Cournand, André Frederic

Cournand, André Frederic (kr`nănd), 1895–1988, American physician and physiologist, b. France, B.A. Sorbonne, 1913, M.D. Univ. of Paris, 1930. He emigrated to the United States in 1930 and was naturalized in 1941. He was associated with the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia Univ. after 1935, and became a full professor in 1951. He shared with Werner Forssmann and Dickinson W. Richards the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work in developing cardiac catheterization. This technique, whereby a catheter is inserted through a vein into the heart, facilitates study of both the diseased and healthy heart and often aids in determining the advisability of heart surgery. His autobiography was published in 1986.