Obituary

Brian James Whipp, Ph.D., D.Sc

March 3, 1937 – October 20, 2011

Brian Whipp sadly passed away at the University of Wales Hospital in Cardiff, Wales following a short illness. He leaves his children from his first marriage, Laura and Brian, and his wife, Sue.

Brian was born in Tredegar, Wales and, through what was to be a lifelong interest in sport, gained a Diploma in Physical Education at the then Loughborough College in England – the United Kingdom’s foremost Physical Education Training College. He continued his studies at the University of Florida in Gainesville and then at Stanford University where, as a Danforth Fellow, he gained his PhD in Physiology in 1967, under the tutelage of Karlman Wasserman. He then set out on what was to become an illustrious career in physiology, both as a research investigator and a teacher, at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Centre in Torrance, California, proceeding through the academic ranks to become Professor of Physiology and Medicine and Vice-Chairman of UCLA’s Department of Physiology. In 1992, he returned to the United Kingdom to become Professor and Chairman of the Physiology Department at the University of London’s St George’s Hospital Medical School - from which he retired as Emeritus Professor in 2001. He remained active nonetheless, working from his home in the Welsh village of Crickhowell and also presenting numerous invited lectures worldwide.

His research interests centred on the control of ventilation and pulmonary gas exchange during exercise in health and disease, with special reference to the non-steady state. In addition to more than 300 publications on these topics, he was author or co-author of nine books and monographs, including the influential “Principles of Exercise Testing and Interpretation”. He was also an accomplished teacher, combining scientific rigor with humor, wit and enthusiasm.

In recognition of his services, Brian received many academic honours: a Doctorate of Science by Loughborough University in England in 1982; a Citation Award of the American College of Sports Medicine in 1990; Chairmanship of the Respiratory Commission of the International Union of Physiological Sciences from 1997-2002; the 2002 Joseph B. Wolffe Memorial Lectureship of the American College of Sports Medicine; the 2007 Distinguished Scientist Honor Lectureship of the American College of Chest Physicians; the 2008 American Physiological Society Honor Award (Environmental and Exercise Physiology); the 2010 J-C Yernault Lectureship of the European Respiratory Society; and the 2010 D.B. Dill Lectureship of the American College of Sports Medicine.

But Brian had many other “strings to his bow”, each of which he pursued with the same enthusiasm, zeal and attention-to-detail that characterised his scientific work – literature, philosophy, classical music, jazz and walking in his beloved hills and mountains of The Brecon Beacons.

He is, and will remain, sorely missed.

Tuesday 20 December 2011


KSietsema said...
Along with being a leader among physiology scholars, Brian had a less obvious but no less profound effect on the training of decades of clinicians, including clinical fellows at Harbor-UCLA. As a first year fellow in pulmonary medicine, no scenario in the intensive care unit was more intimidating than being called upon to present in a conference room with Brian seated in the back, listening. His fellows’ seminars began at three pm, exactly, and ended at four. In the intervening hour, he challenged us to reason forward from first principles rather than backwards from the familiar comfort of clinical experience. He is among those rare teachers who become lasting metrics… “What would Brian say to this?”… I later had the privilege for many years of teaching with him in the Exercise Practicum courses at Harbor, and will sorely miss the pleasure of slipping into the back of the room to hear what aspect of his expansive expertise he’d chosen to include in each new session. The exact content of these presentations was clearly less important than masterfully guiding the listeners to glorious moments of insight, inspiring them to want to understand more. I will miss the vitality, humor, wit and wisdom of this wonderful teacher, colleague and friend.
1 November 2011 12:34
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