Ferid Murad, recipient of the Nobel Prize in medicine and world-renowned pioneer in biochemistry, will join GW’s faculty in April. Professor Murad will serve as a university professor, the university’s highest academic rank. He will teach a course for undergraduates, mentor graduate and medical students, and lead a lab program in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
“Professor Murad has distinguished himself not only as a brilliant physician and scientist but also as a dedicated mentor who has influenced scores of students and colleagues,” says GW President Steven Knapp. “The opportunity for our students and faculty to work with a scientist of Professor Murad’s caliber will have a profound effect on the university and create exceptional educational opportunities for our students.”
In 1998, Professor Murad received the Nobel Prize in medicine for his discovery of the role of nitric oxide in the cardiovascular system. The discovery not only contributed to a better understanding of how information is transmitted between cells but also had a significant influence on cardiovascular medicine, leading to changes in treatment following a heart attack.
His research and findings on the effect of nitric oxide continue to influence the treatment of cancer and arthritis and other human diseases, and Professor Murad will continue this research on cellular signaling at GW.
“I think I have something to offer young people that gets them excited about medicine. I love research. I love to answer tough questions. I love to figure out how this information can be beneficial in clinical medicine to treat people,” says Professor Murad. “GW is changing. I think it is ready to strike out and take off.”
Professor Murad currently serves at the University of Texas at Houston as director emeritus of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases, director of the IMM Center for Cell Signaling, Regental Professor and John S. Dunn Sr. Distinguished Chair in Physiology and Medicine, and director of the UT Health Science Center at Houston Program in Intracellular Signaling.
He previously served on the faculty of Northwestern University and the University of Virginia, where he served as director of the Clinical Research Center and director of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology. He served as chief of medicine at the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital, chairman of medicine at Stanford University, and vice president of research and development at Abbott Laboratories.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and its Institute of Medicine, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and member of the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science Technology.
Professor Murad earned a B.A. from DePauw University and an M.D. and Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University. He completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.
Professor Murad has received numerous awards and honors in addition to the Nobel Prize, including the Albert and Mary Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, the American Heart Association Ciba Award and the Baxter Award for Distinguished Research in the Biomedical Sciences from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
He also has been awarded the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology Distinguished Research Prize and the President's Scholar Award from the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center.
GW students, faculty and staff are invited to a welcome ceremony honoring Professor Murad and his wife, Carol Murad, at 2:30 p.m. today at the Jack Morton Auditorium in the Media and Public Affairs Building.