along the way, he became Full Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and served many administrative roles, including eleven years as the Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Ottawa, Head of the Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, and Chief of Medical Staff for the Eastern Ontario Regional Laboratory Association, where he emphasized the need for quality and patient-centered care.

His passion for teaching led to several teaching awards, including the uOttawa Excellence in Education Prize, the Faculty of Medicine Award for Excellence in Medical Education, the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Best Teacher Award (twice), and the Faculty of Medicine Educator Award for Communicator Competence. He recognized the importance of teaching pathology beyond medicine and is proud of the achievements of those he has mentored.

As a Clinical Investigator at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, John made numerous research contributions in cardiovascular pathology, running the gamut from basic science to clinicopathologic correlations, leading to more than 200 manuscripts, multiple book chapters, and a book on echocardiography-pathology correlations.

John has been an integral part of the SCVP, serving on multiple committees and as its past president, and was instrumental in the publication of multiple consensus documents. He promoted the use of new and different modes of education, stressed the importance of diversity, and fostered collaboration with the AECVP – these efforts expanded the reach of our Society.

Most of all, John has always been approachable, dependable, and willing to help promote the discipline of cardiovascular pathology. We are proud to honor him with the 2023 SCVP Distinguished Achievement Award.

Richard N. Mitchell

Dr. Rick Mitchell is an exemplary physician-scientist-educator who has made broad and impactful contributions to the field of cardiovascular pathology over many years.

Rick received his Ph.D. in Cell Biology/Immunology from The Rockefeller University in 1980 and his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1984. Following an internship in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, he completed pathology residency, cardiac pathology fellowship, and post-doctoral fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He joined Harvard Medical School and BWH as Assistant Professor in 1992 and ascended the academic ranks, culminating in his appointment as the Lawrence J. Henderson Professor of Pathology and Health Sciences and Technology in 2011.

Rick is a leading expert in the discipline and practice of cardiovascular pathology. He serves as a Senior Pathologist in the cardiac pathology and autopsy divisions in the Department of Pathology at BWH. He has made numerous research contributions in work conducted at the interface of immunology and vascular cell biology, including the mechanisms underlying acute and chronic rejection following heart transplantation, the role of specific cytokines and chemokine pathways in allograft vasculopathy, the source of recruited intimal smooth muscle cells in atherosclerosis, the nature of inflammatory cell populations involved in the pathogenesis of abdominal aortic aneurysm, and the immunology of cardiac valve disease. Moreover, he has been and continues to be a highly valued collaborator in studies focused on stem cell biology and the cardiovascular system, amyloidosis, gender differences in gene expression profiles, cardiac electrophysiology, and AI applications to cardiovascular pathology.

Rick also possesses a genuine, strong dedication to and aptitude for teaching and educational leadership, and serves as an important role model to medical students, pathology residents, and faculty colleagues. His teaching of residents on the autopsy and cardiac pathology services at BWH is well known and admired. He is passionate about conveying the scientific basis of medicine in both the pre-clinical and clinical segments of the undergraduate medical curriculum, and has been Director of the HST-030 Human Pathology course for over two decades (notably, this course is ranked by the HST MD students as the most effective and enjoyable course in their entire four-year curriculum). He also actively teaches or has taught in other HST courses in Cardiovascular Pathophysiology, Immunology, and Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, as well as in the Harvard Medical School New Integrated Curriculum’s Immunology, Microbiology and Pathology course. Rick has demonstrated long-term and highly effective leadership as Associate Director of the HST Division for over two decades, during which he has directly mentored over 500 students. His teaching commitment and prowess have been recognized with seven teaching awards at Harvard Medical School and, nationally, he has received the Robbins Distinguished Educator Award from the American Society of Investigative Pathology (ASIP) and the Michele Raible Distinguished Teaching Award in Undergraduate Medical Education from the Association of Pathology Chairs.

Rick’s educational contributions have had a wide international reach. For many years he has been active in writing and editing the most widely used textbooks that educate most medical students around the world, including Robbins Basic Pathology, Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, the Pocket Companion to Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, and Biomaterials Science: An Introduction to Materials in Medicine. He also co-authored Robbins and Cotran Pathology Flash Cards, with an innovative design format, and co-edited a novel online book, Pathobiology of Human Disease.

