Richard L. Tannen, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, died February 22 in New York City. He was 82. 

Dr. Tannen was born in Brooklyn, and his family later moved to Memphis, Tennessee. He earned his undergraduate degree in 1957 from Vanderbilt University and received his medical degree in 1960 from the University of Tennessee, completing residency and fellowship in nephrology at the Brigham Hospital. 

During the Vietnam War, Dr. Tannen was a major in the Army at Walter Reed Hospital. Later, together with a colleague, Dr. Tannen started the department of nephrology at the University of Vermont and was also a professor and division chief there. In 1978, he accepted a position as division chief of nephrology at Michigan and director for the Kidney Research Center. In 1988, he moved to Los Angeles to serve as chair of medicine at University of Southern California. 

In 1995, he joined the University of Pennsylvania as vice dean in facilities management as well as a professor at the medical school in the division of renal-electrolyte and hypertension. In 1997, he became a senior vice dean. In 2008, he retired and became a professor emeritus.

Dr. Tannen co-authored several textbooks on nephrology, published numerous articles in scientific journals and received research support from the NIH. He served as president of the American Society of Nephrology and also served on the Board of American Heart Association. He and several associates were invited by Pope John Paul II to the Vatican to discuss the Church’s support of organ donations. Upon retirement, he focused on biostatistics, investigating the utility of computerized ambulatory medical record databases to inform medical practices and the efficacy of clinical trials. 

He is survived by his wife, Vivien; children, Bradford (Iris), Jennifer Geiling (Greg), Julie Art (Jonathan), Whitney Jones (Walter) and Alison McMillan; and nine grandchildren.

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