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Charles A. Richardson
September 19, 1946 - February 20, 2002
Charles A. Richardson, Ph.D. died of esophageal cancer at age 55 on Feb
20, 2002 at his home. He is survived by his wife Constance, their three
children, John, Katie and Jody. Dr. Richardson was Adjunct Assistant
Professor of Physiology and Anesthesiology, and member of the Cardiovascular
Research Institute of the University of California, San Francisco from July
1, 1980 to 1987 and again in 1992-7.
He was born Sept 19, 1946 in Philadelphia. He obtained a B.S. in
Electrical Engineering, Tau Beta Pi Honors and Magna Cum Laude, at the
University of Pennsylvania (Moore School) in 1968, and an M.S. in electrical
engineering at Stanford in 1969. He joined Bell Labs Technical Staff in 1968
to 1973, then did graduate work at the University of Illinois. Coming to San
Francisco in 1975, he obtained his Ph.D. in Physiology at UCSF in 1980 in
the laboratory of Professor Robert A. Mitchell in the Cardiovascular
Research Institute, supported as a U.C. Regents' Fellow, a Sloan Foundation
Fellow and a CVRI Pre-doctoral Fellow. He was Director of Computer Services
of the Department of Anesthesia from 1983-1987 and a member of the joint
program in Bioengineering of the Berkeley and San Francisco campuses of UC.
When his NIH grant support ended, he left UC in 1987 to join Nellcor Inc
doing research and development of pulse oximetry. In 1992 he and several
other UCSF faculty and staff were recruited to join a world wide
investigation of the possible beneficial effects of several new drugs in
attempts to prevent peri-operative myocardial infarction. Anesthesia
Professor Dennis Mangano recruited Richardson as the technical director to
design both the apparatus and protocols for these studies and to oversee and
manage the technical facilities and data acquisition.
Dr. Richardson developed a unique, copyrighted clinical research process,
designing studies, developing protocols and making possible automatically
acquiring and analyzing clinical data at over 150 research hospitals around
the world, all in strict compliance with each of the regulatory agencies.
With support of Abbott Inc, Dr. Richardson used the ideas and equipment
he had generated for the world wide studies, to undertake further
investigations in multiple institutions of various drugs Abbott needed to
test.
Dr. Richardson's technical, mathematical and computing talents were
accompanied by a remarkable physiological investigational ability. With his
engineering background he was able to employ on-line Fourier analysis to
show a remarkable high frequency (~80 per second) neural discharge which was
synchronized between several parts of the brain's inputs and outputs in
respiratory actions, linking both the muscles of breathing and the lung
stretch information and sensation. His studies of this previously unknown
"pace-maker" and the effects of anesthesia and temperature are unique. He
was enthusiastically approved twice for full funding by NIH study sections
in 1986 and 1987, only to be cut administratively due to very low
congressional funding of NIH.
As the Anesthesia Department Computer expert, he was involved in the
clinical monitoring program by which every operating room had continuous
access to mass spectrometry of the anesthetic and respiratory gases in all
patient airways. He helped develop the computer programs used by anesthesia
faculty in studies of the accuracy and responses of pulse oximeters to
provide data for manufacturers of the devices to obtain FDA approval. He
took the lead in teaching the research staff, and later all the secretarial
staff, the uses of their computers. In the early 1980s he oversaw all 100
terminals in Anesthesia labs and offices at UCSF's three campuses linked to
a central computer in the Anesthesia Research Laboratory.
Dr. Richardson was invariably generous with his time, helping faculty and
staff with problems, and even when not employed by UCSF, coming in to help
on weekends and off hours. His voluntary physiology lectures and teaching of
medical students over more than 8 years were described as measured, very
precise and thoughtful, always in full contact with the audience.
The bio-science community has lost a brilliant, energetic and
multi-talented scientist whose legacy lies in the ongoing research
activities of his colleagues.
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