Murray shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990 with Dr. E. Donnall Thomas, who won for his work in bone marrow transplants.

“It was in December 1954 that Dr Murray successfully transplanted a kidney between identical twins for the first time in the world.”

Dr. Joseph E. Murray, who performed the world’s first successful kidney transplant and won a Nobel Prize for his pioneering work, has died at the age of 93 in Boston.

Murray suffered a stroke at his Boston home on Thanksgiving and died at Brigham and Women’s Hospital attached to Harvard Medical School on Monday.

When Murray did transplants his breakthroughs drew criticism from some ethicists and religious leaders. Some people “felt that we were playing God and that we shouldn’t be doing all of these, quote, experiments on human beings”.

Remembering Murray, his son recalls him as an optimist who kept on his desk a quotation reading “Difficulties are opportunities”.

Joseph Murray is survived by his wife, Bobby, five other children and 18 grandchildren.

Murray’s name will remain echoing the chronicles of medical fraternity eternally.