Rick has given extraordinary service to the SCVP and other leading organizations in pathology. He is a past-Programming Chair and a past-President of the SCVP. He is also past-Chair of the Education Programming Committee and past-President of the American Society for Investigative Pathology, and developed and directed the annual ASIP Summer Academy, during which he taught fundamentals of acute and chronic inflammation and wound healing to graduate students, fellows, junior and senior faculty, and scientists in industry. He is one of the original organizers of the annual ASIP stand-alone meeting Pathobiology for Investigators, Students, and Academicians (PISA). Rick is also a Senior Associate Editor of the American Journal of Pathology, and Associate Editor of both Laboratory Investigation and SCVP’s official journal, Cardiovascular Pathology.

Allen P. Burke

Dr. Burke is a current member of the Society of Cardiovascular Pathology and an Editorial Board Member of the Society’s Journal since 2002. He has made substantial contributions to the field in the peer-reviewed literature as well as innumerable lectures and workshops for more than 25 years.

His body of work includes more than 260 peer-reviewed journal article publications including a disproportionate number of first and last author publications, 6 complete books, and more than 70 book chapters. He was the senior editor of the 2015 WHO Classification of Heart Tumors.

He has been involved in teaching a large number of medical students, pathology residents, pathologist’s assistants, clinicians and scientists during the past decades, several of whom are active members of the Society and the cardiology community, at-large.

Moreover, his work has been recognized by others in the field, receiving over 21,000 citations, making him among the most cited pathologists in the world.

Gayle Winters

Gayle Winters is a distinguished member of the global cardiovascular pathology and transplantation communities. She received her BS in Biology (with Distinction) from Purdue University, and her MD in 1979 from the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine, followed by a year of general surgery residency, residency in anatomic and clinical pathology, and fellowship in surgical pathology at Loyola University Medical Center. After joining the Loyola faculty and rising to Associate Professor of Pathology, she was recruited to the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in 1992, where she is Senior Pathologist and Associate Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Winters has a national and international reputation as a heart transplant pathologist and serves or has served on the Editorial Boards of Circulation, Cardiovascular Pathology, Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, and Advances in Anatomic Pathology. Within the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology, Dr. Winters has held important leadership positions as Cor Notes Editor, Secretary, Acting Treasurer, Vice-Present/President Elect, and President.

Among sentinel contributions to her field, Dr. Winters was a member of the working group and co-author on the original 1990 grading system for cardiac transplant biopsies, its revision in 2005, and the grading system for antibody-mediated rejection in 2011. These grading schemas are considered the foundational guidance for all of heart transplant practice to the current time. Her work demonstrated the lack of progression of untreated Grade 2 rejection, and was instrumental in prompting the revision of the grading system in 2005. Other important work within the area of cardiac transplantation includes defining perioperative ischemic injury on post-transplant endomyocardial biopsies, studying the pathologic composition and clinical significance of Quilty effect, and defining the composition of allograft coronary disease and the use of myocyte vacuolization on post-transplant endomyocardial biopsies as a predictor of allograft coronary disease.

Dr. Winters has been actively involved in resident and medical student education throughout her career. In fact, she is a major educational leader in her home institution. She was the Director of the BWH Autopsy Service for over 20 years, Director of the BWH Residency Program in Pathology from 2001-2015, and served as Director of the BWH Harvard Medical School elective clerkship in Pathology. She has taught at Harvard Medical School in the Human Pathology and Cardiovascular Pathophysiology courses. Of perhaps the greatest significance in terms of the continued expertise in cardiovascular pathology as a discipline, Dr. Winters and her colleagues at BWH have trained 12 Cardiovascular Pathology Fellows. Of these Fellows, 7 have pursued a career in cardiovascular pathology and are current members of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology. At the national level, she has been an active member of the Program Directors for Pathology (PRODS), and served as Member-at-Large of PRODS Council, Co-Chair of the PRODS Outcomes Committee, Secretary-Elect, Secretary, Chair-Elect, and was elected Chair in 2014-15. She received the Graduate Medical Education Distinguished Teaching Award from the Association of Pathology Chairs in 2016.

