Papers of Reginald G. Bickford, emeritus professor (1969-1998) of neurosciences at University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. Bickford's research interests included electroencephalography, epilepsy, and computer processing of EEG data. The papers include research files, correspondence, writings, and reprints.
Reginald Bickford Papers, 1934-1997 (MSS 531)
Extent: 6 Linear feet (15 archives boxes)
Reginald G. Bickford was born in Brewood, England, on January 20, 1913. After graduating high school, Bickford enrolled in pre-medical courses at Cambridge University, where he received his bachelor of arts in 1933. From 1933 to 1936, Bickford trained at the University of London's University College Hospital. After receiving degrees in medicine and surgery from Cambridge University in 1936, Bickford served as house physician resident and house surgeon resident at the University College Hospital. In 1938, Bickford became Casualty Medical Officer at the hospital for six months from July to December while also beginning a two-year position as a Medical Research Council fellow, studying itch sensation, pain, and hyperalgesic mechanisms in the skin and the sensory dissociation caused by cooling human nerves. Bickford became a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1940.
From 1939 to 1941, Bickford was a medical officer in the Emergency Medical Service. He was called to military service in 1941 as a second lieutenant medical officer with the Royal Air Force. During the next two years, he received training in electroencephalography, developed the first four-channel portable electroencephalograph (EEG), and carried out research at the Head Injuries Hospital at St. Hughes College in Oxford. In 1944, Bickford was promoted to Squadron Leader and was made the Consultant in Neurology and Psychiatry at the R.A.F. Hospital in Ely, where he remained until he completed his military service in 1946.
After being granted medical licensure to practice in the United States in 1946, Bickford was appointed to the staff of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, as a research associate. In June 1948, he received a permanent appointment to the staff as a consultant in electroencephalography followed by a promotion to professor of physiology in 1957. While at the Mayo Clinic, Bickford performed research on computer applications, studied various epileptic syndromes, instituted extensive depth recording techniques in humans, and studied reflex motor systems. Bickford's interest in epilepsy led him to devise the first methods of reading electroencephalograms of patients suffering from seizures and he was able to provide the first descriptions of reading epilepsy and visual pattern epilepsy.
In 1969, Bickford left his position at the Mayo Clinic to join the Department of Neurosciences at the University of California, San Diego. He continued his EEG research by developing compressed spectral array displays for quantification of EEG, introducing an automated system for estimation of brain death, and developing a home epilepsy monitoring system implemented over the phone line. In 1978, Bickford introduced the automated cerebral electrogram (ACE), a test that combined EEG with evoked potential testing. In 1980, Bickford, along with his wife and two sons, founded BIK Systems for the production and development of the Mini-Cears computer system, which was used in the administration of ACE tests and other EEG analysis in hospitals and clinics. Bickford retired from UCSD as professor emeritus in 1983 while still continuing his research at home and at the university.
Bickford died on June 26, 1998.
The papers of Reginald G. Bickford, emeritus professor (1969-1998) of neurosciences at UCSD document his research interests including electroencephalography, systems analysis of neuronal functional clinical EEG diagnoses, epilepsy, and computer processing of EEG data. The papers contain research files, correspondence, lecture materials, writings, and reprints. Arranged in six series: 1) BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, 2) CORRESPONDENCE, 3) WRITINGS, 4) LECTURES, 5) GRANT MATERIALS, and 6) RESEARCH FILES.