Nobel Laureate Ferid Murad '58 Awarded Ulysses Medal

September 29, 2007

September 29, 2007, Greencastle, Ind. — Ferid Murad, Nobel Prize-winning scientist and 1958 graduate of DePauw University, has been awarded the University College Dublin Ulysses Medal. Dr. Murad was honored "in recognition of his discovery of the use of nitric oxide in drug development and disease therapy," notes an announcement. "Professor Murad’s pioneering scientific work paved the way for biological research to venture into new areas which provide drug targets for many diseases including pulmonary hypertension, cancer and cardiac disease." (photo, l-r: Murad with UCD's Desmond Fitzgerald)

"Professor Murad's work on nitric oxide initiated the development of a new area of biological research, which now boasts in excess of 80,000 peer reviewed publications; a significant body of scientific knowledge,’" says Professor Des Fitzgerald, vice president for research at UCD. "This is the highest honour that the university can bestow."

Murad is the seventh recipient of the UCD Ulysses Medal. Previous recipients include: Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum; Nobel economist James J. Heckman; Nobel laureate Dr. Philip Sharpe; Irish author Edna O’Brien; U.S. Philosopher Hilary Putnam; and Nobel laureate Robert H. Grubbs.

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Dr. Murad was recently named director emeritus of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases (IMM). He also serves as the Texas Nobel Scholar of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, while continuing as director of the IMM’s Center for Cell Signaling and director of the health science center’s research program in intracellular signaling.

Murad, who received a bachelor's degree in pre-medical science at DePauw, was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, with Robert Furchgott and Louis Ignarro, for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule for the cardiovascular system.

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