Michael Ellis DeBakey was a world-renowned Lebanese American cardiac surgeon, innovator, scientist, medical educator, and international medical statesman. Michael DeBakey was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, on September 7, 1908. Michael DeBakey graduated from the Tulane University School of Medicine in 1932 and, later that year, began inventing surgical devices and the modes in which to use them. He was awarded many honors for his achievements, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction (1969) and the Presidential National Medal of Science (1987).

DeBakey received several awards over the course of his long life, including the American Medical Association Distinguished Service Award (1959), Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award (1969), Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction (1969), and  Presidential National Medal of Science (1987). He also received more than 50 honorary degrees from universities around the world, and served on the editorial boards of many medical journals. He died of natural causes in 2008, two months before his 100th birthday.