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The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
land-grant
research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kn ...
in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. It is part of the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...
system and is dedicated entirely to health science and
life science Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...
. It conducts research and teaching in medical and
biological Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary in ...
sciences. UCSF was founded as Toland Medical College in 1864. in 1873, it became affiliated with the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...
as its Medical Department. In the same year, it incorporated the California College of Pharmacy and in 1881 it established a dentistry school. Its facilities were located in both Berkeley and San Francisco. In 1964, the school gained full administrative independence as a campus of the UC system, headed by its own chancellor, and in 1970 it gained its current name. Historically based at Parnassus Heights with satellite facilities throughout the city, UCSF developed a second major campus in the newly redeveloped Mission Bay district in the early 2000s. '' U.S. News & World Report''s 2022–23 rankings recognize UCSF as the third best medical school for research in the nation (tied with medical schools of
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
) and as the second best medical school for primary care. It is the only medical school to rank in the top three in both categories. In 2021, UCSF attracted the 4th highest research funding from the National Institutes of Health. UCSF Medical Center is ranked 12th nationally and third in the state. With 25,398 employees, UCSF is the second-largest public agency employer in the San Francisco Bay Area. UCSF faculty have treated patients and trained residents since 1873 at the San Francisco General Hospital and for over 50 years at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.


History


Beginnings

The University of California, San Francisco traces its history to Hugh Toland, a
South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...
surgeon who found great success and wealth after moving to San Francisco in 1852. A previous school, the Cooper Medical College of the University of Pacific (founded 1858), entered a period of uncertainty in 1862 when its founder, Elias Samuel Cooper, died. In 1864, Toland founded a new medical school, Toland Medical College, and the faculty of Cooper Medical College chose to suspend operations and join the new school. The
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...
was founded on March 23, 1868, with the enacting of its Organic Act. Section 8 of the Organic Act authorized the Board of Regents to affiliate the University of California with independent self-sustaining professional colleges. In 1870, Toland Medical School began to negotiate an affiliation with the new public university. Meanwhile, some faculty of Toland Medical School elected to reopen the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, which would later become Stanford University School of Medicine. Negotiations between Toland and UC were complicated by Toland's demand that the medical school continue to bear his name, an issue on which he finally conceded. In March 1873, the
trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to ...
s of Toland Medical College transferred it to the Regents of the University of California, and it became The Medical Department of the University of California. At the same time, the University of California also negotiated the incorporation of the California College of Pharmacy, the first pharmacy school in the West, established in 1872 by the California Pharmaceutical Society. The Pharmacy College was affiliated in June 1873, and together the Medical College and the Pharmacy College came to be known as the "Affiliated Colleges". The third college, the College of Dentistry, was established in 1881.


Expansion and growth

Initially, the three Affiliated Colleges were located at different sites around San Francisco, but near the end of the 19th Century interest in bringing them together grew. To make this possible, San Francisco Mayor Adolph Sutro donated 13 acres in Parnassus Heights at the base of Mount Parnassus (now known as Mount Sutro). The new site, overlooking
Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the developm ...
, opened in the fall of 1898, with the construction of the new Affiliated Colleges buildings. The school's first female student, Lucy Wanzer, graduated in 1876, after having to appeal to the UC Board of Regents to gain admission in 1873. Until 1906, the faculty of the medical school had provided care at the City-County Hospital (named San Francisco General Hospital from 1915–2016 and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH) since 2016), but the medical school still did not have a
teaching hospital A teaching hospital is a hospital or medical centre that provides medical education and training to future and current health professionals. Teaching hospitals are almost always affiliated with one or more universities and are often co-located ...
of its own. Following the
1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity ...
, more than 40,000 people were relocated to a makeshift tent city in Golden Gate Park and were treated by the faculty of the Affiliated Colleges. This brought the Affiliated Colleges, which until then were located on the western outskirts of the city, in contact with significant population numbers. By fueling the Affiliated Colleges' commitment to civic responsibility and health care, the earthquake increased the momentum towards the eventual construction of their own healthcare facilities. Within a month after the 1906 earthquake, the faculty of the medical school voted to make room in their building for a teaching hospital by moving the three departments responsible for the first two years of preclinical instruction—anatomy, pathology, and physiology—across
San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water f ...
to the Berkeley campus. As a result, for over 50 years, students pursuing the M.D. degree took their first two years at Berkeley and their last two years at Parnassus Heights. By October 1906, an outpatient clinic was operational on the first floor of the medical building, and by April 1907, the new teaching hospital started to admit inpatients. This created the need to train nursing students, of whom the first was informally admitted in June; in December 1907, the UC Training School for Nurses was formally established, adding a fourth professional school to the Affiliated Colleges. Around this time, the Affiliated Colleges agreed to submit to the Regents' governance during the term of President Benjamin Ide Wheeler, as the Board of Regents had come to recognize the problems inherent in the existence of independent entities that shared the UC
brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
but over which UC had no real control. The last of the Affiliated Colleges to become an integral part of the university was the pharmacy school, in 1934.


