AMOSOV, N(ikolai) M(ikhailovich) 1913-2002

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Given name sometimes transliterated as Nicolai; patronymic sometimes transliterated as Mikhailovitch; surname sometimes transliterated as Amosoff; born December 6, 1913, in Olkhova, Russia; died December 12, 2002, in Ukraine. Cardiologist, surgeon, educator, and author. Amosov was a pioneer of Russian open-heart surgery whose groundbreaking work with artificial heart valves and related surgical procedures earned him some of the former Soviet Union's most prestigious honors. During a fifty-year career, Amosov was a surgeon and administrator at the Yanovsky Ukrainian Research Institute, the Institute of Thoracic Surgery in Kiev, Ukraine, and the Institute of Cybernetics of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, among other institutions. He was deputy director of the Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Chest Surgery from 1968 through 1983 and directed the Kiev Research Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery, where he also taught from 1983 through 1989. In addition to publishing many scientific works, Amosov also wrote novels, short stories, and a memoir, The Open Heart, which in translation offered Western readers of the 1960s a rare view of the day-to-day life of a Soviet surgeon. Amosov was a fitness enthusiast as well, recognized by the Soviet general-reading public as the author of the 1965 book Thoughts on Health, a physical-fitness guide to better health for better living. It was said that Amosov himself maintained a rigorous exercise regimen well into his retirement years.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

books

Amosov, N. M., The Open Heart, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1967.

periodicals

Charleston Gazette, December 14, 2002, p. 8C.