About

Since 2007, Pumps & Pipes has brought together innovators from across Houston’s medical, energy, and aerospace industries, inviting them to “explore their neighbor’s toolkit” and collaborate to solve problems. Over the years, the Pumps & Pipes community has expanded to include academia, community leaders, and students of all ages, with the mission of educating, communicating, collaborating, and innovating.

Since 2007

The impetus for this collaborative initiative began in 2007 with the type of random airplane conversation that so often fosters creative beginnings. The seatmates were Alan Lumsden, Chair of Houston Methodist’s Department of Cardiovascular Surgery and Medical Director of DeBakey Cardiovascular Education, and a drilling engineer with ExxonMobil’s Sakhalin 1 project in Russia. By the end of the flight they agreed that the cardiovascular and oil and gas worlds do have much in common, and that underneath the specialized terminology “it’s all pumps and pipes”. They further agreed that ExxonMobil and DeBakey CV Education should create a forum in which the conversation could continue. For the past 18 years, Pumps & Pipes has been stimulating discussion, sparking ideas, and exploring synergies.

The Team

Merrilee Conway
Pumps & Pipes Executive Director
Alan Lumsden, MD
Pumps & Pipes Co-Founder and Program Committee
Stuart Corr, PhD
Pumps & Pipes Program Committee
David Alexander, OBE
Pumps & Pipes Advisory Board
Sudhir Pai
Pumps & Pipes Advisory Board
David Horsup, PhD
Pumps & Pipes Advisory Board
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Zara Chundru
Pumps & Pipes Student Ambassador
(2025-26 academic year)
Steve Igo
Pumps & Pipes STEAM Program Director
Nicole Pardo, MD, MBA
Pumps & Pipes STEAM Program Director
William Klein, PhD
Pumps & Pipes Co-Founder and STEAM Program Director
Mila Taylor
Pumps & Pipes STEAM Program Director

Expansive Reach

Since 2007 Pumps & Pipes has touched all 50 US states and 88 countries.

Pumps & Pipes has journeyed around the world to fascinating locations. P&P live streams have taken us to the South Pole to talk about telemedicine (above), to the sea floor of the Gulf of Mexico to demonstrate sub-sea robotics, to the laboratory at Mayo Clinic to watch bioprinting of a heart valve, to Keele Observatory in England to learn about exoplanets from the high school student who discovered one, and to operating rooms to watch and learn about cutting-edge cardiovascular surgeries. Our new P&P Learning Webinars will focus on these kinds of topics, and more. Join us for another fascinating journey!

At its heart, Pumps & Pipes is an interdisciplinary endeavor, emphasizing inclusivity across nations and disciplines. Our guiding principle to problem-solving is “exploring your neighbor’s toolkit.”

P&P INTERNATIONAL

Pumps & Pipes is expanding the neighborhood! Our first formal international affiliation is with P&P Norway, which brings together some of Norway’s brightest minds from academia and energy to create innovative solutions to complex problems. Our global reach is growing, with joint initiatives forming from Australia to Qatar, across the spectrum of technical endeavors. P&P Symposia are broadcast live to viewers in 88 countries and all 50 states.

OUR MISSION

Provide a platform to bring together professional groups who may not otherwise have the opportunity to interact for the transfer of knowledge and technology knowhow.

Be the leader in promoting cross-industry collaboration to solve challenging Pumps & Pipes problems.

Help strengthen the educational offerings in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM).