Jorge Reynolds Pombo is an
electrical
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...
and bio-
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
born in
Bogotá
Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish Imperial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city, capital and largest city ...
,
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
on June 22, 1936. He is known for contributing to the invention of the pacemaker, being one of the first doctors in Latin America to make a significant contribution to the medical field. In 1957,
Earl Bakken of
Minneapolis
Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
,
Minnesota
Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
, produced the first wearable external pacemaker for a pediatric patient of
C. Walton Lillehei. The Swede
Rune Elmqvist (1906-1996) developed the first internally implanted pacemaker in 1958. During this time, Reynolds Pombo had designed and built an external pacemaker powered by a 12-volt battery. It was connected to a patient in December 1958.
Studies and research
During his school years, he studied in Bogotá, Colombia. He attended
Trinity College at Cambridge, England. Reynolds obtained an undergraduate degree in electronic engineering.
Since 1991 there have been six underwater acoustic research cruises to study the heart of whales, using submarines provided by the Navy of Colombia as a platform for acoustic studies of whales, with the support of some Navy ships to facilitate investigative work. In his research he has found that the heart of
cetacean
Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively c ...
s and humans are similar and so for more than thirty years he has been studying these animals and then applying the results to humans.
In August 2011, he announced the launch of a pacemaker as small as one-third of a grain of rice, which does not need a battery. Such pacemakers may be seen by cardiologists "from anywhere in the world", he said in the IV Inventors and High Technology Hall in Medellín.
Awards and achievements
Reynolds has received three honorary doctorates in medicine, for his contributions to research and development of technologies for cardiology. Also, add more than 70 productions including documentaries, short, and full-length films made with the help of important scientific channels like National Geographic, and Discovery Channel, among others.
He is a member of at least 34 scientific societies in Colombia and abroad, some of them as an honorary member.
[Levitt, James N. ''Conservation in the Internet Age: Threats And Opportunities''. 1st edition. Washington DC: Island Press, 2002. 212. Print.] He is a member of the Academy of Sciences in New York since 1989, the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences since 1989, and also an Associate Member of the National Academy of Medicine since 2004. He is also a founding member of several scientific societies.
Books
* ''Voyage to the Heart of Whales'' (1998)
References
External links
TEDxCeiba talk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reynolds Pombo, Jorge
1936 births
Living people
Colombian inventors
Colombian people of English descent
Colombian electrical engineers
Colombian environmental engineers