Dr. Frank Marcus is professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine –Tucson. His area of expertise is clinical cardiology, cardiovascular pharmacology and clinical electrophysiology.
Dr. Marcus graduated from Columbia University College and received a Master’s Degree in physiology from Tufts University. He graduated from Boston University School of Medicine cum laude in 1953. He did his internship and residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston from 1953-1954 and 1956-1957. He was a research fellow in cardiology at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital from 1957-1958 and then completed his cardiology training at Georgetown University Hospital in 1959. After a year as chief medical resident at Georgetown University Hospital, he was appointed chief of cardiology at the Georgetown University Medical Service, D.C. General Hospital. He held this position from 1960-1968. During this time, he was promoted to associate professor of medicine at Georgetown University. In January 1969, he became professor and chief of the Section of Cardiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. In 1982, he was appointed Distinguished Professor of Medicine and held this endowed chair until 1999. He is certified in the American Board of Internal Medicine and in the subspecialty board of cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Marcus was founder and first president of the Arizona Chapter of the American College of Cardiology in 1987-1988 and was president of the Association of University Cardiologists from 1990-1991. Among his honors are the Outstanding Achievement Award of the European Cardiac Arrhythmia Society in 2011; and Pioneer in Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology Award of the Heart Rhythm Society in 2011.
Later in his career, Dr. Marcus turned his attention to the study of cardiac arrhythmias. He introduced radiofrequency energy for cardiac ablation procedures.
From 2001 to 2008, Dr. Marcus was the principal investigator of an NIH-sponsored study “The Multi-Disciplinary Study of Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy/Dysplasia.” In 2013, NIH awarded him another four-year grant to further ARVC/D research ("Genetics, Mechanisms and Phenotypes of Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathies," 1R01HL116906-01A1).
Read Dr. Talal Moukabary's article on Dr. Marcus' career, Perseverance Key to Long Medical Research Career
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVC/D) and sudden cardiac death