In summary, Dr Winters exemplifies the professional skills and leadership qualities that the SCVP Distinguished Achievement Award was established to honor. She has been and is a recognized scholar in her field, she is widely known as an educator in cardiovascular and transplant pathology, and she has served in many leadership roles for the SCVP and other related organizations. She certainly is an expert in the field of cardiovascular pathology.

Finally, Dr Winters is an absolutely lovely human being. She is a person of great character and great courage.

Kricket and Jon Seidman

Dr. Kricket Seidman is the T.W. Smith Professor of Medicine & Genetics in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, is a Howard Hughes Investigator, and is a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she is also the Director of the Cardiovascular Genetics Center. She has received the American Heart Association Basic Science Prize, the American Society for Clinical Investigation Award, the Glorney-Raisbeck Prize, and the Schottenstein Prize.

Dr. Jon Seidman is the Bugher Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular Genetics, and a former Howard Hughes Investigator. Together they co-direct a lab in cardiovascular genetics that focuses on understanding the causes of hereditary heart disease and have been jointly recognized as recipients of the Pasarow Foundation Award in Cardiovascular Research, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cardiovascular Research, and the Institut de France Fondation Lefoulon-Delalande Grand Prix for Science Award.

The Seidmans numerous discoveries have elucidated the role of sarcomeric and other proteins in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy but have also contributed substantially to understanding the role of several genes (such as lamin A/C, eyes-absent-4, phospholamban, myosin heavy chain, troponin T, and titin) in dilated cardiomyopathy. Their recent work in cardiac transcription factor mutations in congenital heart defects has also been groundbreaking. These efforts have enabled improvements in precision diagnostics and therapeutic interventions for these conditions.

By developing and applying advanced sequencing strategies and correlating cardiomyopathy mutations with functional myocyte biology, the Cardiovascular Genetics Center labs have uncovered new and important insights into pathogenic pathways. Using these insights, they (and others) can now target linchpin molecules to develop novel therapeutic strategies to arrest the progression of cardiomyopathies. This is taking us beyond gross and microscopic pathology into the very “heart” of the pathologies of myocardial disease.

John (Jay) T. Fallon III

John T. Fallon III MD, PhD received his BA from Providence College and his MD and PhD from Albany Medical College. Even during medical school he was interested in cardiovascular pathology, as his PhD thesis was entitled Hemodynamics and atherosclerosis: Endothelial damage and ultrasonic arterial lesions. Dr. Fallon then went on to pursue pathology training at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He was recipient of an NIH public health service training grant to continue fellowship training Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He remained at Massachusetts General Hospital as an Assistant then Associate Professor of Pathology both at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Division of Health Sciences and Technology. Dr. Fallon joined Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1994 as a Professor of Pathology. He became Chairman and Professor of Pathology at New York Medical College in 2009.

Dr. Fallon has a strong history of research with over 290 original reports, overwhelmingly related to cardiovascular pathology and his major research interests in pathophysiology of ischemic heart disease, experimental vascular injury, and the immunopathology of human myocarditis and allograft rejection. His research in the field of atherosclerosis has helped to delineate the pathogenesis of thrombogenicity of atherosclerotic plaques, the role of inflammation in plaque rupture, and the mechanisms of intimal hyperplasia and restenosis after vascular interventions, to name but a few areas of his investigations. Dr. Fallon is a former member of the NIH Scientific Review Group of the Cardiovascular and Renal Study Section and he has also been the PI on NIH SCOR and training grants, most recently PI for NIH Thrombosis SCOR – Pathology Core and Co-Investigator in vulnerable Plaque Studies. He also served as a member of the NIH Myocarditis Study Group.

Dr. Fallon is a Founding- Member, Past- President, Past Awards Chairman and Past Councilor of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology and is on the editorial board of Cardiovascular Pathology.

Jeffrey E. Saffitz

Dr. Saffitz received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Case Western Reserve University in 1978. He completed both a Residency in Anatomic Pathology and a Cardiovascular Research Fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. From 1982-1983 he was Visiting Fellow in Cardiac Pathology at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute with Dr. William Roberts. He then returned to Washington University on the faculty in the Departments of Pathology and Medicine (Cardiovascular Division) and rose through the ranks to become Paul and Ellen Lacy Professor of Pathology in 1999. In 2005 he was recruited to his current position in Boston.

