Jack Copeland, MD

Jack G. Copeland, MD, was born in Roanoke, Va., in 1942. He is married to Jan and has two children - Patrick, a computer scientist with Microsoft in Seattle, and Jennifer, a child psychologist in Colorado Springs.

His education includes a bachelor's degree in biology from Stanford University in 1964, a medical degree from Stanford in 1969, a medical internship at UCSD completed in 1970, clinical associate at the surgical branch of the National Heart and Lung Institute in Bethesda completed in 1973, a cardiothoracic surgery residency completed at Stanford in 1975 and general surgery residency completed in 1977, also at Stanford.

Dr. Copeland began at the University of Arizona in July of 1977 as associate professor, became a professor of surgery in 1981, associate director of the University Heart Center in 1986, co-director of the University Heart Center in 1991 and since 1990 has been the Michael Drummond Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the UA. The Center was renamed the Sarver Heart Center in 1998.

In 1967, Dr. Copeland received the Roche award for the outstanding medical student at Stanford. In 1969, he received membership in the Alpha Omega Medical Honor Society and was chosen for the Smith & Kline Foreign Fellowship in Malagasy Republic. He was the president and founder for the National Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation in the early 1980s and has been a visiting professor at many centers around the world. In 2001, he received the Barney Clark Award for advancement of artificial heart technology, presented by the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs.

Dr. Copeland is licensed in California and Arizona and board certified in general and thoracic surgery. He has authored or co-authored over 360 peer-reviewed papers and chapters. He has also author or co-authored 167 abstracts that have been presented. His primary areas of interest have been adult and pediatric cardiac surgery, cardiac transplantation, artificial hearts and cardiac preservation. He has worked at University Medical Center primarily, but also at Northwest Hospital, Tucson Heart Hospital and the Southern Arizona Veterans Affairs Health Care System medical center in Tucson.