Dame Julia Margaret Polak, DBE, FMedSci (26 June 1939 – 11 August 2014)[1] was an Argentine-born Polish pathologist who lived in England.
[citation needed] Polak was one of the longest surviving recipients of a heart and lung transplant in the United Kingdom.
It was her transplant in 1995 which caused her to change her career direction from pathology towards the newly developing field of tissue engineering.
[5] Her work was recognized by the Society for Endocrinology, the International Academy of Pathology and the Association of Clinical Pathologists.
[1] In the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her services to medicine.