Post-War 20th century

The schools continued to grow in numbers and reputation in the following years. One notable event was the incorporation of the Hooper Foundation for Medical Research in 1914, a medical research institute second only to the Rockefeller Institute. This addition bolstered the prestige of the Parnassus site during the long-running dispute over whether the schools should consolidate at Parnassus or in Berkeley. The final decision came in 1949 when the Regents of the University of California designated the Parnassus campus as the UC Medical Center in San Francisco. After the medical facilities were updated and expanded, the preclinical departments returned to San Francisco in 1958, and from that point forward the M.D. degree program was again provided entirely in Parnassus Heights. During this period a number of research institutes were established, and many new facilities were added, such as the 225-bed UC Hospital (1917), the Clinics Building (1934), the Langley Porter Clinic (1942) and the Herbert C. Moffitt Hospital (1955). In 1958, the addition of the ''Guy S. Millberry Union'' offered dorms and services for students. With medical education again concentrated in San Francisco, the UC Medical Center gained more independence and autonomy from the Berkeley campus during the 1960s. The four departments were renamed as "School of ..." and the Graduate Division was founded in 1961. Further along this line, in 1964 the institution obtained full administrative independence under the name University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, becoming the ninth campus in the University of California system and the only one devoted exclusively to the health sciences. The first Chancellor under the new independent configuration was John B. de C.M. Saunders, previously Provost, who had a strong preference for medical training over research. This stance led to his resignation and the naming of Willard C. Fleming, DDS, as the second Chancellor in 1966. Fleming brought balance between clinicians and researchers and a new level of stability to the administration. By the end of the 1960s, the university was starting to become a leading research center; its research enterprise was bolstered by the opening of Health Sciences East and Health Sciences West the same year. Under the guidance of the third Chancellor, Philip R. Lee, the institution was renamed to its current form, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), a symbol of its coequal status as a UC campus and a research university, while the Medical Center name was kept for its hospital facilities. Lee also was crucial in guiding UCSF through the turmoil of the late 1960s and worked to increase minority recruitment and enrollment. By then, UCSF had already reached the top ranks of US schools in the health sciences through its innovative programs that blended basic science, research, and clinical instruction. This stature was further augmented by Francis A. Sooy, fourth Chancellor, who dedicated his ten years to recruiting the top physicians and scientists in the field.


