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TOWAMENCIN The North Penn Alumni Athletic Association will induct Gerson Gus Rosenberg to its Lifetime Achievement Hall of Fame on Saturday.

Rosenberg, 68, who graduated from North Penn High School in 1962, said that he is pleasantly surprised with the honor.

Its not something Id ever really thought about, he said. Its not something (that) 50 years ago, Id have ever dreamed possible. When he thinks back to high school, Rosenberg remembers some of the friends and camaraderie. I was in the vocational program.

Rosenberg is the C. McColllister Evarts medical professor of surgery and bioengineering, chief of the division of artificial organs and codirector for the Biomedical Engineering Institute at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey. Rosenberg has more than 35 years of experience in the design, development and application of various circulatory support and heart replacement devices.

Rosenberg, who grew up in Lansdale, studied mechanical engineering at Penn State and received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from that university. His research led to the development of a number of heart devices and he was part of the team that designed the universitys first heart-assist pump.

Rosenberg and his team developed the Left Ventricular Assist Device and an electric total artificial heart. Rosenberg led the team that developed the Arrow LionHeart, the worlds first totally implantable left ventricular assist device.

Rosenberg started on the work in graduate school in 1970, he said.

I pretty much devoted my career to circulatory support devices to help patients with end-stage cardiac disease, said Rosenberg. In 1976 (we had) our first patient with a heart assist device and I was concerned about keeping him on the pump one or two weeks and now patients can live for more than five years. For heart assist devices, its really a group of people, he said. The program is multidisciplinary, with engineers, physicians, material scientists, he said.

Its not always one persons idea, said Rosenberg. Its very much a team effort.

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Gerson Gus Rosenberg named to North Penn Hall of Fame