Dr. Saffitz is a leading basic and translational investigator in the area of sudden cardiac death, arrhythmia mechanisms in arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathies, and cardiac myocyte electrical communication. His several decades of independent, federally funded research have yielded over 260 original contributions to the literature. His research has elucidated molecular and structural determinants of normal and abnormal intercellular coupling and defined the role of altered expression of connexins (gap junction channel proteins) and remodeling of gap junctions in the pathogenesis of lethal ventricular arrhythmias. He has characterized the molecular pathology of human cardiomyopathies with the clinical phenotypes of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), such as Naxos disease, Carvajal syndrome, ARVC Type 8 and plakophilin-related cardiomyopathies, which are caused by mutations in genes encoding proteins at cell-cell mechanical junctions. He described a new endomyocardial biopsy test that looks for abnormally low levels of plakoglobin, an essential component of cardiac myocyte junctions, and identified low levels of plakoglobin as a possible marker for ARVC (NEJM, 2009).

Dr. Saffitz has served as President of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology, and in leadership roles in the American Heart Association and the Heart Rhythm Society. He has been a member of the Editorial Boards of 10 journals of pathology and cardiovascular medicine and is currently an Associate Editor of Cardiovascular Pathology, Circulation, and the American Journal of Pathology, and he is on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Cardiology. He authored the chapter on The Heart in the 6th and several prior editions of Rubin’s Pathology. He is also a national leader in genomic pathology in personalized medicine, and has spearheaded efforts to use next generation sequencing and other high-throughput technologies in routine clinical laboratory diagnostics. He is an accomplished teacher and academic leader, and a prototypical role-model for the cardiovascular pathologist-scientist.

Michael C. Fishbein

Dr. Michael Fishbein was born May 25, 1946 in Brussels, to holocaust survivors, who with the help of the Belgian people, survived in hiding in the Belgian countryside for all of WWII. In 1949, the family emigrated to Chicago where Michael’s mother had relatives. When Michael was 12, and his father was 51, his father had his first myocardial infarction. From then on, cardiovascular disease, in one way or another, has played a major role in Michael’s life.

With the help of State of Illinois Scholarships, Michael received his undergraduate and medical school education at the University of Illinois. In medical school, his teacher of congenital heart disease was Dr. Maurice Lev. Michael used one medical school elective to go to the Bispebjerg Hospital in Copenhagen where he participated in a busy autopsy service, and one elective in cardiology at the Mayo Clinic where he had the opportunity to spend time with Dr. Jack Titus on the autopsy service. In part, to escape Chicago winters, he did an internship and residency in pathology at UCLA/Harbor General Hospital (HGH) in Torrance, CA. Because he had an interest in cardiovascular pathology not shared by any of the faculty, Michael inherited most cardiac autopsies and collaborative research projects with the active adult and pediatric cardiologists at HGH. These individuals were very enthusiastic and supportive and urged him to get additional training. Michael was fortunate to be able to secure an elective with Dr. William C. Roberts at the NIH. While at the NIH, he was again fortunate to know and work with outstanding individuals in the field of cardiovascular pathology, namely, Dr. Victor Ferrans, Dr. Max Buja, Dr. Bernadine Bulkley/Healy, and Dr. Barry Maron. He also spent time with Dr. Hugh McAllister at the AFIP where he reviewed the vast collection of congenital hearts, and an elephant’s heart as well.

In addition to being a great teacher, mentor, and friend, Dr. Roberts, through his association with Dr. Eugene Braunwald, was instrumental in recruiting Michael to the then Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. In fact, he was the first appointee of the new Pathology Chairman, Dr. Ramzi Cotran, who took a big chance hiring Michael since he was straight out of residency, very inexperienced, and had not even taken pathology board exams when appointed. After 3 exciting, productive years at the Brigham, and the blizzard of ’77, Michael and his family returned to Los Angeles. He spent 19 very productive years at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he was a general anatomic pathologist with a subspecialty interest in cardiovascular pathology. While challenging, practising general pathology exposed him to the full gamut of human disease and a wide array of tools in pathology, such as EM, histochemistry, and immunohistochemistry, that have played a major role in his study of cardiovascular diseases.

