Larry Stephenson, M.D., WSU professor of surgery, will receive the F. Dewey Dodrill Award for Excellence from the American Heart Association at the organization's Metropolitan Detroit Heart Ball on May 20. The award was created in 1986 to honor a metro Detroit health-care professional who has demonstrated energetic support and guidance to the AHA and has provided substantial contributions toward achieving the AHA's mission to reduce disability and death due to heart disease and stroke. The award is named for Dr. Dodrill, inventor of the heart-lung machine and the award's first recipient. Dr. Dodrill, a WSU School of Medicine faculty member, performed the first successful open-heart surgery using a mechanical heart machine in 1952.