18 Facts About Lionel Opie

Lionel Henry Opie was a South African cardiologist.

Lionel Opie was a professor of medicine at the University of Cape Town, where he conducted both experimental and clinical research on heart disease and cardiovascular physiology, metabolism, and pharmacology.

Lionel Opie was the founding director of the university's Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular Research and the founding editor of the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology.

Lionel Opie served as president of the International Society for Heart Research.

Lionel Opie's interest in medicine was inspired by the example of his father, who was a district surgeon, and by the discovery of penicillin.

Lionel Opie attended the University of Cape Town, graduating in 1955 with first-class honours.

Lionel Opie served his medical internship at the nearby Groote Schuur Hospital.

Lionel Opie was appointed as a consultant in medicine at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London in 1969.

Lionel Opie's research was initially funded by Christiaan Barnard, who donated the proceeds from sales of his bestselling book One Life.

Yellon said that Lionel Opie was "delighted" to delay his retirement to establish the institute.

Lionel Opie was the institute's director until 2010, in which capacity he ran its highly acclaimed annual conference series, Cardiology at the Limits.

Lionel Opie had a longstanding appointment at Stanford University as a visiting professor from 1984 to 1998, and he co-founded the Society of Heart and Vascular Metabolism in 2000.

Lionel Opie published over 540 journal articles, as well as 46 books and 159 book chapters.

At the age of 80 Lionel Opie retired from clinical practice, but he remained involved in research as an honorary professor until 2016.

Lionel Opie was ill for the last few years of his life and died of pneumonia on 20 February 2020 in Cape Town.

Lionel Opie was married to Carol Opie, with whom he had two daughters.

Lionel Opie was long rated as an A-level researcher by the South African National Research Foundation, a rare feat for a medical doctor, and he was upgraded to A1-rating in 2008; in 2014 he additionally received the NRF Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lionel Opie holds honorary doctorates from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Stellenbosch.