Gerson Rosenberg, Ph.D. is the C. McCollister Evarts, MD Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering; Chief of the Division of Artificial Organs, and Co-Director for the Biomedical Engineering Institute at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

In high school Gus could best be described as “non academic.” He did very well in the school’s vocational program, and did not consider attending college.

Upon graduation Gus went to work for a local roofing and sheet metal company. On one particular job he was exposed to several engineers, which sparked an interest in the profession. Gus became friends with a bright young engineering student attending Drexel University. He was so impressed with his new friend’s knowledge and ability to understand complex scientific problems that Gus decided he also had to attend college to better understand the science and engineering.

After a year of night school Gus became a full time engineering student. In 1966 he joined the Army ROTC program and in 1970 graduated with a BS in Mechanical engineering, and received his commission in the US Army.

Gus displayed a passion for all things mechanical with a heightened curiosity of how things worked. The vocational program at North Penn provided Gus invaluable skills that he has applied though out his engineering career in designing, building, and testing devices. He was especially fascinated with sports cars, and to this day continues to design, build, and race sports cars in SCCA national competition.

Gus became interested in Biomedical Engineering, the Artificial Heart and assisted circulation after hearing a presentation by a young physician Dr William S Pierce. Little did he know at the time that the course of his career was being set? Gus went on to earn a masters and PhD degree in mechanical engineering at Penn State. His thesis research spanned the design of a mock circulatory system to test blood pumps to the study of the effect of assisted circulation on myocardial oxygen consumption. Upon completing his Ph.D. and six months of active duty time in the Army, Gus joined the Penn State faculty, and in 1976 moved to the Milton S Hershey Medical Center to conduct his research.

Dr. Rosenberg has over 35 years of experience in the design, development and application of various circulatory support and heart replacement devices. He considers himself very fortunate to have had some of the world leaders in the field as mentors and later friends and had the privilege of leading the Artificial Organs Division consisting of some of the finest individuals in the field. He has been the principal investigator on NIH grants totaling over $30 million dollars. Dr. Rosenberg currently directs efforts on the development of two circulatory support devices to assist the failing heart.

Dr. Rosenberg was part of the original team that developed the current clinically available Pierce-Donachy left ventricular assist device marketed by Thoratec. He was the principal investigator on the development on the Penn State Electric Total Artificial Heart. This device is currently under development by Abiomed, Inc. and is referred to as the AbioCor II device. In addition, Dr. Rosenberg led the team that developed the Arrow LionHeart™, the world’s first completely implantable left ventricular assist device that was utilized in 30 patients. He is quick to give credit to the many people that work on the projects and to point out that without the interdisciplinary effort their success would be greatly diminished. Dr. Rosenberg has over 300 manuscripts, abstracts and book chapters. He has received funding from the Whitaker Foundation to establish the Biomedical Engineering Institute at Hershey. He has developed a graduate course on the design of artificial organs. Dr. Rosenberg has received several awards for his work. In 2002 he was named “Engineer of the Year” by Design News Magazine. He is a Penn State Alumni Fellow; a Founding Fellow of the AIMBE, and a life member of the ASME. Dr. Rosenberg has been a member of NIH Study Sections. He is an active reviewer for several journals. Dr. Rosenberg is the past president of the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs, and is recognized worldwide as a leader in the design; development and evaluation of total heart and heart assist devices. He has advised and mentored numerous students in the colleges of engineering and medicine. To this day Dr. Rosenberg still has his “vocational roots” and continues his interest in sports car. He is an accomplished race car designer, builder and driver, competing for the past 26 years in SCCA national racing in cars that he constructed.

Dr. Rosenberg and his wife Irene are the proud parents of two daughters; Kate, a surface warfare officer in the Navy currently serving as on the USS Vicksburg CG69 and daughter Lisa, busy raising two lovely children ages four and six.