Alfred Newton Richards

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alfred Newton Richards (March 22, 1876 – March 24, 1966) was an American pharmacologist,

Richards was born in Stamford, New York. He served as chairman of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's Department of Pharmacology from 1910 to 1946; thereafter he became Professor Emeritus. He also served as Vice-President in charge of Medical Affairs for the University from 1939 to 1948. In 1941 he was appointed as Chairman of the Committee on Medical Research, an office founded by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This office was officially terminated in 1946, and soon after he was elected as President of the National Academy of Sciences, a position he held for three years. In 1948, President Herbert Hoover appointed Richards to the Medical Affairs Task Force of the Commission on the Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government; that same year he became a member of the board of directors for Merck & Co., for whom he had consulted since 1931. That same year, Richards also became an Associate Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania. The University of Pennsylvania's Richards Medical Research Laboratories was named for him.