Dr. Fuster serves The Mount Sinai Medical Center as Director of Mount Sinai Heart, the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and the Marie-Josee and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health. He is also the Richard Gorlin, MD/Heart Research Foundation Professor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Among the seemingly countless positions of distinction that he holds are Past President of the American Heart Association, Immediate Past President of the World Heart Federation, a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a former member of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Advisory Council, and former Chairman of the Fellowship Training Directors Program of the American College of Cardiology. Seventeen distinguished universities throughout the world have granted him honoris causa.  Dr. Fuster is the President of Science of the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC) in Madrid, Spain.

Dr. Fuster is the recipient of three major ongoing NIH grants. He has published more than 500 articles on the subjects of coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis and thrombosis, and he has become the lead Editor of two major textbooks on cardiology, 'The Heart' (previously edited by Dr. J. Willis Hurst) and "Atherothrombosis and Coronary Artery Disease" (with Dr. Eric Topol and Dr. Elizabeth Nabel). Dr. Fuster has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Nature journal that focuses on cardiovascular medicine.

Dr. Fuster is the only cardiologist to receive all four major research awards from the four major cardiovascular organizations: The Distinguished Researcher Award (Interamerican Society of Cardiology, 2005), Andreas Gruntzig Scientific Award (European Society of Cardiology, 1992), Distinguished Scientist (American Heart Association, 2003), and the Distinguished Scientist Award (American College of Cardiology, 1993).

In addition, he has received the Lewis A. Conner Memorial Award by the American Heart Association, the James B. Herrick Achievement Award from the Council of Clinical Cardiology of the American Heart Association, the 1996 Principe de Asturias Award of Science and Technology (the highest award given to Spanish-speaking scientists), the Distinguished Service Award from the American College of Cardiology, the Gold Heart Award (American Heart Association's highest award), and the Gold Medal of the European Society of Cardiology (Vienna, September 2007).  In 2008, Dr. Fuster will receive the Kurt Polzer Cardiovascular Award from the European Academy of Science and Arts.

After receiving his medical degree from Barcelona University and completing an internship at Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, Dr. Fuster spent several years at the Mayo Clinic, first as a resident and later as Professor of Medicine and Consultant in Cardiology. In 1981, he came to Mount Sinai School of Medicine as head of Cardiology. From 1991 to 1994, he was Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He returned to Mount Sinai in 1994 as Director of the Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute and most recently, he has been named the Director of the Mount Sinai Heart.

Read the commentary by Valentin Fuster, MD, PhD, "Prevention: A Heart Health Imperative" that appeared in the New York Times on July 14, 2009.