# Louis Reichardt

Louis French Reichardt (born June 4, 1942) is a noted American mountaineer, the first American to summit both Everest and K2. He is also director of the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative, the largest non-federal supporter of scientific research into autism spectrum disorders and an emeritus professor of physiology and biochemistry/biophysics at UCSF, where he studies neuroscience. The character of Harold Jameson, U.C.S.F. biophysicist and mountaineer in the film K2 is based on Reichardt, though the events of his actual 1978 K2 attempt with Jim Wickwire bear little resemblance to the plot of the film.