Ian Black grew up in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, completing his secondary education at Sydney Grammar. His parents are Jewish: his mother, Dasia, coming from Poland and his father, Walter, from Austria. His family survived the Nazi occupation in which his grandparents died.

Following graduation he had intern and resident years at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital before commencing registrar training at the Prince of Wales/Prince Henry Teaching Hospitals. He was Research Fellow in Cardiology in the same institution for 2 years from 1991. He completed his cardiovascular training at the Cleveland Clinic and returned to Australia in late 1994. He accepted the position of Staff Cardiologist with clinical academic appointment at Manly Hospital, commencing duties in 1995.

Soon after starting at Manly Hospital, Ian joined the Sydney Cardiology Group, a large multi-practice private group. He continued his work at Manly as part-time staff specialist in cardiology. This largely involved echocardiography and, in addition, supervising the well established cardiac rehabilitation service and providing consultative services. His private practice involved a considerable amount of travelling around Sydney, to both consulting rooms and private hospitals.

Ian was tall, lanky, always in a hurry, and ready to discuss any topic, preferably about cardiology. His principal research interests were in echocardiography and atrial fibrillation, the principal component of his MD thesis from the University of New South Wales.

His principal published contribution to cardiology was as co-investigator in the ACUTE trial in which the role of transoesophageal echocardiography in atrial fibrillation was determined by a controlled experiment. The data produced remains the standard for practice today. These data were presented at numerous professional meetings with early results being published in the 'Annals of Internal Medicine' 1997; 126: 200-209 and the final results being published in the 'New England Journal of Medicine' 2001; 344: 1411-1420. Ian gave good, precise presentations on cardiological topics. Following his return to Australia he gave lectures to learned societies and medical students.

While at Manly Hospital, Ian was a member of an area-wide ethics committee and became involved in controversial ethical issues in relation to human experimentation. He would not compromise when he saw an issue was clearly 'wrong' in spite of considerable pressures to do otherwise. I consider him to have been one of the most ethical colleagues with whom I had worked.

Ian was relatively private about his personal life but was clearly proud of his two children and Jewish heritage. His tragically sudden death while in his office at Manly Hospital in 2005, caused considerable upset among colleagues and staff. He will always be remembered at Manly Hospital by the memorial plaque placed in the gardens near the hospital entrance. Ian is survived by his wife and his two children.