In Memoriam: Perry Blackshear, 1921-2018

January 11, 2019 — Professor Perry Blackshear was one of the founding fathers of biomedical engineering research and graduate education at the University of Minnesota in the 1970s. Working with Prof. Ken Keller and Dr. Gene Bernstein in the nationally known "Minnesota Group", Prof. Blackshear was a pioneer on early versions of the left ventricular assist device, an implantable drug infusion pump, and blood access devices for dialysis, among many others.

He served as president of the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs and was a founding fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. Prof. Blackshear is fondly remembered by many BME graduate students whom he advised and previously established an endowed BME graduate fellowship in his honor.