Richard F. Dods

RICHARD F. DODS, PhD, D.ABCC, has studied, taught, and written about diabetes mellitus for many years, beginning as a research associate at New York University Medical School. As shown by reproductions in the book of his high school writings Dr. Dods already had an interest in diabetes early in life. He was a Research Associate at Sloan Kettering Institute for Cancer Research after earning a Ph.D. from The University of Connecticut. It was at UConn that he met his wife, Linda D. Yuccas who earned her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology. As Director of Clinical Chemistry at the Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital, Dr. Dods published pioneering papers on the use of HbA1c as a diagnostic test for diabetes and as a means for monitoring the disease. Later, he established his own company, Clinical Laboratory Consultants, which advised hospital and commercial laboratories on the implementation and interpretation of assays and the use of instruments for the diagnosis and monitoring of disease, including diabetes. For seventeen years he taught Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry at the renowned Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, Illinois. In "Understanding Diabetes:A Biochemical Perspective" he attempts to simplify diabetes demographics, causes, diagnosis and treatment to the level of a person with little or no background in the pathophysiology of diabetes. He begins each chapter with an apt quotation. He includes in each chapter a Summary Box that captures the essence of each section. He describes in each chapter some of the techniques used to study diabetes mellitus. This book is the capstone of his experiments and study of diabetes mellitus; a disease that is becoming a pandemic.