Dr. Riegelman was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 19, 1921. He received his BS (1943) and his PhD (1948) from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

In 1948 he came to UCSF as associate professor of pharmacy in the College of Pharmacy. In 1967 Dr. Riegelman became professor of pharmacy and pharmaceutical chemistry, and chairman of the Department of Pharmacy.

Pursuing his interest in the relationship between drugs and biological systems, he worked in the areas of drug absorption and metabolism: physical, chemical and biological properties of absorption of drugs through biological membranes, or pharmacokinetics. Dr. Riegelman was generally considered as one of the founders and a world leader in the field of pharmacokinetics.

He was a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association, which gave him the research achievement award in Physical Pharmacy in 1968, which was followed by the Association's award in Pharmacodynamics in 1970. In that same year he was chosen Alumnus of the Year by the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy, and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

In 1973 Dr. Reigelman founded and became the editor of the Journal of Pharmacokinetics and Biopharmaceutics. Five years later he delivered the Karl Wilhelm Scheele Lecture at the meeting of the Pharmaceutical Society of Sweden. Dr. Riegelman was also a member of the American Chemical Society and the New York Academy of Sciences.