Sir Magdi Yacoub, MD

Sir Magdi Yacoub, MD, is Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London and Founder and Director of Research at the Harefield Heart Science Centre (Magdi Yacoub Institute) overseeing over 60 scientists and students in the areas of tissue engineering, myocardial regeneration, stem cell biology, end stage heart failure and transplant immunology. He is also Founder and Director of Magdi Yacoub Research Network which has created the Qatar Cardiovascular Research Center in collaboration with Qatar Foundation and Hamad Medical Corporation.

Professor Yacoub established the largest heart and lung transplantation program in the world where more than 2,500 transplant operations have been performed. He has also developed novel operations for a number of complex congenital heart anomalies. He was knighted for his services to medicine and surgery in 1991, awarded Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998 and Fellowship of The Royal Society in 1999.

He was honored with the ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award on April 23, 2004 at the ISHLT 24th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions in San Francisco, CA, USA.