Professor Rafael (Rafi) Beyar, born in Tel Aviv in 1952, graduated from the School of Medicine of Tel Aviv University in 1977 (MD), the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Technion in 1983 (DSc)  and the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University in 2008 (MPH). In 1983, he founded the Heart System Research Center at Technion where he served as Coordinator and Director. He completed his residency in medicine at Rambam (1983-1985) and a fellowship in cardiology at Johns Hopkins University (1985-1987). He was appointed Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medicine at Technion in 1996 and served as Director of the Division of Invasive Cardiology at Rambam. He served as Visiting Professor at Johns Hopkins University for several years. In 1998, he was elected as Dean of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine at Technion and served for the full term. Under his leadership, Professor Avram Hershko and Professor Aaron Ciechanover, members of the Rappaport faculty of medicine at Technion were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in October 2004.

Professor Beyar has received prestigious prizes over the course of his career, among them the Taub Prize for excellence in Research in 1999 and the Michelle Mirowski Award for Acomplishments in Cardiovascular Medicine, Israeli Heart Association in   2002.   In 2005 he was nominated to the prestigious Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars for his worldwide contribution to cardiovascular science and for establishing the Technion-Johns Hopkins Collaboration Program on Biomedical Sciences and Engineering.

Beyar’s research and clinical interests range from mathematical simulation to imaging and analysis of the cardiovascular system, as well as the development of stents and new technology in cardiology. He has authored over 150 scientific publications and 11 books, is founder and editor of Acute Cardiac Care Journal, endorsed by the European Society of Cardiology and is organizer and founder of leading professional cardiovascular meetings.
Since February 2006, Beyar has been serving as General Director of the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, Israel, which is the major academic hospital serving Northern Israel. In the summer of 2006, he led the hospital through the second Lebanon war when Rambam was treating patients under fire. Beyar is now spearheading a major development plan in both clinical and research facilities at Rambam, focusing on the combination of medicine science and technology that will most benefit patients’ health care.