Robert Koffler Jarvik (1946–2025) was an American scientist, medical researcher, and entrepreneur, best known for developing the Jarvik-7 artificial heart, the first permanent mechanical heart implanted in a human. His pioneering work in artificial organs made him a central figure in biomedical engineering and medical ethics debates.
Born in Midland, Michigan, Jarvik studied at Syracuse University, earning a bachelor’s degree in zoology in 1968, and later pursued a master’s in occupational biomechanics at New York University (1971.) Initially rejected by numerous U.S. medical schools, he studied medicine briefly at the University of Bologna in Italy before transferring to the University of Utah, where he earned his M.D. in 1976. At Utah, Jarvik joined Willem Johan Kolff’s artificial organs program, working on heart prototypes. His design improvements led to the Jarvik-7, a pneumatic artificial heart.
In 1982, surgeon William DeVries implanted the Jarvik-7 into Barney Clark, a retired dentist, marking the first permanent artificial heart implantation. Clark lived 112 days, and the case drew worldwide attention, sparking debates about medical technology and ethics. Jarvik continued to refine heart devices, later founding Jarvik Research, Inc., which developed the Jarvik 2000 Left Ventricular Assist System.
Publications include his autobiography A Song of the Heart (1983,) in which he reflected on the challenges of artificial organ development. Scholarly works such as Solutions for the Failing Heart (1990) also bear his name. Biographies and studies, including engineer Bruce L. R. Smith’s Engineering the Heart: The Jarvik Story (1994,) highlight his contributions and controversies.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Robert Jarvik
Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them. They make the impossible happen.
—Robert Jarvik
Topics: Fear, Anxiety, Leadership, Foresight, Vision, Forethought
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