Alexis Carrel

Alexis Carrel (1873 to 1944) was a French surgeon and biologist who spent most of his scientific career in the United States. He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1912 for pioneering vascular suturing techniques. With Charles Lindbergh he invented the first perfusion pump, described as opening the way to organ transplantation; the device drew heavy press attention at first, but later assessment found it impractical and difficult to use, and it lost influence by the 1940s. Carrel was also a pioneer of tissue culture, transplantology and thoracic surgery. His record is a divided one: alongside his surgical and laboratory achievements he played a leading part in putting eugenic policies into effect in Vichy France, a fact that shapes how his legacy is read today.