Kolff

Patent No. 3,641,591
Soft Shell Mushroom Shaped Heart

Willem J. Kolff was born on February 14, 1911 in the Netherlands. He received his M.D. degree in Leiden in 1938 and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Groningen in Holland in 1946. He came to the U.S. in 1950 and became a U.S. citizen in 1956.

From 1934 to 1936 he was Assistant of Pathological Anatomy, University of Leiden. Later, from 1938 to 1941 he was Assistant in the Medical Department, Municipal Hospital, Kampen Holland. From 1950 to 1951 he was Privaat docent, University of Leiden Medical School Holland.

After coming to America, he was a member of the research staff of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. From 1950 to 1967, he was Assistant Professor and later Professor of Clinical Investigation, Education Foundation of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. He was later Scientific Director, Artificial Organs Program, Cleveland Clinic and Professor of Surgery, Division of Artificial Organs, School of Medicine, University of Utah.

Dr. Kolff is the acknowledged inventor of the artificial kidney dialysis machine. This instrument has been perfected through a series of improvements so that there are an estimated 55,000 people in the U.S. with end-stage renal disease that are being kept alive by this invention or a subsequent modification of it. He never patented his original machine. Later in his career, he headed a team which invented and tested an artificial heart.

Dr. Kolff received 81 national and international awards, among which are the Cameron Prize of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and the Harvey Prize of Technion. He is Commandeur in de Orde Van Oranje-Nassau and recipient of the highest civilian award of Argentina. He also received nine honorary doctorates. 

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