Joseph Murray (USA, 1 April 1919 – 26 November 2012) performed the first successful kidney transplant on 23 December 1954 at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, USA. The donor and recipient were Ronald and Richard Herrick who, because they were identical twins with identical genetic make-ups, did not face the issue of rejection by the recipient’s immune system. Joseph Murray received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990 for his work in human organ transplantation.