2000 Commencement Exercises, number 099

Abstract

Dr. Ray M. Bowen served as the twenty first president of Texas A&M University from 1994 until 2002. During his tenure Bowen initiated the Vision 2020 project, and Texas A&M was made a member of the Association of American Universities. Ray Bowen received his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University and his Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology. He returned to Texas A&M to earn a Doctoral Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1961. As a cadet, Bowen was the Deputy Corps Commander and a Ross Volunteers Platoon Leader. --- Michael Ellis DeBakey (September 7, 1908 – July 11, 2008) was a Lebanese-American cardiac surgeon, scientist, and medical educator. Dr. DeBakey developed the roller pump, which became an essential component of the heart–lung machine that made open-heart surgery possible. He was one of the first to perform coronary artery bypass surgery, and in 1953 he performed the first successful carotid endarterectomy. A pioneer in the development of an artificial heart, DeBakey was the first to use an external heart pump successfully. In 1999 TAMU established the Michael E. DeBakey Institute for Comparative Cardiovascular Science and Biomedical Devices.