Louis Reichardt

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Louis Reichardt at the UCSF Neuroscience Graduate Program retreat in Asilomar LouisReichardt.JPG
Louis Reichardt at the UCSF Neuroscience Graduate Program retreat in Asilomar

Louis French Reichardt (born June 4, 1942) is a noted American neuroscientist and mountaineer, the first American to summit both Everest and K2. He was also director of the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, the largest non-federal supporter of scientific research into autism spectrum disorders and is an emeritus professor of physiology and biochemistry/biophysics at UCSF, where he studied neuroscience. The character of Harold Jameson, U.C.S.F. biophysicist and mountaineer in the film K2 , is based on Reichardt, though the events of his actual 1978 K2 attempt with Jim Wickwire bear little resemblance to the plot of the film.

Contents

Notable ascents and expeditions

In its September 1986 issue, Backpacker magazine described Reichardt as a "climbing gorilla," able to "walk out of the lab and climb like an animal on no training at all." [6]

American Alpine Club

Reichardt was a director of the American Alpine Club from 1977 to 1980, and served as president from 1995 to 1997. [7]

Honors and awards

Reichardt was awarded the Robert and Miriam Underhill Award by the American Alpine Club in 1993, [8] The David Brower Conservation Award in 1997, [9] and The Angelo Heilprin Citation in 2000. [10] On April 7, 2012, the American Alpine Club inducted Reichardt into its Hall of Mountaineering Excellence at an award ceremony in Golden, Colorado. [11]

Scientific career

Reichardt went to Harvard University for undergraduate work (1960–1964), was a Fulbright Scholar at St. John's College, Cambridge and received a PhD in biochemistry from Stanford University in 1972. He was a research fellow at the University of Geneva and Harvard Medical School, before becoming a professor at The University of California, San Francisco. From 1988-2013, he served as co-Director and Director of the UCSF Neuroscience program, and from 2013-2020 he was Director of the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. He continued as an advisor for the foundation until the end of 2020. [12]

Reichardt was an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute (1985–2007). He is a fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences. [12] He was a co-founder of the journal Neuron, in 1988, with Lily Jan, A. James Hudspeth, Roger Nicoll, and Zach Hall.

Arthur Lander, the UC Irvine developmental biologist, is one of his eminent students. [13]

Publications

Related Research Articles

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Jim Wickwire is the first American to summit K2, the second highest mountain in the world. Wickwire is also known for surviving an overnight solo bivouac on K2 at an elevation above 27,000 ft or 8,200 m; considered "one of the most notorious bivouacs in mountaineering history".

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References

  1. Reichardt, Louis (1969). H. Adams Carter (ed.). "Climbs and Expeditions". American Alpine Journal. 16 (43). Philadelphia, PA, USA: American Alpine Club: 381–382.
  2. Reichardt, Louis (1974). "Dhauligiri 1973". American Alpine Journal. 19 (48). New York, NY, USA: American Alpine Club: 1–10. ISBN   0-930410-71-8.
  3. "AdventureStats - by Explorersweb". adventurestats.com. Archived from the original on 24 May 2015. Retrieved 17 May 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. Reichardt, Louis (1979). "K2: The End of a 40-Year American Quest". American Alpine Journal. 22 (53). New York, NY, USA: American Alpine Club: 1–18. ISSN   0065-6925.
  5. Unsworth, Walt (2000). Everest, The Mountaineering History. Seattle, WA, USA: Mountaineers Books. p. 501. ISBN   978-0-89886-670-4.
  6. "Backpacker - Google Books". September 1986. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  7. "Past Presidents". The American Alpine Club. Archived from the original on 2010-02-13. Retrieved Dec 24, 2009.
  8. "The Robert and Miriam Underhill Award". American Alpine Club. Archived from the original on July 14, 2009. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  9. "David Brower Conservation Award". AmericanAlpineClub.org. Archived from the original on 2015-03-21. Retrieved 2015-05-16.
  10. "The Angelo Heilprin Citation". American Alpine Club. Archived from the original on July 14, 2009. Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  11. Osius, Alison (April 11, 2012). "Beautiful minds: Blum, Reichardt, Kendall, Molenaar in Mountaineering Hall of Fame". Rock and Ice. Archived from the original on April 12, 2012. Retrieved April 11, 2012.
  12. 1 2 "Louis F. Reichardt, PhD; Curriculum Vitae". Reichardt Lab, UC San Francisco . Retrieved June 24, 2009.
  13. American Society for Cell Biology Newsletter, 2001. Member profile Archived 2007-07-15 at the Wayback Machine