2006
Dr. Michael DeBakey
Dr. DeBakey's innovations have saved countless lives and sparked international admiration. Chancellor emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Chairman of the Foundation for Biomedical Research, Dr. DeBakey has invented more than 50 medical instruments including the roller pump, which allowed for open-heart surgery. He was the first to perform a successful excision of aneurysms, first to use a partial artificial heart successfully, and he led the team of surgeons responsible for the first multiple-transplantation procedure. He has served on the medical advisory committee of the Hoover Commission; President Johnson's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health; and Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine, which he helped establish. He has received the National Medal of Science, the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Research, NASA's Commercial Invention of the Year Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Dr. DeBakey's innovations have saved countless lives and sparked international admiration. Chancellor emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Chairman of the Foundation for Biomedical Research, Dr. DeBakey has invented more than 50 medical instruments including the roller pump, which allowed for open-heart surgery. He was the first to perform a successful excision of aneurysms, first to use a partial artificial heart successfully, and he led the team of surgeons responsible for the first multiple-transplantation procedure. He has served on the medical advisory committee of the Hoover Commission; President Johnson's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health; and Board of Regents of the National Library of Medicine, which he helped establish. He has received the National Medal of Science, the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Research, NASA's Commercial Invention of the Year Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.