Charles D. Hawker

Bio: Charles Hawker retired as Scientific Director for Automation and Special Projects at ARUP, where he was employed for 26 years. He also retired as Adjunct Professor of Pathology at the University of Utah, School of Medicine. At ARUP he installed several major automation and robotic systems that made ARUP the most automated clinical laboratory in North America, and which also contributed to ARUP being the first clinical lab in the US to achieve Six Sigma quality in any metric.

Prior to joining ARUP, he held various positions in research and development and management at Laboratory Procedures, Inc. (Upjohn) and SmithKline Beecham Clinical Labs. His research accomplishments include the development of one of the first blood tests for human parathyroid hormone, which was widely used in the diagnosis of parathyroid and calcium disorders, and the discovery of a precursor form of the hormone, calcitonin, which lead to the development of the procalcitonin blood test for management of patients with septic shock. His most recent research efforts have focused on the use of machine vision systems for automated quality inspection of clinical laboratory specimens, particularly the development of an automated camera system that uses optical character verification (OCV) to identify mislabeled specimens.

Hawker received a B.A. in Chemistry from Illinois Wesleyan University, M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin (Madison), a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.B.A. from Washington University, St. Louis.