Julien I.E. Hoffman, FRCP (July 26, 1925 in Salibury, S.Rhodesia - June 23, 2020) was a pediatric cardiologist and professor emeritus of pediatrics and a senior member of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedic ...

. He has also worked at the Moffitt-Long Hospital at the

UCSF Medical Center The UCSF Medical Center is a research and teaching hospital in San Francisco, California, and is a medical center of the University of California, San Francisco. It is affiliated with the UCSF School of Medicine and the UCSF Helen Diller Famil ...

, and served on the medical advisory committee for the SIDS Alliance.

Early years

In the 1940s, while an Honors student working on

spermatogenesis Spermatogenesis is the process by which haploid spermatozoa develop from germ cells in the seminiferous tubules of the testicle. This process starts with the Mitosis, mitotic division of the stem cells located close to the basement membrane of ...

, Hoffman developed a close relationship with

Sydney Brenner Sydney Brenner (13 January 1927 – 5 April 2019) was a South African biologist. In 2002, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with H. Robert Horvitz and Sir John E. Sulston. Brenner made significant contributions to wo ...

and

Phillip V. Tobias Phillip Vallentine Tobias (14 October 1925 – 7 June 2012) was a South African palaeoanthropologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He was best known for his work at South Africa's hominid fossi ...

. Hoffman graduated from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in 1949 and began an internship in Internal Medicine at

Johannesburg General Hospital The Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital is an accredited general hospital in Parktown, Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. History Background The land on Parktown ridge where the future hospital was built was at one time owned by Otto ...

in 1950 and in Surgery there in 1951. In 1952 he began an Internship in Internal Medicine at

Central Middlesex Hospital Central Middlesex Hospital is in the centre of the Park Royal business estate, on the border of two London boroughs, Brent and Ealing. It is managed by the London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust. History The hospital was establi ...

, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England.

Career

Hoffman became a Registrar in Internal Medicine at Central Middlesex Hospital in 1953 and the same position at Johannesburg General Hospital in 1955. He became a Research Fellow in Cardiology at the

Royal Postgraduate Medical School The Royal Postgraduate Medical School (RPMS) was an independent medical school, based primarily at Hammersmith Hospital in west London. In 1988, the school merged with the Institute of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, and in 1997 became part of Imperial ...

in London, in 1957, a fellow in Pediatric Cardiology at the Children's Hospital, Boston in 1959 and Senior Fellow in Cardiology at the Cardiovascular Research Institute in San Francisco in 1960, working there since 1966. Hoffman obtained his diplomate from the

American Board of Pediatrics American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

in 1968 and his MD in 1970. In 1989, Hoffman became Chairman of the UCSF Medical Center's Cardiovascular Research Institute Animal Research Committee and in 1991 chairman on the Oversight Committee on Fetal Surgery. He became Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics in 1994. He has considerable expertise in

sudden infant death syndrome Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), sometimes known as cot death or crib death, is the sudden unexplained death of a child of less than one year of age. Diagnosis requires that the death remain unexplained even after a thorough autopsy and ...

(SIDS), and is cited as providing a valuable contribution to the field of cardiology. Hoffman also serves on the editorial board of ''Circulation Research Journal'' of the

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate Heart, cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability ...

and is a reviewer for journals such as '' American Journal of Cardiology'', the ''American Journal of Genetics'', the '' American Review of Respiratory Disease'' '' Circulation'', ''

Pediatrics Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, Adolescence, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many o ...

'', and ''

The Journal of Pediatrics ''The Journal of Pediatrics'' is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal that covers all aspects of pediatrics. It was established in 1932 and is published by Elsevier. Although it was originally affiliated with the American Academy of Pediatrics, ...

''. Hoffman has written books such as ''The Natural and Unnatural History of Congenital Heart Disease'' (2009). He is co-editor with James Moller and others of Pediatric Cardiovascular Medicine, published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2012. According to the University of California, his research is "currently related to the natural history of different congenital heart diseases and the results of surgery or other forms of treatment for these lesions in different age groups. He continues to study aspects of myocardial contraction and coronary blood flow in collaboration with investigators at other institutions." Hoffman lived in

Tiburon, California Tiburon ( ; , ) is an incorporated town in Marin County, California. It is located on the Tiburon Peninsula, which reaches south into the San Francisco Bay. It shares a ZIP code (94920) with the smaller incorporated city of Belvedere (formerly ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, Julien 1925 births 2020 deaths South African cardiologists American pediatric cardiologists University of California, San Francisco faculty South African expatriates in the United States University of the Witwatersrand alumni People from Johannesburg People from Tiburon, California White Rhodesian people Rhodesian emigrants to South Africa