Remembering Nobel Laureate Ferid Murad

On Monday, the world lost a Nobelist, a renowned pioneer in biochemistry, and the Albanian-American community one of its beloved members: Dr. Ferid Murad. He was 86. On behalf of everyone at the Institute and our community, I send Ferid’s loved ones our deepest condolences.

Dr. Murad was born in a small apartment above a bakery in Whiting, Indiana, in 1936 to an immigrant Albanian father and an American mother. His father was born in Albania as Jabir Murat Ejupi. When he arrived at Ellis Island in New York in 1913, the immigration officer asked his name, after which the officer pronounced him to be John Murad and stamped his documents, not uncommon at the time.

He grew up working in his family’s restaurant, along with his two brothers. “When we were able to stand on a stool to reach the sink we washed dishes and later when we could see over the counter, we waited tables and managed the cash register”, Ferid once recalled. All three went on to earn doctoral degrees.

Dr. Murad was a Nobel Prize winning scientist, pharmacologist and physician who made groundbreaking discoveries in the field of cardiovascular medicine and the effects of nitric oxide. Dr. Murad won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine. 

“Your discovery lifted medical research into a new era,” said the Nobel committee when awarding the Prize.

After studying at DePauw University in Indiana, and doctoral studies at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Dr. Murad worked at several American universities, including the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and Stanford University in California, where he did his Nobel Prize-awarded research.

Our thoughts are with his wife Carol, son, four daughters, and nine grandchildren, his entire family, and everyone who knew and loved this remarkable man.

Dino Korca

Director, Albanian Institute