Rate My Professor Mark Richards

Professor A. Mark Richards holds the position of Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Otago's Christchurch campus, where he serves as Director of the Christchurch Heart Institute. He additionally serves as Professor of Cardiology at the National University of Singapore and holds the National Heart Foundation of New Zealand Chair in Cardiovascular Studies. Richards obtained his MBChB from the University of Otago in 1978, MD with distinction in 1986, PhD in 1993, and DSc in 2000. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Royal College of Physicians, and Royal Society of New Zealand.

Richards' research specializes in cardioendocrinology, focusing on cardiovascular biomarkers, particularly natriuretic peptides such as NT-proBNP, for the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of heart failure, acute dyspnoea, and myocardial infarction outcomes. He founded the Christchurch Cardioendocrine Research Group in 1996, which evolved into the Christchurch Heart Institute, directing multidisciplinary translational research in clinical applications, peptide biochemistry, genetics, and physiology. He joined the University of Otago Christchurch in 1983, received a personal chair in medicine in 1995, served as deputy head in 1998 and head from 2002 to 2003 of the Department of Medicine, and established the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the National University of Singapore in 2009.

With over 850 peer-reviewed publications and more than 25 patents, key works include 'Plasma brain natriuretic peptide in assessment of acute dyspnoea' (1994), 'Immunoreactive amino-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP): a new marker of cardiac impairment' (1997), 'Treatment of heart failure guided by plasma aminoterminal brain natriuretic peptide (N-BNP) concentrations' (2000), and 'The survival of patients with heart failure with preserved or reduced left ventricular ejection fraction: an individual patient data meta-analysis' (2012). Awards include University of Otago Distinguished Research Medal (2008), Sir Charles Hercus Medal for Biomedical Research (2008), Singapore Translational Research Investigator Award (2014), National University of Singapore Faculty Research Excellence Award (2015), and Canterbury Medical Research Foundation Lifetime Achievement in Research Award (2021). The Christchurch Heart Institute received the University of Otago Research Group Award in 2020 under his leadership.