In 1997, Michael had the opportunity to move to UCLA, where the anatomic pathology service was more subspecialized. The greater subspecialization, and funding from the Piansky Endowment he received, allowed him more opportunities to pursue research interests in heart disease. From the individuals named above, and brilliant and generous collaborators that are too numerous to name, Michael had exceptional exposure to giants in cardiovascular disease. In his opinion, good fortune, and the generosity of time and effort on the part of his mentors, allowed him to have a fulfilling career in medicine and cardiovascular pathology particularly. Working hard also helped.

Of course, none of his “success” would have been possible without the help of family: devoted parents who sacrificed whatever necessary so he could be educated; his loving and supportive wife of 40 years, Astrid, who took care of most matters while Michael was busy with his career; and two wonderful and accomplished now-grown and married children, Danielle and Gregory, who have been a source of great pleasure and pride. While no one knows what the future holds, Michael’s short-term plans are to continue his current activities at UCLA on a part-time basis, and to spend his “free-time” with his new granddaughter, Maxine, as well as to improve his golf game.

Jagdish Butany

Jagdish Butany is Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, Canada and Director of the Division of Pathology in the Department. He is a Staff Cardiovascular Pathologist at the University Health Network (Toronto General Hospital Site), and Director of Autopsy Services. Dr. Butany works in an interdisciplinary setting with colleagues from related specialities and other health professions. Dr. Butany’s investigative work has primarily been based on clinical investigations and outcomes and collaboration with clinical colleagues in basic and applied research. His major interest has been prosthetic heart valves, an interest nurtured by contact with (late) Dr. Victor Ferrans, and with Dr. Malcolm Silver and Dr. Frederick Schoen.

He trained in India (MBBS), at the Kasturba Medical College in Mysore (Manipal and Mangalore) and had his Post-Graduate training at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Dr. Butany moved to Toronto in 1975 and started his pathology training at the University of Toronto (U of T), which he completed in 1979. Since then, he has worked at the Toronto General Hospital (now University Health Network) and the University of Toronto, starting as a Lecturer in 1980, with a break of one year when he was a Fellow at the NIH (National Heart Lung and Blood Institute) at Bethesda, Maryland with (late) Dr. Victor J. Ferrans. During this time, he had the pleasure of working with/meeting a number of pathologists who were fellows there, and Dr. William C. Roberts, then head of the Pathology branch. On his return from the NIH, Dr. Butany joined the Pathology Department of the Women’s College Hospital and six months later started at the Toronto General Hospital as a cardiovascular pathologist. He has worked on several committees at the University, at the Toronto General Hospital, and in the Pathology Department.

Dr. Butany has been involved in teaching at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels, including medical students, pathology residents, cardiology residents and cardiac surgery residents and fellows. He has mentored and taught cardiovascular pathology to numerous students from their second year at university onwards as they went on to become medical students, residents and staff members in diverse disciplines. He is actively involved in undergraduate and graduate teaching at the U of T School of Pharmacy with a focus on cardiovascular pathology. For several years he participated in teaching at the Occupational Therapy/Physiotherapy and nursing schools. One of the interesting aspects of his teaching is the hands on approach to cardiovascular pathology, based significantly on the use of archived cardiac specimens. He has been part of the Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology Specialist program since its inception, teaching two courses, one on Cardiovascular Pathology and the other on Neoplasms to undergraduate students, using a mix of didactic and “hands on” teaching. These courses have been very well received since their inception. He has been honored by the Toronto General Hospital, the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology (University of Toronto) with several teaching awards and by the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto with the Aiken’s Award for Individual Undergraduate Medical Student Teaching (1995) and the Colin Wolfe Award for Commitment to Continuing Medical Education (2012).

Dr. Butany has had an abiding interest in Continuing Professional Development for pathologists and was involved with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, in the setting up of its Maintenance of Certification Program (MOCOMP). He has been involved in continuing medical education programs for many years, and has organized and spoken at two courses on cardiovascular pathology in the late 1980s (in Toronto), courses at the USCAP and at the CAP. He is involved in teaching at courses in India, as well as in other countries. Since its inception, Dr. Butany has been involved in the CME activities of the Association of Indian Pathologists in North America (AIPNA) and often participates in their annual programs in India. He was their Keynote speaker at Vancouver in 2012 and delivered the named Oration (the Nagalotimath Oration) at the Annual CME program at Pondicherry, India, in January of 2013.

