Dr. Allan Lansing to receive honorary degree

Western alumnus and noted cardiac surgeon Dr. Allan Lansing will be honored with an honorary degree at The University of Western Ontario in June.

Dr. Lansing will receive his honorary degree at the Western convocation ceremony June 11. Former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was scheduled to receive an honorary degree at that ceremony but has had to delay his visit to Western because of a scheduling conflict. Efforts are underway to find another date to honor Chretien.

A graduate of London's South Collegiate, Lansing won a four-year scholarship to Western where he met his wife Donna and entered medical school before starting his third year. He ranked top of his class and played intercollegiate tennis, winning Western's highest athletic award, the G. Howard Ferguson trophy. He was President of the Hippocratic Council, sat on the University Students' Council, and was selected for a Rhodes Scholarship.

After earning his MD and PhD in physiology, he began a remarkable career as a cardiac surgeon based in Louisville, Kentucky. Among his achievements: pioneering a new form of heart surgery called myocardial revascularization; providing pediatric cardiac surgery in Central America and Eastern Europe through the Gift of Life program; receiving the highest civilian honors awarded in the U.S., Panama and Dominican Republic.

On the cutting edge of heart surgery right up until his retirement as director of the Heart Institute in Louisville, Kentucky in 2001, Lansing remains an active member of a cardiology technology group that continues to explore new means of perfecting heart surgery.

"Our success began at Western," says Dr. Lansing, who along with Donna has established an endowment fund to support Western's highest priority needs in medicine and the arts.