Roberto C. Heros
2005, Boston, MA
Roberto C. Heros was born in 1942 in Havana, Cuba. After the Communist takeover in 1960, he left Cuba for exile. He participated as a paratrooper platoon commander in the Bay of Pigs invasion and was captured. After serving two years in prison, Dr. Heros was released as a result of an exchange with the United States Government. He attended medical school at the University of Tennessee where he graduated, first in his class, in 1968.
Dr. Heros had his internship and his first year general surgery residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and then served in the US Air Force as Major for two years. He then completed his residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and then moved to the University of Pittsburgh as an Assistant Professor. He moved back to Massachusetts General Hospital in 1980 to become Director of Cerebrovascular Surgery. Dr. Heros moved through the academic ranks at Harvard to reach full professorship in 1989 at which time he moved to the University of Minnesota as the Lyle A. French Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery. Dr. Heros moved to the University of Miami in 1995 as Professor, Co-Chairman and Program Director of the Department of Neurosurgery and the founding Director of the University of Miami International Health Center.
Dr. Heros has authored or co-authored four textbooks and has published about 150 refereed articles and approximately 70 textbook chapters dealing with cerebral aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations, experimental cerebral ischemia and skull base surgical approaches. His research has been in the area of cerebral protection from ischemia, particularly with hemodilution; he held NIH funding as primary investigator in this area for twelve years. He has been a Visiting Professor at over 50 institutions in this country and abroad and he has given over 500 invited national and international presentations. Dr. Heros holds honorary memberships in several Latin American and European neurosurgical societies. He has been Chairman of the Editorial Board of Neurosurgery and currently serves on the Editorial Board of seven journals. He was the founding Chairman of the Neurovascular Committee of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies and is Past President of the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons and the American Association of Neurological Surgery. He was the Honored Guest of the Federation of Latin American Neurosurgical Societies in 2004 and will be the Honored Guest of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons this year. He has been elected as the President of the Congress of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies who's meeting will take place in Boston in 2009.
Dr. Heros is married to Dr. Deborah O. Heros who is currently Director of the Neuro-oncology Service at the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. He has three children; Elsie who received her Master's Degree in Nursing at Yale University, Robert who is a physician physiatrist serving in the US Army and Carlos who is ten and sure to follow in his father’s footsteps.