Wiltz W. Wagner, Jr.

Vergil K. Stoelting Professor Emeritus of Anesthesia

Indiana University, Indianapolis

Professor Wagner is internationally recognized for his research on the lung. Much of his work has focused on the microscopic gas exchange vessels and how blood flow is controlled in the lung capillaries. He has developed a method for studying capillary blood flow directly in the living lung. Techniques developed by his research laboratory for video recording microcirculatory blood flow using fluorescence microscopy, laser lighting, and computer image enhancement have produced exciting new and unique data that are being analyzed by state-of-the-art mathematical techniques. After decades of work studying the normal lung, Dr. Wagner's research team has begun investigating aspects of sickle cell disease, liver cirrhosis, alterations that occur with low oxygen, and abnormalities in white blood cells, as these disorders impact on pulmonary gas exchange vessels. In a related area, Dr. Wagner has developed the only theory that explains why some species develop pulmonary hypertension at high altitude. Testing of the theory has led to travels into the wilds of South America. Dr. Wagner's interest in exercise physiology produced some of the earliest work on athletic amenorrhea.

Dr. Wagner received a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from Colorado State University in 1974 and joined Indiana University School of Medicine in 1985.

Home: (317) 745-1428; Office: (317) 274-1436; Fax: (317) 274-6980; E-mail: wwagner@iupui.edu