Biomed Eng Online. 2010 Jan 5;9:1. doi: 10.1186/1475-925X-9-1.
Honor thy father and thy mother, say the Holy Scriptures1, for they at least gave thee this biological life, but honor thy teachers, too, for they gave thee knowledge and example.Leslie Alexander Geddes took off on a long, long trip, Sunday October 25, 2009, leaving his body for medical and research use. The departing station was West Lafayette, Indiana, where he set foot in 1974, at Purdue University, stamping there a unique deep imprint, similar and probably more profound than the one left at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), Houston, Texas, in the period 1955-1974. Memories came back as a flood the minute after a message broke the news to me: When I first met him visiting the Department of Physiology at BCM back in 1962, my first Classical Physiology with Modern Instrumentation Summer Course ... The versatile Physiograph was the main equipment, an electronic-mechanical three or four channel recorder that could pick up a variety of physiological variables. Les and his collaborators had introduced also the impedance pneumograph, which was a simplified version of previous developments made by others. It became a ubiquitous unit that trod many roads in the hands of eager and curious students. Ventricular fibrillation and especially its counterpart, defibrillation, stand out as subjects occupying his concern along the years. Many were the students recruited to such effort and long is the list of papers on the subject. Physiological signals attracted considerable part of his activities because one of his perennial mottos was measurement is essential in physiology. He has written thirteen books and over eight hundred scientific papers, receiving also several prizes and distinctions. Not only his interests stayed within the academic environment but an industrial hue was manifested in over 20 USA patents, all applied to medical use. History of science and technology was another area in which, often with Hebbel Hoff, he uncovered astounding and delightful information. It is beyond my capability to review everything Les did, least of all what he did during the long span at Purdue.
孝敬父母，圣典有云，他们赋予你生命；尊敬师长，他们授予你知识和榜样。2009 年 10 月 25 日星期日，莱斯利·亚历山大·格迪斯（Leslie Alexander Geddes）踏上了漫漫征途，他将遗体捐献给医学研究。出发地是印第安纳州的西拉斐特，他于 1974 年从这里踏入了普渡大学的校门，在那里留下了独一无二的深刻印记，这种印记与他在 1955 年至 1974 年期间在德克萨斯州休斯顿贝勒医学院（BCM）留下的印记相似，或许更为深刻。在我收到一条消息，得知他去世的消息后，记忆如潮水般涌现：1962 年，我第一次在 BCM 生理学系拜访他时，我正在参加我的第一届经典生理学与现代仪器暑期课程……万能的生理记录仪是主要设备，这是一种电子机械三通道或四通道记录仪，可以采集多种生理变量。Les 和他的合作者还引入了阻抗描记器，这是对前人开发的简化版本。它成为了一种无处不在的仪器，在渴望好奇的学生手中走过了许多道路。心室颤动，尤其是它的对应物——除颤，是多年来他关注的主题。他招募了许多学生参与到这一研究中，相关论文的数量也很长。生理信号吸引了他的大部分活动，因为他的一个长期座右铭是生理学中测量是必不可少的。他写了 13 本书和 800 多篇科学论文，还获得了几个奖项和荣誉。他的兴趣不仅局限于学术环境，他还在 20 多项美国专利中表现出了工业色彩，这些专利都应用于医疗用途。科学技术史是他涉足的另一个领域，他与 Hebbel Hoff 一起发掘了令人惊讶和愉快的信息。我无法全面回顾 Les 所做的一切，更不用说他在普渡大学漫长岁月里所做的一切了。
