Richard G. Wyatt, M.D.

Dr. Richard Wyatt is the Deputy Director in the Office of Intramural Research, where he was appointed in 1984 as a member of the leadership team and has served with increasing responsibilities under three Deputy Directors for Intramural Research: Drs. J.E. Rall, Lance Liotta, and Michael Gottesman. In addition to his management duties, his responsibilities include participation in overseeing the scientific quality of intramural research and developing policies that govern and provide oversight to OIR program offices. His programmatic areas of interest entail primarily the NIH Human Research Protection Program; the NIH Animal Care and Use Program; NIH history; intramural clinical research and the Deputy Director for Intramural Clinical Research; and interactions with foundations that support NIH, particularly the Foundation for the NIH and the Foundation for Advanced Education in the Sciences. Richard is currently a Scientific Executive and earlier served for 36 years in the USPHS Commissioned Corps. He was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral (upper half) in the Corps and served on the Surgeon General’s Policy Advisory Council as NIH representative from 1987 to 2007.

During his medical education, Richard was supported by an NIH training grant for international studies at the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (1967–1968). He completed residency training in pediatrics at St. Louis Children’s Hospital with an emphasis on pediatric infectious diseases under the mentorship of the late Dr. Ralph Feigin. He was commissioned in the USPHS Commissioned Corps in 1971 as a Research Associate in the Epidemiology Section in the NIH NIAID Laboratory of Infectious Diseases (LID) under the leadership of the late Drs. Robert M. Chanock and Albert Z. Kapikian. He became a Senior Investigator in 1976.

In the LID, Richard conducted basic and clinical studies centered on the etiology, epidemiology, and pathogenesis of viral diarrhea (with an emphasis on norovirus and rotavirus). He was a member of the team that developed the first licensed rotavirus vaccine (Rotashield). During his time as a researcher, Richard authored or co-authored more than 115 publications and 4 patents. He was appointed in 1983 by the NIAID Scientific Director as the institute’s intramural AIDS coordinator, and he served as chair of the NIAID Animal Care and Use Committee as well as the institute’s IRB.

During his service at the NIH, Richard has received Commissioned Honor Awards, including the Commendation Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Surgeon General’s Exemplary Service Medal, Surgeon General’s Medallion, Distinguished Service Medal, Outstanding Unit Citation, and Outstanding Service Medal. Richard also received the Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service, the USPHS Physician Executive of the Year Award and the NIH Directors Award. In addition, he was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Citation for “Meritorious Distinction” from his undergraduate alma mater.