Faculty Profile

Dr. Couch joined UTMB in 2013 as an Adjunct Professor in the Infectious Diseases Division. After clinical training in Internal Medicine and training in laboratory methods for study of viruses causing acute respiratory disease, he developed a research program in Clinical Investigation in the NIAID at the NIH in Bethesda, MD. The program focused on rhinovirus common colds and airborne transmission of viral respiratory infections. In 1966 he moved to Baylor College of medicine in Houston, Texas where he remained until retirement in 2013. Throughout his years at Baylor College of medicine he directed a clinical research program of the acute viral respiratory diseases with a focus on influenza and a program of vaccine development, primarily phase 1 and 2 clinical trials. He served for 5 years as Chief of the Infectious Diseases Division in the Department of medicine and for 11 years as Chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. He is currently participating in ID Division activities and in research on SARS and MERS coronaviruses with a UTMB colleague.

Medical / Professional:

Vanderbilt University Hospital, Nashville, TN, M.D., 1956

Vanderbilt University Hospital, Nashville, TN, Internal Medicine, 1961

Laboratory of Infectious Diseases, NIAID, NIH; Bethesda, MD, Infectious Disease, 1963