Ferid Murad: The Albanian-American Nobel Prize Laureate in Medicine

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On the morning of October 12, 1998, the phone rang in a Houston lab. The Nobel Committee was calling. Dr. Ferid Murad, a pharmacologist, physician, and son of an Albanian immigrant restaurant owner from Gjirokastër, had won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. His research on a simple gas, nitric oxide, had reshaped how the world understood cardiovascular disease, transplantation, and the way cells communicate. Ferid Murad remains the only person of Albanian heritage to have won a Nobel Prize in the sciences. This is his story. Ferid Murad (September 14, 1936 to September 4, 2023) was an American physician and pharmacologist who shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Robert F. Furchgott and Louis J. Ignarro. The three were honored for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system. Murad was born in Whiting, Indiana, to Jabir Murad, an immigrant restaurant owner from Gjirokastër, Albania, and Henrietta Bowman Murad, from Illinois. His research underpins modern drugs for angina, hypertension, and erectile dysfunction. He remains the only person of Albanian heritage to hold a Nobel Prize in the sciences. TLDR:

• Ferid Murad (1936 to 2023) was an American pharmacologist of Albanian heritage.
• Born in Whiting, Indiana, to an Albanian father from Gjirokastër and an American mother.
• Won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
• Shared the prize with Robert F. Furchgott and Louis J. Ignarro.
• The prize honored the discovery of nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.
• His research contributed to the development of drugs for heart disease and erectile dysfunction.
• He remains the only Nobel laureate in the sciences of Albanian heritage.

Family Origins in Gjirokastër

Ferid Murad’s father, Jabir Murad (also known as John), was born in Gjirokastër, a stone-city in southern Albania that later became a UNESCO World Heritage site. Jabir emigrated from Albania in 1913, at age 17, to escape the Balkan Wars and Ottoman military service. Like many Albanian immigrants of that generation, he came through Ellis Island and settled in the industrial Midwest, eventually opening a small restaurant. Jabir married Henrietta Josephine Bowman, an American woman from Alton, Illinois, and settled in Whiting, Indiana, a heavily industrial oil-refinery town on Lake Michigan. Whiting was home to a small but visible community of immigrant workers. The Murad family ran a restaurant that served both the immigrant and factory-worker clientele of the town. Ferid was born on September 14, 1936, the eldest of three sons in the family. He worked in his father’s restaurant from age eight, washing dishes, waiting tables, and picking up an early exposure to hard work and the discipline of running a small business.

Education

Murad was academically gifted from an early age. He attended DePauw University in Indiana on scholarship, graduating in 1958 with a degree in chemistry. He then entered a combined MD/PhD program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, one of the first such joint programs in the United States. He earned his MD in 1965 and his PhD in pharmacology in 1965, becoming an unusually broadly trained biomedical scientist. His mentor at Case Western was Earl Sutherland, who himself would win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1971 for work on hormone signaling, an early sign of the scientific tradition Murad was entering.

The Nitric Oxide Discovery

In the 1970s, Murad was working on how nitroglycerin, a drug used since the 19th century to treat chest pain from heart disease, actually worked in the body. Nitroglycerin had been used effectively for a hundred years without anyone knowing why. Murad discovered that nitroglycerin releases nitric oxide (NO), a simple gas, inside the body. Nitric oxide then triggers relaxation of smooth muscle in blood vessels, causing them to dilate. This dilation was the reason nitroglycerin relieved chest pain, by opening up the arteries feeding the heart. The finding, published in 1977, was revolutionary for two reasons. First, it explained how a hundred-year-old drug worked. Second, and more importantly, it introduced a startling idea: cells communicate with each other using a gas. That was unprecedented in biology. Signaling molecules had always been proteins or other complex molecules, not simple gases produced and released on demand. Murad’s discovery opened a completely new field. Robert Furchgott, working independently in New York, showed that blood vessels produce a signaling substance called endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF). Louis Ignarro, working in Los Angeles, and Salvador Moncada in London eventually demonstrated that Furchgott’s EDRF was in fact nitric oxide, the same gas Murad had identified. The three scientists, Furchgott, Ignarro, and Murad, shared the 1998 Nobel Prize for the combined body of work. The Nobel Committee’s citation honored their “discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.” Full details on the prize are at NobelPrize.org.

