Albert Starr

Who is Albert Starr?

Albert Starr, is a noted cardiovascular surgeon and pioneer, inventor of the Starr heart valve, who resides and practices in the Portland, Oregon area. Starr is special adviser to OHSU Dean of Medicine Mark Richardson and OHSU President Joseph Robertson at Oregon Health and Science University. Albert Starr was born on June 1, 1926, in New York, New York. He received his B.A. degree from Columbia College in 1946 and his M.D. degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1949. He then went on to do his internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital and his residency in general and thoracic surgery at the Bellevue and Presbyterian Hospitals of Columbia University. He was an assistant in surgeon at Columbia University until 1957, when he moved to Oregon—having been enticed, in part, by the Oregon Heart Association's promises to help fund his research and to take him salmon fishing. There he worked for the Crippled Children's Division at the University of Oregon Medical School. Starr was an instructor in surgery when he met Lowell Edwards in September 1958. Starr has said of this meeting, "He was in his 60s and I was in my 30s, but there was no generation gap between us.