Alain Frédéric Carpentier | |
---|---|
Born |
Toulouse, Haute-Garonne |
11 August 1933
Fields | Heart Surgery |
Institutions | Pierre and Marie Curie University |
Known for | Mitral Valve Repair |
Notable awards | Prix mondial Cino Del Duca (1996), Medallion for Scientific Achievement (2005), Lasker Prize (2007) |
Alain Frédéric Carpentier M.D. Ph.D. (born 11 August 1933 in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne) is a French surgeon whom the President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery calls the father of modern mitral valve repair. He is the recipient of the 2007 Lasker Prize.
He received his MD from the University of Paris in 1966 and his PhD from the same university in 1975. A professor emeritus at Pierre and Marie Curie University, in the 1980s Carpentier published a landmark paper on mitral valve repair entitled The French Correction. A visiting professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, he currently heads the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Hôpital Européen Georges-Pompidou in Paris. In 1986, he and Gilles Dreyfus performed the first artificial heart implant in Europe.
Carpentier is a member of the French Academy of Sciences and sits on the Board of Directors of the World Heart Foundation. The recipient of numerous awards, including the 1996 Prix mondial Cino Del Duca, in 2005 the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) bestowed its Medallion for Scientific Achievement for only the fifth time in its history. In announcing Carpentier as the recipient, the AATS also noted that he is "one of the foremost medical philanthropists in the world, having established a premier cardiac center in Vietnam a decade ago where over 1,000 open-heart cases are now performed annually. In addition, he has founded cardiac surgery programs in 17 French-speaking countries in Africa." In October 2001 he received an Honorary Doctor of Medicine and Surgery degree from University of Pavia.