Dr. Alan Lumsden is Medical Director of the Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center and Professor & Chairman, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery for Houston Methodist. Dr. Lumsden has developed an international reputation as a leader in the fields of endovascular surgery, in the arena of advanced interventional cardiovascular imaging, new educational techniques in vascular surgery, inter-industry collaborations, complex aortic disease, and endovascular robotics. He has received funding for his research from the National Institutes of Health and industry and has contributed to more than 400 articles in peer-reviewed journals; as well as abstracts and authored numerous book chapters. Dr. Lumsden has also been an editor for textbooks related to vascular surgery. He has an interest in cardiovascular education and has successfully grown DeBakey Education into a nationally prominent organization. Dr. Lumsden is also the founder of Pumps & Pipes. In 2006, he was on an airplane from Europe and was working on a slide presentation. Sitting next to him was a pipeline engineer with ExxonMobil. The engineer asked Dr. Lumsden what the presentation was about; Dr. Lumsden explained it was about joining blood vessels together. The engineer said, “That’s exactly how the pipeline business works.” And the rest is history…