Late 20th century

The 1970s saw a dramatic expansion of UCSF, both in its medical capacities and as a research institute. The increase in researchers, physicians and students brought a need for additional space. The nursing school opened its own building in 1972 and the medical center opened the Ambulatory Care Center in 1973. The discovery of
recombinant DNA Recombinant DNA (rDNA) molecules are DNA molecules formed by laboratory methods of genetic recombination (such as molecular cloning) that bring together genetic material from multiple sources, creating sequences that would not otherwise be f ...
technology by UCSF and Stanford scientists in the mid-1970s opened many new avenues of research and attracted more people. UCSF scientists also played a central role in the birth and development of the biotechnology industry in the San Francisco Bay area during this period. Herbert Boyer, a Professor of UCSF’s biochemistry and biophysics department co-founded Genentech, the first therapeutic biotech firm, and UCSF scientists were also involved in the formation of most other major biotech firms in the San Francisco region that date back to the late 1970s and early 1980s. Furthermore, a 2006 analysis of the roots of the ten largest biotech firms measured in terms of their market capitalization in the San Francisco region highlighted the central position of UCSF continued to play within the region’s industry: six biotech firms out of the top ten were either directly or indirectly linked to UCSF—a direct link meaning that the firm was founded by a UCSF scientist, an indirect link meaning that the firm was spun-off from a firm founded by a UCSF scientist. On the clinical side, great advances in patient care, diagnostics, and treatments advanced UCSF's reputation in the health field. 1975 also saw the opening of the UCSF Center in Fresno. Julius R. Krevans, the fifth Chancellor from 1982 to 1993, was a strong advocate of biomedical research and public policy in the health sciences. During his tenure, UCSF rose to become one of the leading recipients of NIH funding. This led to the need for new space, and additions included the Marilyn Reed Lucia Child Care Center in 1978, the Dental Clinics Building (1980), the new Joseph M. Long Hospital in 1983 (which was integrated with the existing Moffitt Hospital), the Beckman Vision Center and the Koret Vision Research Laboratory (1988), and the Kalmanovitz Library (1990). Due to the space constraints of the Parnassus Heights campus, UCSF started looking into expanding into other areas of the city. The university opened UCSF Laurel Heights in 1985 in the
Laurel Heights Laurel Heights is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It is located to the south of the Presidio of San Francisco and east of the Richmond District. It is bordered by Geary Boulevard and the University of San Francisco campus to the so ...
neighborhood. Initially intended for pharmacy school laboratory research and instruction, neighborhood concerns pushed the university to instead employ the building for academic desktop research, social and behavioral science departments, and administrative offices. On the western side of the city, the university acquired Mount Zion Hospital in 1990, which became the second major clinical site and since 1999 has hosted the first comprehensive
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
center in Northern California. Under the chancellorship of Joseph B. Martin, UCSF attempted a short-lived merger of its health system with Stanford Health and laid the groundwork for the expansion into Mission Bay.