Professor Butany played a significant role as the pathologist involved with the SARS pandemic in Toronto (2003). His work on prosthetic mechanical valves was critical in the recall/ taking off the market, of one bileaflet valve (January 2000). He has over 280 peer reviewed publications which cover the gamut of cardiovascular disease with an emphasis on prosthetic heart valves and other cardiovascular devices. Dr. Butany’s publications include many other publications as well as authorship of book chapters and participation as an Editor of other books.

Dr. Butany has been President of the Canadian Association of Pathologists (2006 – 2009), and before that, the Chair of their CME Committee, responsible for organising the educational courses (Short courses) offered at the annual meeting (nine years). Dr. Butany has been honored by the Canadian Association of Pathologists with their Distinguished Service Award (July 2012).

Dr. Butany is a founding member of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology and has participated in its growth to its present stature as the pre-eminent Society for Cardiovascular Pathologists. He was the President of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology (2007 – 2009). Dr. Butany has been Co-Editor-in-Chief of Cardiovascular Pathology (with Dr. Avrum Gotlieb), the official journal of the Society of Cardiovascular Pathology and continues to serve on its Editorial Board. Dr. Butany is a member of the Editorial Board of several other journals.

On a more personal note, his personal achievements have made Jagdish realise how blessed and fortunate he has been in his career in Canada and in the colleagues he has worked with. From this has come a deep sense of obligation and the desire to “give back.” He is currently the Secretary-Treasurer of the World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (2009 – ) and a member of the Board of the World Pathology Foundation (2009 – ). The primary focus of both of these organisations (WASPaLM and WPF) is improving the quality of pathology and laboratory services worldwide and in helping countries-in-need improve their pathology and laboratory medicine services. Their approach is multifaceted, one facet being the organisation of CME programs for “countries-in-need”. Dr. Butany serves as a Director on the Board of Directors of The Scarborough Hospital (2008- ), the second largest Community/Academic Hospital in the country. Dr. Butany is a member of the Board of Trustees of his community’s Temple and participates actively in the management of the Temple.

Jagdish has had the love and companionship of his charming wife, Vidya Butany (a practising psychiatrist), for over four decades and the pleasure of being involved in the growth of their daughter Indrani, and now their grandchildren Neveah and Riaan and son-in-law Dirk. Amongst the things in his career that Jagdish has found most satisfying is the opportunity to work with his colleagues at the TGH, in the SCVP and his Co-Editor of CVP, Prof (Dr) Avrum Gotlieb.

Michael Gimbrone

Introductory remarks of Dr. Fredrick J. Schoen

I am so pleased that Michael A. Gimbrone, Jr. is receiving the 2013 Society for Cardiovascular Pathology Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award. As a long-term colleague and collaborator, I am delighted to introduce him for this lecture. Dr. Gimbrone is a pioneer and leading investigator in vascular biology, who is widely recognized for his immense contributions to the initiation and scientific and conceptual development of the discipline. Moreover, and importantly, he has shown immense leadership throughout his career in fostering a broad multidisciplinary academic environment in our department locally and far beyond, in which the highest academic standards converge with highly talented young people and key opportunities to promote career and personal success.

Dr. Gimbrone received his A.B. degree from Cornell University and his M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School in 1970. During his medical studies he pursued research in the Department of Anatomy at Harvard Medical School, learning ultrastructural anatomy and cell biology with Donald Fawcett. After completing an Internship at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and a Research Fellowship at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Boston, with Dr. Judah Folkman, he served as a Staff Associate at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. He then returned to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston for residency training in Pathology and subsequently rose through the academic ranks from Instructor to Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School in 1985. In 1976, he established the Vascular Pathophysiology Research Laboratory. In 1998, he was named the first Director of the Center for Excellence in Vascular Biology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Gimbrone’s research has focused on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of vascular disease, in particular the role of the endothelial cell in complex disease processes such as angiogenesis, atherosclerosis, thrombosis and inflammation. Indeed, Michael’s lecture today in honor of his Award is most appropriate to the focus of this session on Angiogenesis. In 1967 he sought out one of his first mentors, the young surgeon, Judah Folkman, and with whom he ultimately developed a rabbit cornea model and confirmed the capacity of tumors to secrete diffusible angiogenic factors that they needed to recruit new blood vessels in order for them to grow wild. With Dr. Folkman and another key mentor, Ramzi Cotran, Dr. Gimbrone was among the first to establish reproducible methods for the in vitro culture of endothelium and smooth muscle from human blood vessels. This platform permitted him to begin his lifelong scientific quest (and the development of an active and worldwhile line of research): to utilize the tools of modern cell biology and molecular biology to dissect the functions of vascular cells, especially endothelium, in health and disease. His laboratory subsequently discovered inducible endothelial-leukocyte adhesion molecules important in inflammation and atherogenesis. Most recently his group has focused on the molecular mechanisms linking biomechanical stimulation and endothelial genetic regulation in atherogenesis. This has led to the discovery of “athero-protective genes” that provide potential therapeutic targets for the prevention of heart attacks and strokes, and dissection of the mechanisms of athero-protective functions is a current major effort in the Gimbrone laboratory.

