Richard Harvey is a pioneer of the molecular era of heart development and congenital heart disease (CHD) research, and has contributed significantly to cardiac regeneration biology.  His discovery of the homeodomain transcription factor Nkx2‐5 provided the key entry point for molecular dissection of heart development and CHD in humans.  His work defined new patterning principals that govern heart development and the many layers of regulation in heart formation and disease.  His studies have redefined our vision of the developing heart and opened the doors to systems level analysis, and cardiac bioengineering and stem cell biology.