21st century

A pivotal moment in UCSF history was the deal between Vice Chancellor Bruce Spaulding and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown for the development of the Mission Bay campus in 1999. The development of a second campus in San Francisco was planned carefully and with business and community input. The Mission Bay neighborhood was occupied by old warehouses and rail yards. Initially, the campus consisted of 29.2 acres donated by the
Catellus Development Corporation Catellus Development Corporation is an Oakland, California based real estate developer founded in 1984 to be the real estate division of Santa Fe Pacific Corporation, as part of the Santa Fe–Southern Pacific merger. It was spun off into its o ...
and 13.2 acres donated by the City and County of San Francisco. A later addition of a 14.5-acre parcel brought the total campus area to about 57 acres. The Mission Bay expansion was overseen by a one-year chancellorship of surgeon
Haile Debas Haile Debas (born 1937, AsmaraFikes, RobertHaile Debas T. (1937- )at blackpast.org) is an Eritrean physician and academic administrator at the University of California, San Francisco. Life Haile T. Debas was born in Asmara, Eritrea, in 1937. F ...
. Under his guidance, UCSF further increased its lead in the field of surgery, transplant surgery, and surgical training. The Mission Bay Campus doubled the university's research and provided new opportunities for biomedical discovery and student training. The first phase of construction cost $800 million and included four research buildings, a community center, a student housing complex, two parking structures, and development of large open spaces. Scientist J. Michael Bishop, a
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
in Medicine recipient, became the eighth Chancellor in 1998. He oversaw one of UCSF's transition and growth periods, including the expanding Mission Bay development and philanthropic support recruitment. During his tenure, he unveiled the first comprehensive, campus-wide, strategic plan to promote diversity and foster a supportive work environment. During this time, UCSF also adopted a new mission: "advancing health worldwide"™. In 2009,
Susan Desmond-Hellmann Sue Desmond-Hellmann is an American oncologist and biotechnology leader who served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2014–2020. She was previously Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisc ...
became the ninth Chancellor and first woman to lead UCSF. She was tasked with guiding the university through the aftermath of the
financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of ...
. In the same year, UCSF professor
Elizabeth Blackburn Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, (born 26 November 1948) is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who is the former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Previously she was a biological researcher at the University of California, ...
won the Nobel Prize for Medicine and in 2012 UCSF professor
Shinya Yamanaka is a Japanese stem cell researcher and a Nobel Prize laureate. He serves as the director of Center for iPS Cell (induced Pluripotent Stem Cell) Research and Application and a professor at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyo ...
won the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accordi ...
. The 2010s saw increased construction and expansion at Mission Bay, with the Smith Cardiovascular Research Building, the UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay, the
Benioff Children's Hospital UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital is a children's hospital system in San Francisco, California, subordinate to the University of California, San Francisco. It has four campuses: the Parnassus Campus, the Mount Zion Campus, and the Mission Bay Camp ...
in 2010, the Sandler Neuroscience Center in 2012, Mission Hall and the Baker Cancer Hospital in 2013. The Children's Hospital was named after Marc Benioff, who donated $100 million toward the new facility. In 2011, expansion also resumed at the Parnassus campus, with the construction of the Regeneration Medicine Building, a $123 million construction designed by New York architect Rafael Viñoly. The Stem Cell Center was named in honor of Eli Broad, who donated $25 million to the cause of research for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease, HIV/AIDS, and cancer. In 2014, UCSF celebrated its 150th anniversary with a year of events. That same year Neonatologist and Dean of the UCSF School of Medicine Sam Hawgood, MBBS, became the tenth Chancellor. In 2015, the Mission Bay campus saw the grand opening of the new UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay, a 289-bed integrated hospital complex dedicated to serving children, women and cancer patients. Since 2015 UCSF has increased its focus on novel biomedical research and has attracted many acts of philanthropy. UCSF became one of the three institutions (together with UC Berkeley and
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
) which comprise the
Biohub Chan Zuckerberg Biohub (CZ Biohub), or simply Biohub, is a nonprofit research organization. In addition to supporting and conducting original research, CZ Biohub acts as a hub and fosters science collaboration between UC Berkeley, UC San Francis ...
, which is housed on the Mission Bay campus. The project consists of a medical science research center funded by a $600 million commitment from
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
and founder
Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), of ...
and UCSF alumna pediatrician Priscilla Chan, his wife. In January 2017, UCSF announced a $500 million gift from the Helen Diller Foundation to increase financial aid for faculty and students, invest in cutting-edge research projects, and expand scholarships for dental, medical, nursing and pharmacy students. This gift is tied with that of Nike Inc. co-founder Phil Knight for the largest single donation ever to a public university. In 2017, UCSF launched a capital campaign, The Campaign, to raise $5 billion to increase the endowment and funds for research and medical services. In 2018, UCSF received a commitment of $500 million for the construction of a new hospital, which will be built at Parnassus, replacing the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute. In June 2020 the UCSF paid $1.1 million in 116 bitcoins to the Netwalker criminal gang who had attacked their computer systems with malware and stole student data. The university negotiated with the gang after initially offering $780,000 which was rejected by the criminals due to their perception of UCSF's wealth. USCF said in a statement to the BBC that they had "made the difficult decision to pay some portion of the ransom...to the individuals behind the malware attack in exchange for a tool to unlock the encrypted data and the return of the data they obtained. It would be a mistake to assume that all of the statements and claims made in the negotiations are factually accurate".


Campus

UCSF operates four major campus sites within the city of San Francisco and one in
Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...
, as well as numerous other minor sites scattered through San Francisco and the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...
.


