Jeffrey Borer, MD, is Professor of Medicine, Cell Biology, Radiology, and Surgery at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center. For many years he served as Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and, simultaneously, as Chairman, Department of Medicine, at SUNY Downstate, administrative positions he has now relinquished to concentrate on his work as Director of two research institutes at Downstate.

Dr. Borer received a BA from Harvard University, an MD from Cornell University, trained at the Massachusetts General Hospital, spent seven years in the Cardiology Branch at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and a year at Guy’s Hospital in London, England as Senior Fullbright Hays Scholar and Glorney-Raisbeck Fellow in Medical Sciences. At Guy’s Hospital, Dr. Borer completed the first clinical demonstration of nitroglycerin’s utility in acute myocardial infarction following his several years of preclinical studies at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Upon returning to the NIH, he developed stress radionuclide cineangiography, enabling the first non-invasive assessment of cardiac function with exercise, and importantly changing the practice of cardiology. He then returned to Cornell for 30 years as Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Pathophsiology. At Cornell and Downstate, he performs clinical service, teaching, and research, the latter primarily developing prognosticators for regurgitant valve diseases and assessing the effects of heart rate modification on clinical outcomes, with trials in coronary artery disease and heart failure.

Dr. Borer has been an Advisor to the US Food and Drug Administration for 39 years, chaired the CardioRenal Drugs Advisory Committee for three terms and the Circulatory Devices Advisory Panel for one term. He was also a life sciences Advisor to NASA for 24 years. He has served as officer/board member for several national professional societies (most recently founding President, Heart Valve Society of America 2004-2014, now expanded to the Heart Valve Society [international], of which he serves on the Board of Trustees), published almost 500 scientific papers and 8 books, and participated in various roles in numerous clinical trials of therapies. Dr. Borer is editor-in-chief of the journal Cardiology and has received several awards and other recognitions for his work including, most recently, the Lifetime Achievement Award for the Heart Valve Society of America and Society of Heart Valve Disease of Europe (2014), and his selection as one of three Legends of Cardiology at the 10th Annual Complex Catheter-based Cardiovascular Therapeutics Conference (2014). His research has been supported by the NIH, American Heart Association, and, for many years, by several large private foundations.