Rubén Jaén Centeno received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the Universidad Central de Venezuela. From the early days of his career, he has been interested in cardiovascular surgery and completed specialty courses in Houston, Texas, and Cleveland, Ohio in the United States.

From 1958 to 1990, he was a professor at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. In January of 1968, he founded the Chair of Cardiovascular Surgery (the first of its kind in the world) where he held the position of Full Professor and Chief for eighteen years. He was Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery and President of the Governing Committee of the National Health System of the Ministry of Health and Welfare of the Republic of Venezuela. Dr. Jaén has received nine awards recognizing exceptional professional achievements, among them, the Order of the Liberator Simón Bolívar.

Dr. Jaen is the author of 120 scientific publications and six books. He has won three national surgery awards in his country, Venezuela. He has been awarded the Order of Merit René Fontaine (Master of Angiology, Brazil). In 2001, he was honored by the University of Miami with a Diploma for Scientific Achievements. Dr. Jaén has also written 114 articles for two major Venezuelan newspapers, El Nacional and El Universal.

He is Honorary and Emeritus Member of 18 international societies of surgery and is a past President of the Latin American Chapter of the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery, where he also served as Secretary General. Dr. Jaén performed the first replacement of the primitive carotid artery with a plastic tube, first time in the world (1957), and the first successful treatment of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm in Latin America (1958).

Titles by Rubén Jaén Centeno: