Robert F. Furchgott – Nobel diploma
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1998
Calligrapher: Susan Duvnäs
Robert F. Furchgott – Other resources
Links to other sites
Homepage of the Robert F. Furchgott Society at the Suny Downstate Medical Center
The Robert F. Furchgott Center for Neural & Behavioral Science
Robert F. Furchgott – Banquet speech
Your Majesties, Your Royal Highness, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is indeed an honor for me to address you on behalf of Professor Ferid Murad, Professor Louis Ignarro and myself, co-winners of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. It is of special interest that the prize this year is being awarded to us for “discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system,” for there is a fascinating relationship between these discoveries and the chemical that Alfred Nobel tamed for use in dynamite and other explosives, namely nitroglycerin.
As you may be aware, Alfred Nobel in the last ten years of his life suffered from attacks of angina pectoris, the chest pain resulting from an insufficient flow of oxygenated blood in the coronary vessels of the heart. By that time, tablets containing nitroglycerin, a potent dilator of blood vessels, had been introduced as the drug of choice for alleviating anginal pains or for preventing such pains during physical exertion. When Nobel’s doctor prescribed nitroglycerin for him, Nobel wrote to a friend, “It sounds like the irony of fate that I should be ordered by my doctor to take nitroglycerin internally.” Today it seems like fate, but not an irony of fate, that some ninety years after Nobel wrote that letter, my two co-winners would present evidence that the vasodilating effect of nitroglycerin on coronary and other blood vessels is due to the nitric oxide released from it when it is enzymatically metabolized in the blood vessel wall, and that I would discover the endothelium-derived relaxing factor, a signalling molecule which would turn out to be nitric oxide.
So the seemingly fated progression was from nitroglycerin as Nobel’s active ingredient in dynamite, to nitroglycerin for treating angina pectoris, to nitric oxide as the metabolic product of nitroglycerin responsible for its vasodilating action, to nitric oxide as an important endogenous signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system, to the award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to the three of us for our discoveries concerning this unique signalling molecule.
The three of us wish to extend our sincere thanks to the members of the Nobel Committee of the Karolinska Institute for the great honor they have bestowed upon us.
And finally, for the three of us, NOBEL means NO is beautiful!
Robert F. Furchgott – Nobel Lecture
Robert F. Furchgott held his Nobel Lecture on 8 December 1998, at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. He was presented by Professor Göran K. Hansson, Member of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine.
Robert F. Furchgott held his Nobel Lecture on 8 December 1998, at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. He was presented by Professor Göran K. Hansson, Member of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine.
Read the Nobel Lecture
Pdf 1.10 MB
Robert F. Furchgott – Photo gallery
Robert F. Furchgott receiving his
Nobel Prize from the hands of His Majesty the King.
Copyright © FLT-Pica 1998, SE-105 17 Stockholm,
Sweden, telephone: +46-8-13 52 40
Photo: Anders Wiklund
All 1998 Nobel Laureates on stage at the Stockholm Concert Hall. Ferid Murad is third from right.
© FLT-Pica 1998 S-105 17 Stockholm, Sweden, telephone: +46 (0)8 13 52 40. Photo: Claudio Bresciani
Robert F. Furchgott – Prize presentation
Watch a video clip of the 1998 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, Robert F. Furchgott, receiving his Nobel Prize medal and diploma during the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden, on 10 December 1998.
Robert F. Furchgott – Curriculum Vitae
| Robert F. Furchgott, born June 4, 1916 in Charleston, South Carolina, USA | |
| Address: | Department of Pharmacology, Box 29, SUNY Health Science Center, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA |
| Academic Education | |
| 1937 | B.S., Chemistry, University of North Carolina |
| 1940 | Ph.D., Biochemistry, Northwestern University |
| Appointments and Professional Activities | |
| 1956-88 | Professor, Dept of Pharmacology, State University of New York |
| 1988- | Distinguished Professor, State Univ of New York Health Science Center |
| 1962-63 | Professeur invité, Institut de Physiologie, Université de Genève |
| 1971-72 | Visiting Professor, School of Medicine, Univ of California, San Diego |
| 1980 | Visiting Professor of Pharmacology, Medical Univ of South Carolina |
| 1980 | Visiting Professor of Pharmacology, Univ of California, Los Angeles |
| 1988- | Adjunct Professor, Dept of Pharmacology, Univ of Miami School of Medicine |
| Fellowships and Awards |
| Honorary doctorates from the Universities of Madrid, Lund, Gent, North Carolina |
| Goodman & Gilman Award, 1984 |
| CIBA Award for Hypertension Research, 1988 |
| Gairdner Foundation Intern. Award, 1991 |
| Roussel-Uclaf Prize for Research in Signal Transduction, 1993 |
| Wellcome Gold Medal, British Pharmacological Society, 1995 |
| Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, 1996 |
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute
Louis J. Ignarro – Prize presentation
Watch a video clip of the 1998 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, Louis J. Ignarro, receiving his Nobel Prize medal and diploma during the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony at the Concert Hall in Stockholm, Sweden, on 10 December 1998.
Ferid Murad – Curriculum Vitae
| Ferid Murad, born September 14, 1936 in Whiting, Indiana, USA | |
| Address: | Department of Integrative Biology, Pharmacology and Physiology, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, P.O. Box 20708, Houston, TX 77225, USA |
| Academic Education | |
| 1958-65 | M.D., Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH |
| 1958-65 | Ph.D., Department of Pharmacology, Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH |
| Appointments and Professional Activities | |
| 1975-81 | Professor, Depts of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology, Univ of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, VA |
| 1971-81 | Director, Clinical Research Center, Univ of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA |
| 1973-81 | Director, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Dept of Internal Medicine, Charlottesville, VA |
| 1981-89 | Professor, Departments of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology, Stanford Univ, Stanford, CA |
| 1981-86 | Chief of Medicine, Palo Alto Veterans Administration Medical Center, CA |
| 1988- | Professor (Adjunct), Department of Pharmacology, Northwestern Univ Medical School, Chicago, Illinois |
| 1990-92 | Vice President, Pharmaceutical Research & Development, and Corporate Officer, Abbott Laoratories, Abbott Park, Illinois |
| 1993-95 | CEO/President, Molecular Geriatrics Corporation, Lake Bluff, Illinois |
| Fellowships and Awards | |
| Ciba Award Recipient, 1988 | |
| Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, 1996 | |
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute
Addendum, September 2005
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 2005
Ferid Murad – Nobel diploma
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1998
Calligrapher: Susan Duvnäs