Physician Robert K. Jarvik is designer and biomedical engineer of the first artificial heart used as a permanent implant in a human being. The device, named Jarvik-7, was implanted in Barney Clark on December 2, 1982, at the University of Utah Medical Center. Mr. Clark lived 112 days with the artificial heart. Jarvik has also performed research on other artificial organs and is author of more than 60 technical articles. He holds a number of patents on medical devices and has received numerous awards, including two citations of "Inventor of the Year"--from Intellectual Property Owners in 1982 and from National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1983. Jarvik also holds honorary doctorates from Syracuse University and Hahnemann University, presented in 1983 and 1985 respectively.

Robert Koffler Jarvik was born May 11, 1946, in Midland, Michigan, son of physician Norman Eugene Jarvik and Edythe Koffler Jarvik, and was raised in Stamford, Connecticut. As a teenager, Jarvik was a tinkerer...