André F. Cournand shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with German surgeon Werner Forssmann and American physiologist Dickinson WoodruffRichards, Jr. for pioneering work in the field of cardiac and pulmonary physiology. Cournand helped develop the technique of cardiac catheterization, which permits blood samples to be obtained from the heart for determining cardiac abnormalities.

Cournand was born in Paris on September 24, 1895. His father, Jules Cournand, and his grandfather were both dentists. Cournand writes in his autobiography, From Roots to Late Budding: The Intellectual Adventures of a Medical Scientist, that his decision to study the sciences and medicine stemmed from his father's regrets of his own choice of dentistry over medicine. At age 15, young André began to accompany his parents to the salon of a physician friend where many internationally known scientists met and discussed issues of their day. Cournand's mother, Marguerite Weber Cournand, loved literature...