Ferid Murad shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Robert Furchgott and Louis Ignarro, for his seminal investigations in the 1970s on nitro compounds and nitric oxide's biological effects.

He is the son of Jabir Murat Ejupi, an Albanian immigrant who arrived at Ellis Island in 1913, and was registered by the immigration officer under the name John Murad. His mother, Henrietta Josephine Bowman, was American, from Alton, Illinois. Ferid decided to become a physician when he was 12 years old. He received a Rector Scholarship at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana in 1954. While attending college, he also worked as a waiter, taught the anatomy and embryology labs, and worked at one and sometimes two jobs during the summer to cover his expenses. When he had only one summer job, he took extra summer classes at Indiana University and at DePauw. During both medical school and graduate school...