MICHEL MIROWSKI, a pioneering cardiologist, was the inventor and co-developer of the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), a lifesaving device that detects ventricular fibrillation and produces a counter-shock that returns the heart to normal rhythm. Dr. Mirowski survived the Holocaust as a young teenager in Poland and studied medicine in Lyons, France. He completed his residency and fellowship at Tel Hashomer Hospital in Israel and in pediatric cardiology at Johns Hopkins with Helen Taussig. During a career spanning more than 30 years, Dr. Mirowski published extensively in the field of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias. He led the way for the clinical use of the ICD despite enormous obstacles and skepticism from within the medical profession. It was his steadfast commitment to the concept of the ICD and to the goal of introducing it into clinical cardiology in his lifetime that allowed him to see its success and life-saving impact before his untimely death in 1990.
Michel Mirowski, M.D., Professorship in Cardiology
School of Medicine
Established in 1998 by the Mirowski Family Foundation in memory of Michel Mirowski
Held by Charles Lowenstein
CHARLIE LOWENSTEIN, M.D., assumed his role as the chief of the Johns Hopkins Division of Cardiology on January 6, 2020. Dr. Lowenstein obtained his M.D. at the Harvard Medical School. He completed his medical residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital and his cardiology fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, prior to joining the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Division of Cardiology as an assistant professor in 1993. Over the course of the next sixteen years, Dr. Lowenstein was promoted to associate professor and professor of medicine. He left Johns Hopkins in 2009 to assume the role of chief of cardiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, where he also served as professor of medicine and director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He is board certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease.
As chief of cardiology at the University of Rochester, he was responsible for overseeing all clinical and translational research in the division. In his role as director of the Aab Cardiovascular Research Institute, he oversaw research, mentorship, recruitment, finances, and administration of their cardiovascular basic science programs. Dr. Lowenstein’s own research is focused on vascular biology, with a focus on vascular inflammation and thrombosis. He is the current recipient of an NIH R01 grant for his work on population genomic variation, functional biology, and the risk of venous thrombosis. He has received over 33 major grants in the course of his career, including four previous NIH R01 Grants for which he was the principal investigator.
Dr. Lowenstein has served on the NIH Atherosclerosis and Inflammation Cardiovascular Sciences study section. He is a member of the Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation, an organization that funds medical student research. Dr. Lowenstein’s past awards include the Peter Dolphin Award from Pfizer, the Sir William Osler Young Investigator Award, and the Young Investigators Conference on Atherosclerosis Award from Merck.