He’s recognized globally as a pioneer in endovascular surgery. He’s a professor at the UCLA School of Medicine. He’s also authored over 250 articles and 200 book chapters.

As of this week, MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute’s team of 500 physicians can count the man, Rod White, M.D., as their new director of vascular surgery.

“We are honored to have Dr. White help lead our Institute team where innovation and excellence is at the heart of everything we do,” said Gregory Thomas, M.D., MPH, MemorialCare Heart & Vascular Institute medical director at Long Beach Memorial. “Dr. White joins specialists who continue to gain prominence for innovations, discoveries and first-in-class adoption of the newest tests, treatments and technologies in cardiovascular care.”

Perhaps most notably, White spearheaded testing and the first human deployment of an aortic stent graft with Dr. Thomas Fogarty in 1996. Such use of stents has since replaced open surgery as the most common method of aortic intervention, according to MemorialCare.

In his new position, Dr. White will lead Long Beach Memorial’s vascular surgery program, continuing his surgical practice and acting as a mentor, faculty member, educator and researcher throughout MemorialCare Health System.

He joins such luminaries as the late Mervyn Ellestad, M.D., who co-developed the treadmill stress test, as well as John Messenger, M.D., a national pacemaker pioneer.

In addition to his position as a professor of surgery at UCLA School of Medicine, White is vice chairman of Vascular Surgery Research, Division Chief and a Vascular Surgery Fellowship program director at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

White is an alumna of Syracuse University, which he attended on a football scholarship. He earned his M.D. from State University of New York Upstate Medical University, graduating with Alpha Omega Alpha honors.