James Duffin

Biography

Dr. Duffin obtained a BSc in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto in 1961, and after two years of industry experience in the UK returned to Canada to obtain an MSc in biomedical engineering from the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto in 1965. In 1968 Dr. Duffin obtained his PhD from the University of Toronto in the Department of Pharmacology where his thesis topic was “A Model of the Respiratory System.” After a 2-year post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Anaesthetics at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, in the UK he returned to take an assistant professorship in the Department of Anaesthesia at the University of Toronto. His research into the control of respiration was continuously funded from the Canadian Medical Research Council/Canadian Institutes of Health Research for over 25 years, with laboratories investigating the physiology of the control of breathing and the neurophysiology of the generation of respiratory rhythm. Dr. Duffin has published over 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and a book entitled Physics for Anaesthetists. He is currently a Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Anaesthesia and Physiology, and a senior research scientist at Thornhill Research and the University Health Network, where his research involves the control of cerebral blood flow.

Research Interest

respiratory control