Louis Reichardt

Louis French Reichardt (born June 4, 1942) is a noted American neuroscientist and mountaineer, the first American to summit both Everest and K2.

He was also director of the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, the largest non-federal supporter of scientific research into autism spectrum disorders and is an emeritus professor of physiology and biochemistry/biophysics at UCSF, where he studied neuroscience.

Reichardt went to Harvard University for undergraduate work (1960–1964), was a Fulbright Scholar at St. John's College, Cambridge and received a PhD in biochemistry from Stanford University in 1972.

He was a research fellow at the University of Geneva and Harvard Medical School, before becoming a professor at The University of California, San Francisco.

Reichardt was a director of the American Alpine Club from 1977 to 1980, and served as president from 1995 to 1997.

The character of Harold Jameson, U.C.S.F. biophysicist and mountaineer in the film K2, is based on Reichardt, though the events of his actual 1978 K2 attempt with Jim Wickwire bear little resemblance to the plot of the film.

Reichardt was an investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute (1985–2007).

He is a fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In its September 1986 issue, Backpacker magazine described Reichardt as a "climbing gorilla," able to "walk out of the lab and climb like an animal on no training at all."

From 1988-2013, he served as co-Director and Director of the UCSF Neuroscience program, and from 2013-2020 he was Director of the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative.

He was a co-founder of the journal Neuron, in 1988, with Lily Jan, A. James Hudspeth, Roger Nicoll, and Zach Hall.

Arthur Lander, the UC Irvine developmental biologist, is one of his eminent students.

Reichardt was awarded the Robert and Miriam Underhill Award by the American Alpine Club in 1993, The David Brower Conservation Award in 1997, and The Angelo Heilprin Citation in 2000.

On April 7, 2012, the American Alpine Club inducted Reichardt into its Hall of Mountaineering Excellence at an award ceremony in Golden, Colorado.

He continued as an advisor for the foundation until the end of 2020.