Professor John B. West FRCP (born 1928) is a respiratory physiologist who made major research contributions in the area of ventilation-perfusion relationships in the lung. He led a medical research expedition to

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

in 1981, which investigated the influence of altitude and exertion on human physiology.

Early life and education

West was born in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 1928. He graduated in medicine (M.B.B.S., 1952) from the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide (informally Adelaide University) is a public research university located in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. The university's main campus is located on N ...

, Australia. Subsequently he was awarded M.D. (1959) and D.Sc. (1980) degrees from the same university.

Career

West worked at Hammersmith Hospital in London in 1960 and received his Ph.D. degree from London University in the same year. As a physiologist, he joined

Sir Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953, Hillary and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers confirmed to have reached t ...

1960–61 Silver Hut expedition The 1960–61 Silver Hut expedition or formally the Himalayan Scientific and Mountaineering Expedition was initiated by Edmund Hillary and Griffith Pugh with John Dienhart of World Books in America (producers of a children’s encyclopaedia). The e ...

, a scientific and mountaineering expedition to the Himalayas. After working as a postdoctoral fellow with

Hermann Rahn Hermann Rahn (July 5, 1912 – June 23, 1990) was an early leader in the field of environmental physiology. He graduated from Cornell University in 1933. Starting out in the field of zoology with a PhD from University of Rochester (1938), Rahn bega ...

at Buffalo in 1961-62, he returned to London as Director of the Respiratory Research Group at Postgraduate Medical School (1962–1967) and was promoted to University Reader there in 1968. After sabbatical leave at the NASA Ames Research Center at

Moffett Field Moffett Federal Airfield , also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located in an Local government in California#Counties, unincorporated part of Santa Clara County, California, Santa Clara County, California, United States, ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in 1968, he was invited to join the faculty of the new School of Medicine at the University of California at San Diego as professor of medicine and physiology. Since it was first published in 1974, his book ''Respiratory Physiology: the Essentials'' (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins) has become the most widely used introductory text in

respiratory physiology In physiology, respiration is the movement of oxygen from the outside environment to the cells within Tissue (biology), tissues, and the transport, removal of carbon dioxide in the opposite direction that's to the environment. The physiological d ...

. It has been translated into at least 17 languages. He was a member of the NIH Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Study Section from 1971–1975, and chairman from 1973–1975; a member of the Physiology Committee of the National Board of Medical Examiners (1973–1976); and a member of the Cardiopulmonary Council of AHA (1977–78). After election to membership in

American Physiological Society The American Physiological Society is a non-profit professional society for physiologists. It has nearly 10,000 members, most of whom hold doctoral degrees in medicine, physiology or other health professions. Its mission is to support research and ...

in 1970 and to Council in 1981, in 1983 he became president elect, and became the 57th APS President for 1984-85. In 1981, he led the 1981 American Medical Research Expedition to

. For

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

he has been chairman of the Science Verification Committee for

Spacelab Spacelab was a reusable laboratory developed by European Space Agency (ESA) and used on certain spaceflights flown by the Space Shuttle. The laboratory comprised multiple components, including a pressurized module, an unpressurized carrier, ...

in 1983 and a member of their Advisory Committee on Scientific Uses of Space Station in 1984. Also in that year he served as a member of a NAS Committee on Space Biology.

Awards

Awards include: * Josiah H. Macy, Jr., Foundation Scholar, in 1974 *

Ernst Jung Prize The Ernst Jung Prize is a prize awarded annually for excellence in biomedical sciences. The Ernst Jung Foundation, funded by Hamburg merchant Ernst Jung in 1967, has awarded the Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine, now €300,000, since 1976, and the lif ...

for Medicine in Hamburg, West Germany, in 1977 * Presidential Citation of the American College of Chest Physicians in 1977 * Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1980 * University of California, San Diego, Revelle Medal 2018
UC San Diego Revelle Medal 2018
He has held nearly twenty endowed lectureships, including * the Wiltshire Memorial Lectureship at King's College, London (1971); * the Brailsford Robertson Memorial Lectureship at Adelaide University (1978); * the Brompton Annual Lectureship at Brompton Hospital, London (1979); * the Harveian Lectureship in London (1981); * a Centenary Lectureship at Auckland, New Zealand (1983); and * Telford Memorial Lectureship at Manchester University in England (1983).

References

External links

MSS 444
Special Collections & Archives
UC San Diego Library. * {{DEFAULTSORT:West, John B. 1928 births High-altitude medicine physicians Australian physiologists Living people Alumni of the University of London Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences People from Adelaide University of Adelaide Medical School alumni Members of the National Academy of Medicine