Alexander Mauro; Helped Develop Pacemaker

Alexander Mauro, 68, a Rockefeller University biophysicist who helped develop the radio frequency cardiac pacemaker. The New Haven, Conn., native stayed in his hometown to receive a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1942 and his doctorate in biophysics in 1950. He joined the faculty of the Yale School of Medicine in 1951, starting a collaboration with cardiac surgeon William W. L. Glenn. In 1958, their work led to development of the radio frequency cardiac pacemaker, which was designed for patients with Stokes-Adams disease--a condition marked by a slow, irregular pulse. A year later Mauro left Yale to become a biophysics professor at Rockefeller University, where he specialized in work on cell membranes. He wrote or co-authored almost 100 scholarly publications in his career. In New York on Friday of cancer.