![[Portrait of Marvin Slepian, an older white man in a white lab coat in a lab setting.]](https://deptmedicine.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/2023-11-06_051923-marvin-slepian-nhg_3403-card1.jpg "Marvin Slepian, MD, JD")
Marvin J. Slepian, MD, JD, Regents' Professor of Medicine, Medical Imaging and Surgery at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson and Biomedical Engineering at the UArizona College of Engineering, has been named a 2023 Biomedical Engineering Society Fellow.
“Being selected as Fellow in BMES is a major honor for which I am grateful and humbled,” said Dr. Slepian, who is also a member of the Sarver Heart Center and BIO5 Institute.
It’s an honor that comes with a lot of responsibility, he added.
“We continue to face increasing challenges that impact personal and global health,” he said. “Becoming a Fellow underscores one’s role and voice for driving the field and shaping policy for a better future for all.”
The society, which awards the professional distinction to members who demonstrate exceptional achievements and experience in the field of biomedical engineering, recognized 30 new fellows during its annual meeting in Seattle on Oct. 12.
He holds additional UArizona appointments in Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical and Environmental Engineering and Chemistry.
A member of the Biomedical Engineering Society for more than 20 years, Slepian is hailed as an innovator for creating biodegradable stents, polymer paving systems, novel heart valves and the total artificial heart. Slepian co-founded SynCardia Systems, which makes the only FDA-approved total artificial heart and has founded several other medical device companies.
Danny Bluestein, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering at Stony Book University in New York as well as a BMES Fellow and a frequent collaborator and co-publisher with Dr. Slepian, said his colleague is one of a kind.
“He has the unique ability to identify critical clinical problems and drill down to their most basic level, define mechanisms and rapidly translate discoveries – yielding both new science, new mechanistic insight into disease process, and offer innovative therapeutic approaches and devices which have made their way fully to the clinic,” Dr. Bluestein wrote in his nominating letter.
Dr. Slepian is also the founder and director of the Arizona Center for Accelerated Biomedical Innovation, a university-wide “creativity engine” designed to develop practical solutions to unmet needs in health care and other fields.
Dr. Slepian, who graduated from the UArizona James E. Rogers College of Law in May, is now working toward an LLM, or Master of Laws, and said he enjoys cycling and running trails whenever he gets the chance.