Bernard Lown

Bernard Lown (born June 7, 1921) is the original developer of the DC defibrillator and the cardioverter, as well as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Lown developed the direct current defibrillator for cardiac resuscitation and the cardioverter for correcting rapid disordered heart rhythms, and introduced a new use for the drug lidocaine to control heartbeat disturbances. Throughout his medical career, Lown focused on two major medical challenges: the problem of sudden cardiac death and the role of psychological stress on the cardiovascular system. His investigations led to many medical break-throughs. Among these were the coronary care unit. His work made possible and safe much of modern cardiac surgery, as well as a host of other innovations.

In 1985, Lown accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, an organization he co-founded with Soviet cardiologist Dr. Yevgeny Chazov, who later was Minister Of Health of the USSR.

Lown is currently Professor of Cardiology Emeritus at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Senior Physician Emeritus at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA. He is the founder of the Lown Cardiovascular Center and Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation. He recently founded the Lown Institute, which aims to reform both the health care system and society.

Born to a Jewish family in Lithuania, the son of a rabbi. Bernard Lown emigrated to Lewiston, Maine at age 13, shortly before the outbreak of World War II.

Lown graduated summa cum laude from the University of Maine and received an M.D. from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1945. His medical training included Yale-New Haven Hospital (Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut); Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY; and a cardiology fellowship at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston). His mentor in cardiology was the renowned clinical cardiologist, Samuel A. Levine.

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