Dov Jaron, Drexel professor emeritus and celebrated biomedical engineer, has died at 88

Dov Jaron, 88, of Bala Cynwyd, professor emeritus and Calhoun Distinguished Professor of Engineering in Medicine at Drexel University, pioneering innovator of cardiac assist devices, celebrated researcher, and musician, died Tuesday, Sept. 24, of cancer at his home.

Dr. Jaron was an expert in the engineering and clinical use of revolutionary cardiac mechanical support systems. He studied how artificial devices interacted with the body’s natural cardiovascular system, and he championed bioengineering research as a key component in the “benefit of society.”

“It’s essential that the research has implication to policy,” he said at the 2014 International Sociological Association’s World Congress of Sociology in Japan.

He worked with famed cardiologist Adrian Kantrowitz in the 1960s and ’70s, and helped engineer the first intra-aortic balloon pump system for the human heart. He studied cell biology and genomics, worked with pilots on the effects of high acceleration stress, and examined how oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged in tissue cells.

He was founding director of the Biomedical Engineering and Science Institute at Drexel and a professor of engineering from 1980 to 1996. Former colleagues at Drexel called him a “mentor” and a “kind and generous friend“ in a tribute.

“His contributions … are too numerous to count,” they said. “We hope that his spirit will be with us all for a very, very long time and that his visionary work continues to inspire future generations.”

Dr. Jaron also served as director of the Division of Biological and Critical Systems in the Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation, and director of the biomedical technology program at the National Institutes of Health. He was president of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, and the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering.

He was vice president of the International Union for Physical and Engineering Sciences, and a fellow or member of dozens of other medical and engineering councils, academies, associations, and institutes. He organized symposia and conferences on urban health and created consortiums to address common issues.

He earned the NIH Director’s Award, a 2015 medal of honor from the Polish Academy of Sciences, and other awards for his leadership and promotion of bioengineering research. Nearly 200 of his papers and chapters were published in journals and books.

He was on staff in the electrical engineering department at the University of Rhode Island and coordinator of its biomedical engineering program from 1973 to 1979. Earlier, he was director at surgical research laboratories at Maimonides Medical Center in New York and Sinai Hospital in Detroit.

Away from the labs and libraries, Dr. Jaron played the viola da gamba and recorder with his wife and fellow musician, Brooke. They performed baroque music at local events, and he had his own YouTube channel that featured some of his favorite pieces.

“He was so full of life and energy,” said his daughter Tamara. “He was always doing, doing, doing. He was a smart problem-solver.”

Dov Jaron was born Oct. 29, 1935, in Tel Aviv, in what was then Palestine. He witnessed the establishment of Israel as a teenager in 1948, served three years in the Israeli military, and immigrated to Denver, where he had relatives, in 1958.

He was interviewed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1999, and said he was inspired by a high school teacher to pursue physics and math. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Denver in 1961 and a doctorate in biomedical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania in 1967.

He met Linda Hufnagel at Penn, and they married and had daughters Shula and Tamara. After a divorce, he met Brooke Ballin at a music workshop. They married in 1978 and lived in Chestnut Hill and, later, Bala Cynwyd.

Dr. Jaron lived near Washington when he wasn’t working in Philadelphia. He and his wife spent time at a second home in Sarasota, Fla., and they enjoyed memorable vacations in Cape Cod, Mass., and elsewhere.

They went to concerts, museums, and the theater together, and he was interested in current events and politics. “He was a Renaissance man,” his wife said. His daughter Tamara said: “He had magnetism.”

In addition to his wife and daughters, Dr. Jaron is survived by five grandchildren, a brother, and other relatives.

A private service is to be held later.

Donations in his name may be made to the American Cancer Society, Box 6704, Hagerstown, Md. 21741.