Oklahoma native Dr. W. French Anderson graduated from Tulsa’s Central High School in 1954, Harvard College in 1958, and Cambridge University in 1960. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1963 and held positions at the George Washington University School of Medicine and the National Institute of Health, where he chaired the Department of Medicine and Physiology from 1984 to 1992. He directed the Gene Therapy Laboratories at the University of Southern California School of Medicine and emphasized the development of advanced gene therapy delivery systems. He was the leader of the team that performed the first approved human gene therapy trial in 1990 and holds significant patents in human gene therapy. Anderson published more than 300 research articles, served on the advisory committee for the Food and Drug Administration, and was editor-in-chief of the journal Human Gene Therapy. Anderson was also the physician for the National Olympic Team from 1981 to 1988.