Abstract: Nephrologist and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Born on Oct 15, 1964, in South Dublin, Ireland, she died of glioblastoma on June 30, 2021, in New York, NY, USA, aged 56 years. “It's difficult to find somebody who can be good at everything, but Barbara Murphy was”, said John Cijiang He, the Irene and Dr Arthur M Fishberg Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Nephrology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) in New York, NY, USA. “She made major contributions in the field of kidney transplantation”, He said, including advances in predicting the outcomes of kidney transplants, while balancing her responsibilities as Chair of the Department of Medicine at ISMMS and its broader health system. At the same time, Murphy “trained and supported many, many trainees and junior faculty at Mount Sinai and outside”, said Samira Farouk, an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Medical Education in the Division of Nephrology at ISMMS. “She is irreplaceable”, Farouk said. “She was so successful, while being able to lead and manage people in an effective way, but balancing that with kindness.” Murphy studied medicine at Dublin's Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, receiving her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees in 1989. “Starting in medical school, I loved looking after kidney transplant patients because you transform their lives”, she said in a 2016 interview. Her first fellowship was in clinical nephrology at the Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, and she moved to the USA in 1993 for a nephrology fellowship at the Renal Division of the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. In 1997, Murphy became the Director of Transplant Nephrology at what is now the ISMMS and would remain there for the rest of her career. By 2004 she was the Chief of the Nephrology Division and in 2012 she was appointed Chair of the Samuel F Bronfman Department of Medicine. “In a field that has a lot of disparities, that she was one of the first female chairs of medicine alone is incredibly inspirational”, Farouk said. “She was definitely a feminist. But she would support not only women, but everyone.” Murphy was also the Dean of Clinical Integration and Population Health and the Murray M Rosenberg Professor of Medicine at ISMMS. Research related to kidney transplantation was a key part of Murphy's career. “She brought a visionary approach to research”, Farouk said. Murphy was the principal investigator for the Genomics of Chronic Renal Allograft Rejection study. “This research has really important implications for how we could improve and modify and personalise therapy for patients with kidney transplants”, Farouk said. Additionally, Murphy was a pioneer in kidney transplantation for HIV patients. As increasingly effective HIV treatments were developed, it became “a chronic disease which is controllable”, said Bernd Schröppel, Senior Physician in Nephrology and the Head of the Nephrology Section at Ulm University Hospital, Ulm, Germany. As some of those patients began to develop end-stage renal disease, “she started to consider transplanting those patients. There were barriers to acceptance from other specialties who felt transplanting already immunosuppressed patients and giving them additional immunosuppression required to prevent rejection would be a problem”, Schröppel said. As the co-investigator of a study of HIV-positive patients who received organ transplants published in 2010, Murphy helped show “it was a controllable problem”, said Schröppel. “Her passion was about getting things done and making an impact in the field”, said Roslyn Mannon, Professor of Medicine, Vice Chair of Academic Development and Research Mentoring, and the Associate Chief of Research in the Division of Nephrology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE, USA. Mannon said this passion was also evident during Murphy's tenure as President of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) in 2008–09. That work included organising a campaign to lobby members of the US Congress to extend public coverage of the cost of immunosuppressive drugs for kidney transplant patients, which ended after 3 years. “We were seeing significant rates of graft failure because patients couldn't afford the medication”, Mannon said. The lobbying effort ultimately failed, but “she really ignited a passion for advocacy” among AST members, Mannon said. In late 2020, US lawmakers approved legislation that will cover the cost of essential drugs to prevent allograft rejection for the life of a patient's transplant. Murphy was honoured as Nephrologist of the Year by the American Kidney Fund in 2011 and was the President-Elect of the American Society of Nephrology. She is survived by her parents, two siblings, her husband, Peter Fogarty, and their son, Gavin.