Albert Bühlmann

Albert Alois Bühlmann (16 May 1923 – 16 March 1994) was a Swiss physician who was principally responsible for a number of important contributions to decompression science at the Laboratory of Hyperbaric Physiology at the University Hospital in Zürich, Switzerland. His impact on diving ranged from complex commercial and military diving to the occasional recreational diver.

Background After completing his education at the University of Zürich, Bühlmann specialized in pathophysiology of the respiratory and circulatory systems.

In 1959, Hannes Keller became interested in deep diving and developed tables for mixed-gas decompression. Not a diver himself, Bühlmann was intrigued by project and suggested suitable breathing gases. Keller successfully tested his idea in the Lake Zurich where he reached a depth of 400 feet and then Lake Maggiore where he reached a depth of 728 feet.

Building on the previous work of John Scott Haldane and Robert Workman, and with funding from Shell Oil Company,

The naming convention he used to describe his algorithms, for example, ZH-L16, comes from Zürich (ZH), limits (L) and the number of tissue compartments or M-value sets used (16).

In 1962, Keller set a new world record when he reached a depth of 1000 feet off the coast of California utilizing Bühlmann's algorithm in a study funded by the United States Navy. and proposed a method which calculated maximum nitrogen loading in the tissues at a particular ambient pressure. The tables developed were adopted by the Swiss military in 1972.

The results of Bühlmann's research that began in 1959, was published in a 1983 German book entitled Dekompression-Dekompressionskrankheit (Decompression-Decompression Sickness). Two follow-up books were published in 1992 and 1995.

Versions of Bühlmann's ZHL-16 model have been used to generate the standard diving tables for a number of sports diving associations. Max Hahn used Bühlmann's model to develop the Deco '92 Tables used by the Swiss Underwater Sport Association and the Association of German Sports Divers, and Bob Cole and Bühlmann developed the Sub-Aqua Association (SAA) Bühlmann System in 1987, which used the tables and a set of instructions for their use in recreational diving without decompression stops.