Parnassus

The Parnassus Heights campus was the site of the Affiliated Colleges, which later evolved into the present-day institution. The site was established along Parnassus Avenue in 1898 on land donated by Mayor Adolph Sutro. At the time, the site was in the remote and uninhabited western part of San Francisco, but its medical facilities became vital in saving lives when 40,000 people were hosted in the nearby
Golden Gate Park Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the developm ...
after the 1906 earthquake. In the early 1900s, the medical research operations of the medical center were split between Parnassus and UC Berkeley, and discussions arose about which site should become the center of medical activity. In 1914, the Hooper Foundation for Medical Research decided to move its research work to the Parnassus site, becoming the first medical research foundation in the United States to be incorporated into a university. This expansion led to a 1949 decision by the UC Board of Regents designating the UCSF campus, rather than UC Berkeley, as the main site for all medical sciences of the UC system. The 20th century saw remarkable growth, with the expansion of new research institutes and facilities, which led to the administrative independence of UCSF and the selection of John B. de C.M. Saunders as the first Chancellor in 1964. Parnassus serves as the main campus of the University and includes administration offices, numerous research labs, the 600-bed UCSF Medical Center, the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, the Mulberry Student Union, and the
UCSF Library The UCSF Library is the library of the University of California, San Francisco. It is one of the world's foremost libraries in the health sciences. Facilities The main branch (Kalmanovitz Library) is located at the Parnassus campus, with secondar ...
. Additionally, the Schools of Dentistry, Pharmacy, Medicine, Nursing are also located at Parnassus. It also houses the UCSF neurology outpatient practice that serves as a referral center for most of northern California and
Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is th ...
. UCSF's Beckman Vision Center is also located at the Parnassus campus. It is a center for the diagnosis, treatment, and research of all areas of eye care, including vision correction surgery. Also located on the Parnassus campus is the UCSF Fetal Treatment Center, a multidisciplinary care center dedicated to the diagnosis, treatment, and long-term follow-up of fetal birth defects.


Mission Bay

UCSF's Mission Bay Campus, also located in San Francisco, is the largest ongoing biomedical construction project in the world. The Mission Bay campus, opened in 2003 with construction still ongoing, contains additional research space and facilities to foster biotechnology and life sciences companies. It will double the size of UCSF's research enterprise over the next 10 years. The biotechnology company Genentech contributed $50 million toward construction of a building as part of a
settlement Settlement may refer to: * Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building *Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fin ...
regarding alleged theft of UCSF technology several decades earlier. Also located on the Mission Bay campus, the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Hall was designed by César Pelli and opened in February 2004. The building is named in honor of Arthur Rock and his wife, who made a $25 million gift to the university. Byers Hall serves as the headquarters for the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), a cooperative effort between the UC campuses at San Francisco, Berkeley, and Santa Cruz. The building is named after venture capitalist
Brook Byers Brook Byers (born August 2, 1945, Belleville, IL (Scott Air Force Base)) is a senior partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and the brother of Stanford University Professor Tom Byers and Atlanta, Georgia engineering entrepreneur Ken Byers. ...
, co-chair of UCSF's capital campaign that concluded in 2005 and raised over $1.6 billion. Additionally, the William J. Rutter Center, designed along with the adjacent 600-space parking structure by Ricardo Legorreta, opened in October 2005 and contains a fitness and recreation center, swimming pools, student services, and conference facilities. The building is named in honor of William J. Rutter, former Chairman of the university's Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics and co-founder of Chiron Corporation. A housing complex for 750 students and postdoctoral fellows and an 800-space parking garage also opened in late 2005. And a fourth research building, designed by Rafael Viñoly and named th
Helen Diller Family Cancer Research Building
opened in June 2009. Two additional research buildings designated for neuroscience and cardiovascular research are currently in the planning and design phase. A new specialty hospital focused on women, children, and cancer on the Mission Bay campus opened in February 2015.


