Richard Hotchkiss, MD, studied at the University of Virginia where he received both his undergraduate and medical degrees and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Societies. He trained in two specialties, first in Internal Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine (where he was also Chief Resident), and then in Anesthesia at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Hotchkiss pursued his interest in critical care as a Fellow at the University of Virginia and then as a Senior Fellow in the Respiratory Intensive Care Unit. In 1987, Dr. Hotchkiss moved to the Department of Anesthesiology at Washington University in St. Louis where he has remained, climbing the ranks to Professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology, Medicine, Surgery, and Molecular Biology & Pharmacology. 

Dr. Hotchkiss has had a long, successful career as an investigator studying the pathophysiology of sepsis. His many contributions are documented in over 200 publications. A seminal observation from his laboratory was the identification of extensive apoptotic death of immune effector cells in patients dying of sepsis. This discovery led to the concept that apoptosis-induced immunosuppression is an important pathogenic mechanism in sepsis, a finding that has changed the paradigm in search of new therapeutic approaches to this major threat to public health. A review article on sepsis by Drs. Hotchkiss and Irene Karl helped define and promulgate this concept and is now the sixth most cited review article in the New England Journal of Medicine in the last decade. 

Dr. Hotchkiss has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for approximately 20 years and is the recipient of a number of prestigious awards, including the NIH Research Career Development Award (1995) and the NIGMS Merit Award (2003). Additional honors include serving as President of the Shock Society for which he received the Distinguished Service Award of the Society in 2007. Washington University in St. Louis honored him with its Distinguished Investigator Award in 2008.