September 28, 1999
Hudson named to endowed chair in pulmonary disease research
Dr. Leonard D. Hudson, professor of medicine and head of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Washington, has been named the first holder of the Endowed Chair in Pulmonary Disease Research.
“He is an extremely talented and productive investigator,” said Dr. Paul G. Ramsey, vice president for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, in naming Hudson. “He has a well-deserved national and international reputation in the field of pulmonary disease research and has made significant contributions to the advancement of teaching and research in the field.”
A 1964 UW medical school graduate, Hudson is an expert on acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS). His research is on the early identification of high-risk ARDS and MODS patients and the development of clinical interventions to benefit such patients.
Hudson joined the faculty in 1973 as an assistant professor of medicine after completing an internal medicine residency at the UW, including a year as chief resident at Harborview. He was also an American Thoracic Society fellow in pulmonary diseases at the University of Colorado Medical Center.
His hospital positions at Harborview Medical Center include periods as medical director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit and the Pulmonary Function Laboratory, and as acting chief of the Medical Service. He has been chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Harborview since 1973 and chief of that division for the Department of Medicine since 1985.
Among other honors, Hudson received a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the UW in 1998 and was named to the Washington Lung Association’s Volunteer Hall of Fame in 1977.
He has held leadership positions in several professional organizations and was president of the American Thoracic Society in 1995-96. He has been a member of the editorial boards of the Annals of Internal Medicine, Chest, the Western Journal of Medicine, the Journal of Critical Care, and Respiratory Times.
He chaired the Pulmonary Diseases Subspecialty Board and the Critical Care Medicine Test Committee for the American Board of Internal Medicine and was a member of the ABIM Board of Directors from 1984-88. He also was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Emergency Medicine from 1989-94.
Dr. William J. Bremner, chair of the Department of Medicine, noted that funding for the new endowed chair will allow additional recruitment of talented investigators into the ARDS pulmonary disease program.
“I am very pleased both about that and about the recognition that this chair brings to Len Hudson and to his outstanding research, clinical and educational program at Harborview,” Bremner said.
The endowed chair was funded with private support and becomes the seventh endowed chair in the Department of Medicine.
