Carl W. Gottschalk

Carl William Gottschalk (April 28, 1922 – October 15, 1997) was the Kenan Professor and Distinguished Research Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Gottschalk made important discoveries about the function of the kidneys, and helped set government policies that provided dialysis to patients with kidney failure.

Biography Born in Salem, Virginia in 1922, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Roanoke College in 1942, and attended a wartime medical school program at the University of Virginia.

Gottschalk's older brother, Walter Gottschalk, was a professor of mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania and Wesleyan University.

Research and publications Throughout his career, Gottschalk published extensively about the kidney and about the history of kidney research.

Health policy In 1967, Gottschalk chaired a U.S. government committee that recommended government support for kidney transplants and artificial kidney machines for patients with kidney failure. His efforts led to Medicare funding of dialysis for these patients, now provided to hundreds of thousands of patients. He also chaired another committee in 1987 concerned with medical ethics.

Awards and honors Gottschalk was named Kenan Professor of Medicine and Physiology by UNC in 1969. and the David M. Hume Award of the National Kidney Foundation in 1976. On his retirement in 1992, he was named Distinguished Research Professor of Medicine and Physiology; After his death, annual lectures in his name were founded both by UNC and by the American Physiological Society.