Valentin Fuster (director of Mount Sinai Heart and physician-in-chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, USA) and Jeffrey W Olin (professor of Cardiology and Director of the Vascular Medicine and Vascular Diagnostics Laboratory at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) both received awards at the American Heart Association (AHA) scientific sessions (12–16 November, New Orleans, USA). The International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences awarded Fuster with the Medal of Merit: the highest honour of the Academy is bestowed for outstanding achievements in cardiovascular education and research.
Fuster currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC). He is a past president of both the American Heart Association and the World Heart Federation. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, where he served as chair of the Committee on Preventing the Global Epidemic of Cardiovascular Disease, and was a member of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Additionally, Fuster was also President of the training programme of the American College of Cardiology.
The AHA’s Council on Peripheral Vascular Disease presented Olin with the Distinguished Achievement Award. This prestigious award is presented to an individual who has made substantial professional contributions to the field.
Olin has been at the forefront of establishing vascular medicine as a distinct subspecialty of cardiovascular medicine and was instrumental in the formation of the American Board of Vascular Medicine. He is a past president of the Society for Vascular Medicine and was awarded the society’s highest honour, Master of the Society for Vascular Medicine. He is a past associate editor of the journal Vascular Medicine, current associate editor for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and editor of the textbook Peripheral Vascular Diseases.
