Aram V. Chobanian ’51

Aram V. Chobanian ’51, of Boston; Aug. 31. He was president emeritus of Boston University, and previous dean of Boston University School of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and became a world-renowned cardiologist, principally responsible for establishing the connection between hypertension and accelerated vascular disease, including atherosclerosis. His work propelled him to leadership of the Joint National Commission on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure, which developed the national health care guidelines for hypertension for the United States. He was the founding director of the Whitaker Cardiovascular Institute in 1973. From 1975 to 1995, he also served as director of the Hypertension Specialized Center of Research, funded by the National Institutes of Health. He became dean of Boston University School of Medicine in 1988 and provost of the BU Medical Campus in 1996, and he was president of BU from 2003 to 2005. In September 2022, the school of medicine at Boston University was renamed the Boston University Aram V. Chobanian & Edward Avedisian School of Medicine after a generous gift by Avedisian, his childhood friend. He was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in Hypertension from the American Heart Association, the Modern Medicine Award for Distinguished Achievement, the American Heart Association Award of Merit, and the Massachusetts Medical Society Lifetime Achievement Award. He was a past member of the board of directors of the Fund for Armenian Relief and chaired the International Advisory Board of Yerevan State Medical University. He was an elected Foreign Member of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences and was a Gold Medal recipient from the President of Armenia. He enjoyed music and taught himself to play the piano. During his later years, he studied music composition and composed songs, operas, operettas, and musicals. He is survived by three children and two grandchildren.