Dr. Roy Walford; researcher participated in Biosphere 2

LOS ANGELES -- Dr. Roy Walford, a UCLA medical school professor who studied the link between a low-calorie diet and longevity and a participant in Biosphere 2, has died. He was 79.

Dr. Walford died Tuesday from respiratory failure and complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly called Lou Gehrig's disease, said UCLA spokeswoman Elaine Schmidt.

Dr. Walford's research centered around experiments in which a low-calorie diet had been found to increase longevity in laboratory mice. He applied the theory to his own life, ingesting only 1,600 calories a day -- about a third of what a man of similar size usually eats, according to a 2000 article in Discover magazine.

Dr. Walford also tried out the low-calorie diet on Columbia University's Biosphere 2 research facility crew in the early 1990s. Dr. Walford was among eight people sealed for two years in the closed ecological system near Tucson.

Dr. Walford was born in San Diego in 1924. He was not only the top student in his high school class, but also a talented gymnast and wrestler and a jitterbug dancer. He matriculated at California Technical Institute, where he met his lifelong friend Al Hibbs, a NASA space scientist who died last year. After graduating, the pair went to the University of Chicago, Hibbs to study math and Dr. Walford to work on a medical degree. Upon graduation, he and Hibbs decided that they wanted to sail around the world. They decided to try gambling. Analyzing roulette wheels, they found that each had its own idiosyncrancy. Armed with their observations and a borrowed $200, they attacked Las Vegas and Reno. They came away with $42,000, which allowed them to purchase the yacht of their dreams.