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Julio C. Palmaz is chief scientific advisor of Vactronix Scientific and an honorary Ashbel Smith Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

Palmaz developed the first balloon expandable vascular stent to receive U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. The Palmaz Stent is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. In 1994, Palmaz and fellow 2019 Russ Prize recipient Richard Schatz created a modified coronary stent—the Palmaz-Schatz stent, which became the gold standard for every subsequent stent submitted for FDA approval. It has been used in nearly 100 million patients worldwide, making the Palmaz-Schatz Stent one of the top 10 medical device patents of the last 50 years.

He joined the University of Texas Health Sciences Department of Radiology in 1983 as chief of angiography and special procedures until 1999, then served as chief of cardiovascular and interventional radiology research until 2005.

Palmaz was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006, selected for the Gold Medal of the Society of Interventional in 2007, and inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2013. He is a distinguished scientist and fellow of the American Heart Association, a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, and a fellow of the Society of Interventional Radiology. Palmaz has also received honorary recognitions from the Argentinian College of Cardiology, National University of La Plata, International Society of Endovascular Surgery, Society of Interventional Radiology, German Roentgen Society, San Antonio chapter of the AHA, Washington Cardiovascular Research Foundation, Society of Cardiac Angiography, Texas Heart Institute, Texas Bar Association, Surfaces in Biomaterials Foundation, and Cardiovascular Interventional Radiology Society of Europe.

He has 60 patents, and has authored more than 35 books or book chapters, and more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals.

Palmaz received his M.D. in 1971 at the National University of La Plata, Argentina, with radiology specialty training at the University of California, Davis’, Martinez VA Medical Center.