From modest origins in the village of Kottarakara in Kerala, India, through to international recognition as a top clinical trialist, thinker, and leader in heart disease and population health, Dr Salim Yusuf's exceptional career has shaped the field of research and clinical practice for the past three decades. Learn about Dr Yusuf's early life in India, his Rhodes Scholarship and studies at Oxford, and why he expresses eternal gratitude to his early mentors, Peter Sleight and Richard Peto. In this insightful interview, Dr Yusuf talks for the first time in public about his bout with cancer, his drive to overcome life's obstacles, and the calling that led him to North America—first to the US National Institutes of Health and then to clinical research and academia at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON.