Rudolf Pichlmayr was born in 1932 in Munich, Germany. He is famous for being a transplant surgeon.
In 1992, he founded the Ederhof Rehabilitation Center in Stronach, Eastern Tirol to rehabilitate patients after transplants. The Center is run by the Rudolf Pichlmayr Foundation, which was also founded by Pichlmayr. The Foundation focuses mainly on the rehabilitation of children, and is the first such organization in Austria. Children who have undergone transplants provide a unique issue, because they face the challenge of growing up normally. They also have a harder time beginning their daily lives again after surgery. Children, youth, and their families may stay at the Center before and after their transplant operations.
The revolutionary techniques that Rudolf Pichlmayr developed are now used widely throughout the world. He published several books on organ transplants in the late eighties and early nineties. Pichlmayr was the head of the Germany Society for Surgery, in addition to teaching at the University of Hannover. For 28 years he was the Head of Transplant and Abdominal Surgery for their medical program. He died of natural caues on August 29, 1997 in Mexico. Since his death the Rudolf Pichlmayr Foundation has been operated by Dr.Eckhard Nagel.