Backround and Training:
Dr. Covell graduated from Carleton College in 1958 and from The University of Chicago School of Medicine in 1962. In 1964 after post graduate training in Surgery at The University of Chicago he joined the staff of the Cardiology Branch at the National Institutes of Health. In June 1968 with other faculty from the Cardiology Branch he came to the University of California , San Diego as member of the founding faculty of the School of Medicine.

Research
In the late 1960's at the Cardiology Branch of the NIH in Bethesda Maryland Drs. Eugene Braunwald, John Ross and others had created a protected research environment in which ideas flourished and careers were nurtured. Indeed many of the themes developed in this environment continued throughout Dr. Covells later research. These included: The determinants of myocardial oxygen consumption (2*,3,7); mechanics of ventricular contraction (6,11,27) and reflex and vascular control in heart failure(5). In 1968 with Drs Braunwald and Ross, Dr. Covell moved to San Diego. Studies in the early years in San Diego used the concepts developed at Bethesda to focus on the influence of myocardial oxygen supply and demand in ischemic tissue(35,38),continued the interest in ventricular mechanics (37,46,49,53) and saw the first studies on regional cardiac performance (68,73,79). Early in the 1980's studies on regional deformation in the wall of the ventricle were conducted with Drs. Fung and Waldman from Bioengineering. This approach which uses models of the structure of the ventricular wall and implanted transmural material markers to understand the deformation of muscle fibers (108,123,131,138), collagen(116,127) and other components (102,153) dominated the interests of the laboratory for the next two decades. * references refer to Ciriculum Vitae CV

Teaching Dr. Covell taught in the core Physiology course for freshman medical students, and in elective and core courses for both Medical and Biomedical Sciences students. He advised a dozen graduate students in Biomedical Sciences and Bioengineering and served on the thesis committees of dozens of other students. Over the years he served on nearly all of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences committees on education, and was active in medical student advising, often serving as an advocate for students in academic difficulty.

In 2001 Dr. Covell retired from formal teaching and research at the School of Medicine and devoted the next decade to part time laboratory investigation and graduate teaching. In 2011 he left UCSD to devote full time to woodworking, ocean fishing fishing and keeping up with the grandchildren.