Ferid Murad, MD, PhD

The 175th Anniversary Distinguished Alumni Lecture Series featuring Dr. Murad '58 will be 8 March 9, 2013 at 4 p.m.

Dr. Murad completed his undergraduate work at DePauw University and received his MD and PhD from Case Western Reserve University. He had a medical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship at National Institutes of Health. He was on the faculty at the University of Virginia (1970-1981) as Director of the Clinical Research Center and Director of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology with appointments in Medicine and Pharmacology. He was Chief of Medicine at Palo Alto Veterans Hospital {1981-1988), Associate Chairman of Medicine (1982-1986) and Chairman of Medicine (1986-1988) at Stanford University. He was Vice President of Research and Development at Abbott Laboratories {1988-1993) and Professor at Northwestern University. Dr. Murad worked at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston as Chairman of Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology at Medical School (1997-2005) and as Director (1999-2007) and Director Emeritus (2007-2011) of Institute of Molecular Medicine. From 2011 to present, he has been a University Professor at George Washington University, and Director of the Institute for Cell Signaling.

Dr. Murad has been active in both academic medicine and industry throughout his distinguished career. He has founded or co-founded eight biotechnology companies and has advised many cities and government leaders about technology development. His work has concentrated on the field of cell signaling and signal transduction systems.
In 1998, Dr.Murad received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work with nitric oxide, a colorless odorless gas that signals blood vessels to relax and widen, which in turns lowers blood pressure. He continues research which leads to a better understanding of how information is transmitted between the cells.

Among his many awards and honors, Dr. Murad received the prestigious Albert and Mary Lasker basic Medical Research Award in 1996, the American Heart Association Ciba award in 1988, and the Baxter Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences from the Association of American Medical Colleges in 2000. He also received the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology Distinguished Research Prize in 2005 and the President's Scholar Award from the University of Texas- Houston Health Science Center in 2006.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the Institute of Medicine, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of many foreign academies as well as an Honorary or Adjunct Professor at a number of universities. Dr. Murad also serves on the Board of Directors or Scientific Advisory Boards of a number of public and private companies and various foundations and universities. He has received 16 honorary degrees and has published 450 manuscripts and authored or edited 28 books.
About 150 trainees have worked with him in his laboratories who are currently academic or
pharmaceutical industry leaders around the world.