Joseph S. Alpert, MD

Dr. Alpert came to the University of Arizona from the University of Massachusetts in Worcester where he served as the Edward Budnitz Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, and vice-chairman of medicine. Following his fellowship at a Harvard teaching hospital, Dr. Alpert became a staff cardiologist and director of the Coronary Care Unit at the Naval Regional Medical Center in San Diego and an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Following his military service, he returned to Harvard Medical School and was appointed assistant professor of medicine and director of the Samuel A. Levine Cardiac Unit, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. In 1978, Dr. Alpert joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts as professor and chief of the Section of Cardiovascular Medicine. In 1992, he was appointed the Robert S. and Irene P. Flinn Professor of Medicine and Chair at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, a position he held until 2006.

He is also a fellow of the Council on Clinical Cardiology of the American Heart Association and a past chairman of this council, a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Chest Physicians, and the European Society of Cardiology, a master of the American College of Physicians, and past president of the Society of Geriatric Cardiology, and has served on many national committees of these organizations.

Dr. Alpert has been a member of the American Heart Association since 1971. He is an honorary member of the Danish Cardiovascular Society, the Argentina Cardiology Association, and the Israeli Heart Society. Dr. Alpert currently sits on the board of trustees of the Association of Professors of Medicine and is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the American College of Cardiology and the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Alpert currently serves as the editor in chief of the American Journal of Medicine and is the former editor of the journals Cardiology, Current Cardiology Reports, and Cardiology in Review. He is a member of the editorial board of 10 internal medicine and cardiovascular journals. He is the author of 48 books and monographs, more than 200 original scientific publications, more than 400 book chapters, review articles, and editorials, and more than 100 abstracts.

Dr. Alpert lives in Tucson. In the past, Dr. Alpert has team taught a course titled Literature and Medicine. He has two children: a daughter, Eva, who is a tax attorney in Boston, and a son, Niels, who is a director and cinematographer in California.