Dr. Gimbrone has published more than 250 research articles, book chapters and reviews in vascular biology. He was founding President of the North American Vascular Biology Organization (NAVBO). Among many honors and achievements, he has received the Basic Research Prize from the American Heart Association, a MERIT Award from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, the Cardiovascular Research Lifetime Achievement Award from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Institute, the Earl Benditt Lifetime Achievement Award in Vascular Biology from NAVBO, the Warner-Lambert Parke Davis Award in Experimental Pathology (FASEB), and the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (USA), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Michael stepped down one year ago from approximately a decade as Chairman of the Department of Pathology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts (USA) and Ramzi S. Cotran Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. For much of that decade he served as the HMS Academic Dean for Partners Healthcare Systems and a member of the Council of Academic Deans at HMS. He continues to serves as the BWH Director of the Center for Excellence in Vascular Biology.

It is highly appropriate that Michael follows other pioneering Vascular Biologists who previously received the Distinguished Achievement Award of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology, including Earl Benditt (1989), Guido Majno (1990), Ramzi Cotran (1997) and Russell Ross (1998).

Avrum Gotlieb

Prof. Gotlieb is the Senior Academic Advisor to the Dean (2011-2013), and Acting Vice-Dean, Graduate Affairs (2011-2013) in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. He obtained his BSc, MDCM and his Anatomic Pathology training at McGill University. He trained in the Department of Biology, University of California, San Diego, with S.J. Singer. Prof. Gotlieb joined the Department of Pathology at the University of Toronto in 1978. He is a cardiovascular pathologist at the University Health Network and a senior scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute. Prof. Gotlieb served as the founding Chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology (1997-2008), and as Interim Vice-Dean Research and International Relations (2009-2010) in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.

Prof. Gotlieb has received teaching awards from the hospital, the department, Faculty of Medicine, including two prestigious Aikins Awards and the Sustained Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award, as well as the Robbins Distringuished Educator Award from the American Society for Investigative Pathology (2011). He initiated an innovative and unique undergraduate arts and science specialist program in pathobiology that is in its 10th year and has seen many of its graduates go on to graduate and medical school. Prof Gotlieb authored the widely-disseminated informative career guide booklet, “The Road to Becoming a Biomedical Physician Scientist in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine,” sponsored by the American Society of Investigative Pathology and the Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology, University of Toronto, and in 2009 co-authored (with Dr. Tara Sander) a second career guide booklet for ASIP, “Journey to Success: Career Pathways for Biomedical Scientists in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.”

Prof. Gotlieb’s research includes atherosclerosis and valvular heart disease. Studies on the cell biology of cardiac valves focus on the role of interstitial valvular cells in maintaining the structure and function of heart valves, and interstitial cell function related to repair and cell heterogeneity. In vitro studies on endothelial injury and repair directed at understanding how the cell cytoskeleton regulates cell migration, and how various growth factors and cytokines modulate both migration and proliferation related to repair. Earlier studies include the pathogenesis of intimal hyperplasia, a lesion that predisposes to fibrofatty plaque formation; and the role of growth factors, cytokines, and proteinases on intimal hyperplasia. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers, and 37 reviews and book chapters. He has edited three books, including the comprehensive textbook Cardiovascular Pathology, edited with colleagues Malcolm D. Silver of the University of Toronto, and Frederick J. Schoen of Harvard Medical School. He has been an invited visiting professor and keynote speaker at national and international universities and research institutes. He is co-editor of the journal Cardiovascular Pathology (2001-2011) and serves on the editorial board of several leading journals in pathology, the American Journal of Pathology and Laboratory Investigation.

