Selected Biographies of Previous Recipients
2006
Michael A. Gimbrone, Jr., MD
Elsie T. Friedman Professor of Pathology
Harvard Medical School
Director, Center for Excellence in Vascular Biology and Chairman, Department of Pathology
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Thursday, November 30, 2006
“Vascular Endothelium: Nature's Container for Blood - New Insights into its Pathobiology”
A native of Buffalo, New York, Dr. Gimbrone is a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Medical School. Following Internship at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a Research Fellowship at the Children's Hospital Medical Center, he served as Staff Associate at the National Cancer Institute. He returned to Boston to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital for residency training in Pathology, and rose through the academic ranks at Harvard Medical School. In 1976, he established the Vascular Pathophysiology Research Laboratory, which became the Vascular Research Division of the Department of Pathology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in 1985.
Dr. Gimbrone's research focuses on the mechanisms of vascular disease, in particular the role of the endothelial cell in complex disease processes such as atherosclerosis, thrombosis and inflammation. He was among the first to establish reproducible methods for the in vitro culture of endothelium and smooth muscle from human blood vessels and to utilize the tools of modern cell biology and molecular biology to dissect their functions in health and disease. His laboratory has characterized the cytokine-activated endothelial phenotype and discovered inducible endothelial-leukocyte adhesion molecules important in inflammation and atherogenesis. Most recently his group has focused on the molecular mechanisms linking biomechanical stimulation and endothelial genetic regulation in atherogenesis. This has led to the discovery of “athero-protective genes” that provide potential therapeutic targets for the prevention of heart attacks and strokes.
Dr. Gimbrone has published more than 250 research articles, book chapters and reviews in the field of vascular biology. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, and has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the Elsie T. Friedman Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, and serves as the Director of the Center for Excellence in Vascular Biology and Chairman of the Department of Pathology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
2005
Michael E. DeBakey, MD
Chancellor Emeritus
Olga Keith Wiess and Distinguished Service Professor, Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery
Director, DeBakey Heart Center
Baylor College of Medicine
Wednesday, November 2, 2005
“The Development of Cardiovascular Surgery: An Overview”
Michael E. DeBakey, MD, is an ingenious medical inventor and innovator, a gifted and dedicated teacher, a premier surgeon, and a medical statesman. Since 1948, Dr. DeBakey has held appointments at Baylor College of Medicine where he has served as Chairman of the Department of Surgery, President, and Chancellor, and where he currently serves as Chancellor Emeritus, Distinguished Service Professor and Olga Keith Wiess Professor of Surgery, and Director of the DeBakey Heart Center. Dr. DeBakey is best known for his trailblazing efforts in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, devising many operations, devices and surgical instruments. In the course of his long and illustrious career, Dr. DeBakey has performed more than 60,000 cardiovascular procedures and has trained thousands of surgeons who practice throughout the world, many now as heads of departments of surgery. Dr. DeBakey has published more than 1,600 medical articles, chapters and books. His many accomplishments have been celebrated by internationally renowned medical societies and organizations that have bestowed upon him numerous prestigious awards and honors. Dr. DeBakey’s keen intellect, professional ingenuity, personal integrity, and selfless devotion to the service of humanity have made him a true legend in his own time.
