Naji Abumrad

Naji N. Abumrad (born 1944) is a Lebanese-American surgeon, currently the John L. Sawyers Professor of Surgery, and formerly the Paul W. Sanger Professor from 1984 to 1992, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Abumrad graduated with a B.S. in Biology and an M.D. in Medicine at the American University of Beirut in 1971. In 2014, he was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In 2020, the singer Dolly Parton donated $1million towards research into a COVID-19 vaccine, in honor of Abumrad - the pair having become friends after she was treated at Vanderbilt for minor injuries resulting from an October 2013 automobile accident.
He is the father of public radio host Jad Abumrad.