Patrick D. Harris, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Physiology
Patrick.Harris@louisville.edu

Dr. Harris has celebrated 57 years as a faculty member in Schools of Medicine at Indiana U, U Missouri-Columbia, and U Louisville, with Visiting Professorships in Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology and in Food Science at the University of Maine.  He had an active research program for 40+ years with emphasis on microcirculatory defects in receptor and metabolic control of endothelial and vascular smooth muscle function in a wide range of clinically relevant conditions such as shock (hemorrhage), sepsis (infection), high blood pressure (hypertension), anesthesia, altered nutrition, and addictive drugs.  Dr. Harris has 238 national and international refereed presentations, 141 national and international refereed papers and book chapters, and numerous invited seminars.  He has mentored 62 master’s and doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and sabbatical-leave research faculty. 

Since 2003, Dr Harris has been an invited presenter in 170 national and international clinical Continuing Education courses and Board-Certification laser technique workshops for Optometric Physicians.  Topics have been critical factors in high-resolution digital photo-documentation, application of digital photos in medical eye diagnostics and evaluation of therapy, common problems in use and coding of high-resolution digital imaging for eye pathologies, use of different-frequency YAG lasers in the treatment of glaucoma and cataracts, and techniques for Gonioscopy imaging of eye angle structures. 

Dr. Harris has started and operated 4 small businesses in agriculture, real estate, and medical technology development.  He has been an invited lecturer on creative financing of startup companies in the UofL Business school and has served on numerous Business, Hospital, Professional Society, and University Advisory Boards.  He is a past-President for the American Microcirculatory Society, and the International World Congress for Microcirculation.  He has served many years on research and program review committees for the US National Institutes of Health, the Canadian Medical Council, the American Heart Association, and is an appointed member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

Throughout his faculty career, Dr Harris has taught professional (medical, dental, nursing, and medical resident) and graduate (physiology, pharmacology, engineering, and business) students.  He has used large group lecture, small group interactive discussion, case studies, tutorial, team-based learning, recitation, problem-solving and reverse-classroom formats in his teaching experiences.  He is currently concentrating on development of On-Line Physiology course and Graduate Degree programs.