Other centers, institutes, and programs

The Mount Zion Campus contains UCSF's NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, its Women's Health Center, the Osher Center for
Integrative Medicine Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability, or evidence from clinical trials. Complementary medicine (CM), complementary and al ...
and outpatient resources. The San Francisco General Hospital campus cares for the indigent population of San Francisco and contains San Francisco's only Level I trauma center. The hospital itself is owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco, but all of its doctors are UCSF faculty physicians and UCSF maintains research laboratories at the hospital campus. The earliest cases of HIV/AIDS were discovered at San Francisco General Hospital in the 1980s. To this day SF General Hospital has one of the world's leading HIV/AIDS treatment and research centers. UCSF is also affiliated with the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the J. David Gladstone Institutes, a private biomedical research entity that has recently moved to a new building adjacent to UCSF's Mission Bay campus. Since 2014, there has also been an affiliation with UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland (formerly Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland). UCSF has its own police department, which serves its two major campuses as well as all satellite sites within the city and South San Francisco.


Health policy

Among the related Institutes that are part of UCSF is the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, founded in 1972 by Philip Randolph Lee. UCSF cooperates with the
Hastings College of Law The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings) is a public law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1878 by Serranus Clinton Hastings, UC Hastings was the first law school of the University of California a ...
, a separate University of California institution located in San Francisco. This includes the formation of the UCSF/Hastings Consortium on Law, Science, and Health Policy. The program offers an LLM and MSL Degree program for health and science professionals. The Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies is a partner in this consortium. UCSF is home to the
Industry Documents Library The UCSF Industry Documents Library (IDL) is a digital archive of internal tobacco, drug, food, chemical and fossil fuel corporate documents, acquired largely through litigation, which illustrate industry efforts to influence policies and regulation ...
(IDL), a digital library of previously secret internal industry documents, including over 14 million documents in the internationally known
Truth Tobacco Industry Documents The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Truth Tobacco Industry Documents (formerly known as Legacy Tobacco Documents Library) is a digital archive of tobacco industry documents, funded by Truth Initiative and created and maintained by ...
, the Food Industry Documents Archive, Chemical Industry Documents Archive and the Drug Industry Documents Archive. The IDL contains millions of documents created by major companies related to their advertising, manufacturing, marketing, sales, and scientific research activities.


Academics

University of California, San Francisco is unique among
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...
campuses in that it performs only biomedical and patient-centered research in its Schools of
Medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
,
Pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...
,
Nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...
, and Dentistry, and the Graduate Division, and their hundreds of associated laboratories. The university is known for innovation in medical research, public service, and patient care. UCSF's faculty includes seven
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
winners, 31 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 69 members of the Institute of Medicine, and 30 members of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. UCSF confers a number of degrees, including
Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...
, Doctor of Philosophy,
Doctor of Pharmacy A Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD; New Latin: ''Pharmaciae Doctor'') is a professional doctorate in pharmacy. In some countries, it is a doctoral degree to practice the profession of pharmacy or to become a clinical pharmacist. In many countries t ...
,
Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. ...
, Doctor of Dental Surgery, and
Doctor of Physical Therapy A Doctor of Physical Therapy or Doctor of Physiotherapy (DPT) degree is a qualifying degree in physical therapy. In the United States, it is considered a graduate-level first professional degree or doctorate degree for professional practice. In the ...
in a variety of fields.


Rankings

UCSF is considered one of the world's preeminent medical and life sciences universities. In 2019, the ''
Academic Ranking of World Universities The ''Academic Ranking of World Universities'' (''ARWU''), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is one of the annual publications of world university rankings. The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong Universi ...
'', published annually by Shanghai Jiaotong University, ranked UCSF 1st in the world for Clinical Medicine and 2nd in the world for Pharmacy. Previously, UCSF had been second in the world for Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy from 2007–2015, ceding the #2 position to the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...
in 2016. The professional schools of the University of California, San Francisco are among the top in the nation, according to current '' U.S. News & World Report'' graduate school and other rankings. The schools also rank at or near the top in research funding from the
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the lat ...
. Among U.S. medical schools, UCSF is ranked 3rd for research and ranked 2nd for clinical training in the primary care specialties (internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics) by ''U.S. News & World Report''. The UCSF Medical Center is rated as the 12th best hospital in the US and 3rd best in California (behind
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over ...
and UCLA Medical Center, which are both located in Los Angeles) according to the '' U.S. News & World Report''.


