Dr. Louis Sheppard
University of Arkansas

Dr. Louis Sheppard grew up near Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he enjoyed reading and roaming the woods and banks of the Arkansas River. In high school, he took all the science and mathematics courses offered and found chemistry, physics, geometry, and trigonometry to be the most interesting. A strong work ethic along with the importance of personal responsibility and integrity were key lessons learned from his extraordinary father, Allen Sheppard, County and Probate Clerk of Jefferson County, Arkansas. 

Sheppard studied marine engineering at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, New York, chemical engineering at the University of Arkansas (BSChE 1957), operations research at the University of Houston, and electrical engineering and engineering in medicine at Imperial College, London (PhD 1976).  He singles out Dr. Charles W. Oxford, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Arkansas, as a great teacher, an incredible scholar, and an excellent role model.  Professor Bruce McK. Sayers at Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine also had an important influence on Sheppard’s education.  Sheppard passionately believes that, “One’s education is never finished; learning goes on forever.”

From 1957 to 1963, Sheppard worked for Diamond Chemicals before joining IBM in 1963 where he worked until 1966.  After completing his PhD, Sheppard was the first Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) from 1979 to 1988, where he led the faculty in establishing MS and PhD programs.  From 1966 to 1988, while a faculty member of the Department of Surgery at UAB, Sheppard developed computer based systems for intensive care that utilized closed-loop, feedback control of patient cardiac and vascular pressures. 

From 1979 to 1988, he was director of the Biomedical Engineering Center.  He had faculty appointments as Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas, and Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Houston.  In 1998, Dr. Sheppard retired as Associate Vice President for Bioengineering and Biotechnology at UTMB at Galveston.  Throughout his career, he found it especially gratifying to work in hospital critical care units, particularly when using his aptitude for adapting industrial instrumentation and engineering methods to solve critical care problems.

Sheppard’s contributions have been widely recognized; he was elected Fellow of IEEE, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and the American Medical Informatics Association.  He is also a senior member of the Biomedical Engineering Society.

Sheppard considers the real treasures of his life to be his wife, Nancy, his children, and the education he received from the University of Arkansas.  His notable honors include his Distinguished Alumnus Citation from the University of Arkansas in 1987, inaugural inductee in the Arkansas Academy of Chemical Engineers in 2005, and election as an inaugural member of the Class of 2005 Fellows of the Biomedical Engineering Society.

Sheppard never expected any honors for “being an engineer who was doing his job,” and he hopes only to have made a difference to “one patient and one student” – a goal he has certainly met many times over.

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