Prof. Gotlieb has been an innovative leader in academic medicine creating national and international infrastructures to promote research and education. His focus has been on Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Cardiovascular Pathology. He has provided guidance through carrying out external academic reviews, leading grant review panels and lecturing on the academic missions of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. He is a past-president of the Canadian Society of Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology, the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology and the American Society for Investigative Pathology. He is past vice-president for science policy of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, Bethesda, MD. In 2006, Prof. Gotlieb was elected as a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and will be awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology (2012).

Gaetano Thiene

Gaetano Thiene M.D. is Professor of Pathology and Consultant of Cardiovascular Pathology, Department of Medical Diagnostic Sciences and Special Therapies at the University of Padua Medical School, Padua, Italy. He was Director of the Institute of Pathological Anatomy at the University of Padua from 1998-2006.

Following graduation from the Medical School at the University of Padua, Dr. Thiene trained as both a Cardiologist (University of Padua) and a Pathologist (University of Trieste). He is Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London, U.K., Foreign Member of the Serbian Academy of Science and Arts in Beograd, Serbia, Corresponding Member of the Galileian Academy in Padua and Vice-President of the Olympic Academy in Vicenza, Italy.

His research interests have been across the broad fields of Cardiovascular Medicine and Pathology, particularly directed to clinicopathologic studies and clinical translation of basic research. Dr Thiene first reported Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC) as a major cause of sudden death in the young and in athletes (NEJM 1988) and has contributed to the elucidation of the genetic basis for ARVC. He is a principal architect of the Italian program in which all young individuals who participate in sports activities are screened for potential cardiovascular problems and in which all sudden unexpected deaths in the young are formally investigated by expert cardiovascular pathologists. This is the most successful such screening program in the world and it has led to major advances in understanding the causes of sudden death in the young. It resulted in a sharp decline (by 90%) of sudden death in the athletes of the Veneto Region, Italy, thanks to identification and disqualification of young people affected by cardiomyopathies. Dr. Thiene has been and continues to be a true visionary in this field.

Dr. Thiene has been the leader of the group in Padua which has worked at the interface between pathology and genetics in the cardiomyopathies and has identified several disease-causing mutations, correlating them with the clinical and pathological features of the disease. He has given important contributions to defining clinicopathologic correlations in heart valve disease and in the pathology of tissue valve substitutes, including the initial observation that calcification in human bioprostheses was initiated in cells. Dr. Thiene has made other contributions to congenital heart disease, molecular genetics and pathology of myocarditis, coronary artery disease, arrhythmias and conduction system disease, cardiac tumors, the use of the endomyocardial biopsy and cardiac transplantation.

Up to October 31st 2010, he has published nearly 700 reports of original investigations and reviews in Index leading journals of pathology and cardiovascular medicine, and additionally is co-author and/or co-editor of 15 monographs. His papers collected an overall Impact Factor of 2826 and 14083 quotations, with an Hirch index of 52 from 1996.

Dr. Thiene is Associate Editor of Cardiovascular Pathology and of the Journal of Heart Valve Disease, and serves on the Editorial Board and/or acts as reviewer of other prestigious journals in cardiology, medicine and pathology.

Moreover, Dr. Thiene has been a tireless champion of and participant in the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology (SCVP), of Cardiovascular Pathology as a subspecialty as well as of international cooperation. He has been a major driver of the Association for European CardioVascular Pathology (AECVP) and has motivated young people in Europe to enter the field of Cardiovascular Pathology, training several as a direct mentor.

More generally he has led the definition of educational and training requirements for Cardiovascular Pathology. He is Past-President of the SCVP (2003-05) and of the AECVP (2004-06). As immediate past SCVP Program Chair, he “revitalized” the Sunday Companion Society meetings in conjunction with the USCAP and he initiated a topical Saturday afternoon session of specific interest to Cardiovascular Pathologists.