Faculty

UCSF has 3,000 full-time faculty. Among its 2018 faculty members are: * 7
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
winners * 53 members of the National Academy of Sciences * 100 members of the National Academy of Medicine * 3 MacArthur Foundation “geniuses” * 18
Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fi ...
investigators * 38 NIH Innovator and Young Innovator Awards * 9 members of the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
* 65 members of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
* 68 members of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
* 2 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences winners * 4 National Medal of Science winners * 6 Shaw Prize winners * 10 Lasker Award winners


School of Medicine

The UCSF school of medicine is the oldest in the Western United States. In 2021, the School of Medicine was the second-highest recipient of
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the lat ...
research funds among all U.S. medical schools, receiving awards totaling $630 million. In 2016, the School of Medicine launched the Bridges curriculum, more than half of which is dedicated to diagnostic reasoning. In 2017, 8,078 people applied and 505 were interviewed for 145 positions in the entering class.


Graduate Division

The Graduate Division, established in 1961, is home to 1,600 students enrolled in 31 degree programs (both PhD and Masters) and 1,100 postdoctoral scholars. Programs are based basic, translational, clinical, social, and population sciences, and focus on the understanding of the mechanisms of biology, analyzing the social, cultural, and historical determinants of health, alleviating human disease, reducing health disparities, and advancing health worldwide. ''U.S. News & World Report''. In 2018, UCSF graduate programs ranked 1st in
immunology Immunology is a branch of medicineImmunology for Medical Students, Roderick Nairn, Matthew Helbert, Mosby, 2007 and biology that covers the medical study of immune systems in humans, animals, plants and sapient species. In such we can see ther ...
and
molecular biology Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and phys ...
, 3rd in
neuroscience Neuroscience is the science, scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a Multidisciplinary approach, multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, an ...
, 4th in
cell biology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living an ...
and
biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
, fifth in
biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...
/ biophysics/ structural biology.


School of Nursing

The School of Nursing was established in 1907, following the
1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity ...
, which lead to UCSF becoming active in providing health care in San Francisco. It is recognized as one of the premier nursing schools in the United States. In the ''U.S. News & World Report'' for 2016, the UCSF School of
Nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...
tied for 2nd overall in the nation. UCSF also ranked in the top 10 in all six of its rated nursing specialties, including ranking #1 for its psychiatric/
mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles Stress (biology), stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-maki ...
nurse practitioner program, and ranking #2 for its family nurse practitioner program. Previously, in 2012, the nursing specialties were ranked as #1 for adult/medical-surgical nurse, family nurse practitioner and psychiatric/
mental health Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. It likewise determines how an individual handles Stress (biology), stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-maki ...
nurse programs, and #2 for its adult nurse practitioner program. The School of Nursing in 2016 ranked first nationally in total NIH research funds with $7.85 million, for the 10th time in the last dozen years. This was the second year in a row that all four of UCSF's professional schools (Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Dentistry) ranked first for "federal biomedical research funding in their fields."


School of Pharmacy

Founded in 1872, it is the oldest pharmacy school in
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
and the western
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
. For 39 consecutive years it has been the number one pharmacy school by NIH funding, with close to $29 million in 2018. In 2015, ''U.S. News & World Report'' ranked the UCSF School of Pharmacy number three in its "America's Best Graduate Schools" edition. In 2014, the School of Pharmacy also ranked first in NIH research funding among all US pharmacy schools, receiving awards totaling $31.8 million. The UCSF School of Pharmacy was also ranked as the top program in the US, according to a 2002 survey published in ''The Annals of Pharmacotherapy'', which weighed key criteria, including funding for research and the frequency of scientific publications by faculty, that are not considered in other rankings. In 2013, the UCSF pharmacy program implemented the multiple mini interview, developed by
McMaster University Medical School The Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, known as the McMaster University School of Medicine prior to 2004, is the medical school of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It is operated by the McMaster Faculty of Health Science ...
, as a replacement for the more traditional panel interview as the MMI had shown to be a better predictor of subsequent performance in school.


