Douglas Reye


Ralph Douglas Kenneth Reye was an Australian pathologist. Reye's syndrome is named after Reye.

Life and career

Reye attended Townsville Grammar School and the University of Sydney, where he completed undergraduate studies in medicine and was awarded a MBBS in 1937. He was later to be awarded an MD from the University of Sydney in 1945. Reye joined the staff of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in 1939 as a pathologist. He remained at the Royal Alexandra Hospital for all his working life. In 1965 Reye was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. On 16 July 1977, Reye died at the age of 65, of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm at Royal North Shore Hospital, 24 hours after he had retired from the RAHC.

Reye syndrome

In 1963 The Lancet published an article written by Reye, Graeme Morgan, and Jim Baral about an encephalopathic condition that became known as Reye syndrome.