Busted

A bust of Rudolph Matas stares out from a display window at the entrance to the Rudolph Matas Health Sciences Library in the Hutchinson Building on the downtown campus. Born in 1860 in Bonnet Carre, Louisiana, Matas spent his childhood in Spain and returned to New Orleans in 1877. He attended the University of Louisiana Medical School, which today is Tulane University School of Medicine. Matas, an innovative surgeon widely known as the “Father of Modern Vascular Surgery,” taught at the medical school for 42 years, and was recognized by The Times-Picayune as “one of the individuals that defined New Orleans in the 20th Century.”