Career Institutions

Murad’s academic career took him through several major American medical institutions. He held faculty positions at:

• University of Virginia, where he began independent research in the late 1960s
• Stanford University, where he served as chair of clinical pharmacology
• Abbott Laboratories, where he directed pharmaceutical research
• Northwestern University, where he was vice-chancellor for research
• University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, where he directed the Institute of Molecular Medicine and spent much of his post-Nobel career
• George Washington University, where he continued research after 2011

He received honorary degrees from universities in the United States, Albania, Kosovo, Sweden, and multiple other countries.

Connection to Albania

Murad maintained a strong public identification with his Albanian heritage throughout his life. He visited Albania multiple times, most notably in 2000, when he received Albania’s highest civilian honor. He returned again in later years to lecture at Albanian universities and to promote Albanian scientific development. In Kosovo, he was similarly celebrated. He accepted honorary degrees and was involved in scientific exchange programs between Kosovar and American institutions. He often spoke publicly about his father’s story, the young man from Gjirokastër who left an Albania in crisis, opened a restaurant in an American industrial town, and produced a son who won a Nobel Prize. That arc has become part of how many Albanian Americans understand the diaspora’s possibilities.

Personal Life and Later Years

Murad married Carol Leopold, a schoolteacher he met while in college, in 1958. They had five daughters together and remained married until his death. He was known among colleagues for his warmth, dry humor, and a genuine humility about his own scientific accomplishments. He continued to work in the laboratory well into his 80s, publishing scientific papers into the 2020s. He died on September 4, 2023, at age 86, in Menlo Park, California.

Legacy

Ferid Murad’s scientific legacy is enormous by any measure. The nitric oxide field he helped found is now a major branch of biomedical research. Drugs based on his discoveries are used every day by tens of millions of patients worldwide. For the Albanian community, his legacy is different but no less lasting. He is the first person of Albanian heritage to win a Nobel Prize in the sciences. His story is invoked whenever Albanians talk about what the diaspora can produce. Schools, streets, and scholarships across Albania and Kosovo carry his name. The genetic and cultural link between a small stone city in the Albanian south and a Stockholm ceremony is one of the more improbable stories in Albanian-American history.

Where to Learn More

• The Nobel Prize archive, Murad’s official Nobel biography and prize lecture are freely available at NobelPrize.org.
• University of Texas Health Science Center Houston, where Murad directed the Institute of Molecular Medicine.
• DePauw University, where an endowed chair honors his undergraduate scientific training.
• Gjirokastër, Albania, a UNESCO World Heritage city that celebrates its native son.

Related Reading

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• Is Bebe Rexha Albanian?
• Is Dua Lipa Albanian?
• 10 Famous Albanians That Left Their Mark on History
• Gjirokastër, Albania: Stone City & UNESCO Guide
• Albanians in Boston: Community Guide & Business Directory

This article draws on the Nobel Committee’s biographical materials for Ferid Murad, including his official Nobel biography, published scientific literature on nitric oxide signaling, and standard obituaries following his death in 2023. Dates and details follow the scientific and biographical record.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Ferid Murad?

Ferid Murad (1936 to 2023) was an American physician and pharmacologist of Albanian heritage who won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He is best known for discovering that nitroglycerin and related drugs work by releasing nitric oxide, which acts as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.

Is Ferid Murad Albanian?

Yes. His father, Jabir Murad, was born in Gjirokastër, Albania, and emigrated to the United States in 1913. Ferid was born in Whiting, Indiana, to Jabir and to Henrietta Bowman Murad, an American mother. Ferid publicly identified with his Albanian heritage throughout his life.

What did Ferid Murad win the Nobel Prize for?

The 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Robert F. Furchgott and Louis J. Ignarro, for “discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.” Murad specifically discovered that nitroglycerin releases nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, explaining why the drug relieves chest pain from heart disease.

Where was Ferid Murad born?

He was born in Whiting, Indiana, on September 14, 1936. Whiting is a small city on Lake Michigan, known historically for its oil refinery and industrial workforce.

Was Ferid Murad the only Albanian Nobel laureate?

Yes, in the sciences. He is the only person of Albanian heritage to have won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Physics, or Chemistry. Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, but that is a separate category. Ferid Murad remains the only Albanian scientific Nobel laureate.

Did Ferid Murad visit Albania?

Yes. He visited Albania multiple times after winning the Nobel Prize, received Albania’s highest civilian honor, and remained publicly connected to the Albanian and Kosovar scientific communities throughout his life.

When did Ferid Murad die?

He died on September 4, 2023, in Menlo Park, California, at age 86. He had continued to publish scientific research into his final years.