Charles Irvin, Ph.D. (Photo: UVM COM Design & Photography)

The American Thoracic Society (ATS) Assembly on Respiratory Structure and Function (RSF) selected Charles Irvin, Ph.D., professor of medicine and director, Vermont Lung Center, to be the inaugural recipient of the RSF 2016 Robert Crapo Lifetime Achievement Award for Pulmonary Diagnostics.

The award recognizes individuals who have dedicated their life’s work and achieved significant accomplishments in the field of pulmonary diagnostic testing. It is named in honor of the late Robert Crapo, M.D., a University of Utah and LDS Hospital pulmonologist and international leader in the study of pulmonary function diagnostics, who died on December 26, 2015. Crapo’s seminal work focused on novel approaches to standardize pulmonary function testing that markedly advanced the world’s understanding of the importance of these invaluable tests. He served as chairman of the ATS Pulmonary Function Testing Committee and was co-author of Clinical Pulmonary Function Testing: A Manual of Uniform Laboratory Procedures (2nd edition; Intermountain Thoracic Society, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1984).

Irvin received the award on May 16, 2016 during the annual RSF Assembly Membership Meeting at the 2016 ATS International Conference in San Francisco, Calif. A national and international expert in pulmonary physiology and asthma pathogenesis, Irvin also serves as associate dean for faculty affairs at the UVM College of Medicine and has served in multiple leadership roles both at UVM and nationally.