Valery Ivanovich
Shumakov
1931-2008
Valery Ivanovich Shumakov was a Soviet and Russian transplant surgeon, professor, and full member of both the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR and the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labour in 1990, the USSR State Prize in 1971, and the Russian State Prize in 2002. In addition, he received the Order of Saint Andrew the First-Called in 2001. Shumakov was born on November 9, 1931, in Moscow, in a family of civil engineers. During the Great Patriotic War, he was evacuated to Shilovo, the Ryazan Region, where he attended school. After graduating from the 1st Moscow Medical Institute in 1956 with honours, he completed his postgraduate studies in topographic anatomy and operative surgery at the same institution in 1959. He earned the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences and became a professor in 1969. In 1959, he defended his PhD thesis on the surgical correction of mitral valve insufficiency. In 1965, he defended his doctoral thesis on heart valve prosthetics. In 1978, he became a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences and in 1988, a full member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. Since 1994, he was the Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the field of physiology. From 1959 to 1963, he worked as a junior research fellow at the Department of Hospital Surgery at the 1st MMI. In 1961, he spent six months studying modern methods of diagnosing cardiovascular diseases in the United States. From 1963 onwards, he held various positions at the Research Institute of Clinical and Experimental Surgery, later renamed the Russian Scientific Centre of Surgery named after B.V. Petrovsky. From 1963 until 1974, he was a senior research fellow, then the head of the laboratory for artificial heart and auxiliary blood circulation, and from 1974 onwards. He headed the Institute of Organ and Tissue Transplantation of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (later renamed the Research Institute of Transplantology and Artificial Organs and now known as the V. I. Shumakov National Research Institute of Transplantology and Artificial Organs). Under his leadership, the Institute has become a leading centre for transplantation, as well as the creation and use of artificial and bio-artificial organs. One of the founders of Russian clinical transplantology, V. I. Shumakov performed the first successful kidney transplant in the USSR in 1965. (together with B. V. Petrovsky), a donor heart transplant in 1987, as well as a liver transplant in 1990. He was the author of more than 450 scientific papers, more than 200 inventions, including artificial heart valves, pacemakers, artificial heart and auxiliary circulatory devices. He was the Hero of Socialist Labour (1990), he was awarded the Order of Lenin (1990), “For Services to the Fatherland” II (1999) and III (1995) degrees, the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called (2001). He was the Laureate of the USSR State Prize (1971) and the State Prize of the Russian Federation (2002), as well as the prizes of the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of science and technology (1997 and 2007, the latter awarded posthumously). He was the Honoured Inventor of the RSFSR (1978), Honorary citizen of Moscow (1997) and the Ryazan Region (2002).
Address: Moscow, Shchukinskaya St., 1
