Professor Tom Hornbein

Thomas F. Hornbein was born November 6, 1930 in St. Louis, Missouri. He received a B.S. in geology, mineralogy, and chemistry at the University of Colorado (1948-52), where he began to pursue mountaineering as a passionate avocation. His experiences with mountain rescue and teaching first aid prompted a change in career course. He went back to St. Louis to attend the Washington University School of Medicine (1952-56). A growing curiosity about how humans adapt to high altitude led to an interest in the physiology of breathing. After medical school and an internship in Seattle, he returned once again to St. Louis for anesthesiology residency training (1957-59) and two years as a NIH-supported research fellow (1959-61). Following a brief stint in the U.S. Navy, he joined the faculty of the Departments of Anaesthesiology and Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Throughout his career, his research has focused on the stimuli which prompt an animal to breathe; particularly carotid body and central chemosensors and the related regulation of brain acid/base balance. These studies have yielded over 100 journal articles and book chapters, as well as many years of NIH funding. He has served on numerous editorial boards and NIH committees. He served as chair of the Department of Anaesthesiology from 1978 through 1993. He continues to teach and maintain active involvement in high altitude and related research.

Throughout his training, Dr. Hornbein continued his mountaineering, including trips to Alaska and the Himalayas. It was not until after his research fellowship and a two-year tour in the navy, however, that he and Willi Unsoeld, in May of 1963, became the first climbers to ascend Mount Everest via the West Ridge as part of the first American expedition to Everest. As he enters his eighth decade, he remains active in exploring, climbing and caring for mountain environments. He serves currently as chairman of the Board of the Central Asia Institute, an organization providing support to community-based development related to education, health, and environment in northern Pakistan.

Dr. Hornbein has received many awards and given many honorary talks throughout his distinguished career, including the Rovenstine lecture to the American Society of Anaesthesiologists in 1989. He is a Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.