John Ross: Epitome of a Medical Triple-Threat

Abstract

> Preamble by Gerd Heusch: > > When I was kindly invited by Dr. Roberto Bolli to write a short preamble to the profile of my revered mentor Dr. John Ross Jr., I felt both honored and challenged. After all, there are more than 60 of us former fellows of his, who were inspired by him early in our career and then moved on to become professors and leaders in cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, or physiology in the US, in Europe, or in Asia. I find it a bit difficult to characterize such a great man who is so unassuming, so I will share with you some of my personal experience. > > It is almost exactly 30 years ago that I first met Dr. Ross when I attended my first American Physiological Society meeting in San Diego in 1982. I presented my early work on the precipitation of myocardial ischemia through α-adrenergic coronary vasoconstriction during sympathetic nerve stimulation. After my presentation, a small man in the back of the audience stood up and in very kind and gentle words asked me about the orientation of our implanted piezocrystals in relation to myocardial fiber direction and the potential of sympathetic denervation by coronary instrumentation. I gave a light-hearted answer and everything was fine. The potential weight of Dr. Ross' question sank in on me only on my flight back to Germany. > > I was formally introduced to Dr. Ross in 1984 during the European Society of Cardiology congress in Dusseldorf by my clinical mentor Prof. Dr. Franz Loogen. I mentioned that I was considering doing a fellowship in the US, he asked me what I had in mind specifically (nothing really at the time), and I ended up with his kind invitation to come to Seaweed Canyon Laboratory. In 1985 I showed up in San Diego, funded …