The Society is saddened to hear of the death of Dr Harald Reuter, who passed away at the age of 87 on 23 February in Bern, Switzerland. A German-Swiss physician and pharmacologist, Reuter made key discoveries about how the heart is regulated and how it functions.

After receiving his doctorate in medicine from the University of Mainz, Germany he went onto to discover calcium ion channels in the heart. In 1967, Reuter was the first to describe the inward flow of calcium through the cell membranes of the heart, the essential role of the calcium current for heart contraction and how the current is regulated by adrenaline. One year later, he discovered the functional role of sodium-calcium exchange in the heart.

From 1969, he worked at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Starting as Professor of Pharmacology and in 1972 became Director of the Pharmacological Institute at the University of Bern.

In his later experiments, Reuter studied ion channels as pharmacological targets and explored the role of neurotransmitters in neuronal communication. Working with colleagues at Stanford University, US, they used optical methods to measure the circulation of neurotransmitter-containing vesicles in synapses of nerve cells.

During his career, Reuter conducted cardiac research in labs across the globe, collaborating with researchers in the United States, Japan, Great Britain, and China. He has several international accolades, having won the Marcel Benoist Prize and the Jonathan Magnes Prize. He received the Award for Outstanding Research from the International Society for Heart Research, US, was awarded the Schmiedeberg-Medal of the German Society of Pharmacology and Toxicology and the K.S.Cole Award from the Biophysical Society, US. He was later awarded the Ernst Jung Gold Medal in Medicine (Life-time Achievement Award) in 2002. In 2010, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Basel, Switzerland.

He was also an elected member at number of academic academies and societies, including The Physiological Society, the European Academy, Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences and National Academy of Sciences.