Dr. Martin Brandfonbrener joined the UNM School of Medicine Department of Internal Medicine as a founding faculty member in 1963. Growing up in New York and showing brilliance in science, Dr. Brandfonbrener entered New York University at age 16. He received his MD degree from Albany Medical College in 1949 and completed residency and fellowship training in internal medicine at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He served two years as an officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, including one year at the Institute of Gerontology in Baltimore.

Dr. Brandfonbrener joined Chicago's Veterans Administration Research Hospital, now Lakeside VA Hospital, as chief of cardiology in 1957. In 1963, he became chief of cardiology at The University of New Mexico School of Medicine. Dr. Brandfonbrener returned to Chicago in 1967 and served as chief of cardiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital until 1975.

"His love was teaching," his son said. "His primary interest was as an educator, so he spent a ton of time with his students."