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Albert B. Janko, MD


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Dr. Albert Béla Janko, Life member of ASRM, passed away on July 15, 2024, at the age of 90.

Dr. Janko was born on January 21, 1934, in Budapest, Hungary. He was a third-year medical student at the University of Budapest Medical School (Semmelweis University today). He was an influential and guiding force during the 1956 Hungarian Uprising and was forced to flee to Austria. After fleeing, he helped establish the Union of Free Hungarian Students, serving as its founding president and relocating nearly 5,000 refugee students.

In 1957, Dr. Janko arrived in the US and later became a proud, naturalized US citizen. He returned to Hungary after 32 years, receiving the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit in 1992. He established the Visiting Medical Scholar Program with the Hungarian Medical Coalition and was honored with the Semmelweis-Tauffer Memorial Award in 2005. He also created the Rev. Géza Havass Scholarship at Mount Angel Abbey in Portland, Oregon.

Dr. Janko earned his MD degree from UCLA Medical School in 1959, interned at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and completed a residency at Stanford University in the OB-GYN department. He established a private practice in gynecology, infertility, and obstetrics on the Monterey Peninsula, which he maintained until his retirement in 2001.

Dr. Janko was a pioneer in osteoporosis evaluation and treatment, founding the Osteoporosis Prevention Clinic and the CO2 Laser Clinic. He was the Medical Director of Comprehensive Osteoporosis Consultation Services at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula (CHOMP) from 1997 to 2002. Throughout his career, Dr. Janko held several volunteer leadership roles at CHOMP and was actively involved in numerous medical societies.

Dr. Janko also was a published scholar and invited lecturer on a wide range of topics, even beyond medicine. He was a voracious reader, an aficionado of world history and current events, an inventor & patent holder of several medical devices, and an inspired metal sculptor.

He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Abigail Mead Janko; three children, Julia (Brad) Wong, Isabelle (John) Murphy, and Alexander Janko (Laura Goodenow); a sister, Marika Janko Hajas; a brother, András "Bandi" Janko; four grandchildren, Chandler, Matthew, George, and Alexa; and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews, and a great-grandnephew.

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In Remembrance

ASRM would like to remember the individuals who have passed in the last year for their lasting impact on the reproductive medicine field.

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