Association of University Cardiologists
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Edmund H. Sonnenblick, M.D.
1932 - 2007
Edmund H. Sonnenblick, the Edmond J. Safra Distinguished University Professor of Medicine and Chief Emeritus the Division of Cardiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, died on September 22, 2007, after a long struggle with esophageal cancer.
Born in New Haven, Conn, he graduated from Wesleyan University summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1954, and from Harvard Medical School cum laude and Alpha Omega Alpha in 1958. He then entered the residency program in internal medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian in New York City. In 1960, he joined the laboratory of Dr Stanley Sarnoff at the National Heart Institute and began his seminal work on cardiac function and myocardial muscle mechanics.
In 1963, Dr Sonnenblick joined the cardiology branch of the National Institutes of Health and published a series of articles, alone and with Drs Eugene Braunwald and John Ross and others, applying the concepts of preload, afterload, and contractility to normal and pathological states.
In 1967, Dr Sonnenblick was recruited to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital as director of cardiovascular research and co-director, with Dr Richard Gorlin, of the cardiovascular unit. There he continued his productive research and trained a group of cardiologists who went on to be leaders of their own cardiology research laboratories and divisions of cardiology.
In 1975, he joined the Albert Einstein College of Medicine as professor of medicine and the first director of a newly formed cardiology division.
After stepping down from his division directorship in 1996, Dr Sonnenblick remained active as an important contributor until the very end. He continued his research alliance with Dr Anversa, and his contribution of ideas to the innovative research from that laboratory was of inestimable value.