School of Dentistry

Founded in 1881, the School of Dentistry is the oldest dental school in the state of California and in the Western United States. It is accredited by the
American Dental Association The American Dental Association (ADA) is an American professional association established in 1859 which has more than 161,000 members. Based in the American Dental Association Building in the Near North Side of Chicago, the ADA is the world's ...
and offers the Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS), PhD in Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, MS in Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, and MS in Dental Hygiene degrees. The School of Dentistry in 2016 ranked first among all dental schools in NIH research funding for the 25th consecutive year, with $19.5 million in awards. In Quacquarelli Symonds's Dentistry Subject Ranking in 2021, UCSF was ranked 7th in the world and 2nd in the United States.


UCSF Health


UCSF Medical Center

In 2022–23, '' U.S. News & World Report'' recognized UCSF Medical Center as the 12th best hospital in the nation and the third best in California. UCSF received the following ranking in 16 adult medical specialities: The UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay opened February 1, 2015 and hosts three hospitals ( UCSF Benioff children's hospital, UCSF Betty Irene Moore Women's Hospital, and UCSF Bakar Cancer Hospital) and an outpatient facility.


Research

UCSF is among the world's leading institutions in biological and medical research. Its departments span all fields of biomedical science, from basic to translational sciences. In fiscal year 2018, it spent $1.596 billion in research and development, the third most among institutions of higher education in the U.S. In fiscal year 2020, UCSF received $680 million in funding from the
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the lat ...
, which is the 2nd highest of all US domestic higher education universities. Milestones include: * The discovery of
oncogenes An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, these genes are often mutated, or expressed at high levels.
and the conversion of normal cellular genes can be converted to cancer genes (Nobel Prize in Medicine, J. Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus, 1989) * The techniques of
recombinant DNA Recombinant DNA (rDNA) molecules are DNA molecules formed by laboratory methods of genetic recombination (such as molecular cloning) that bring together genetic material from multiple sources, creating sequences that would not otherwise be f ...
, the seminal step in the creation of the biotechnology industry, together with Stanford * The precise recombinant DNA techniques that led to the creation of a hepatitis B vaccine * The first successful in-utero fetal surgery (
Michael R. Harrison Michael R. Harrison (born May 5, 1943, in Portland, Oregon) served as division chief in pediatric surgery at the Children's Hospital at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for over 20 years, where he established the first fetal trea ...
) * First to clone an insulin gene into bacteria, leading to the mass production of recombinant human insulin to treat diabetes * First to synthesize human growth hormone and clone into bacteria, setting the stage for genetically engineered human growth hormone * First to develop prenatal tests for sickle cell anemia and thalassemia * Discovery of
prion Prions are misfolded proteins that have the ability to transmit their misfolded shape onto normal variants of the same protein. They characterize several fatal and transmissible neurodegenerative diseases in humans and many other animals. It i ...
s, a unique type of infectious agent responsible for a variety of neurodegenerative diseases (Nobel Prize in Medicine,
Stanley B. Prusiner Stanley Benjamin Prusiner (born May 28, 1942) is an American neurologist and biochemist. He is the director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Prusiner discovered prions, a class of ...
, 1997) * Development of catheter ablation therapy for
tachycardia Tachycardia, also called tachyarrhythmia, is a heart rate that exceeds the normal resting rate. In general, a resting heart rate over 100 beats per minute is accepted as tachycardia in adults. Heart rates above the resting rate may be normal ( ...
* Discovery of the molecular nature of telomeres * Discovery that missing
pulmonary surfactant Pulmonary surfactant is a surface-active complex of phospholipids and proteins formed by type II alveolar cells. The proteins and lipids that make up the surfactant have both hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions. By adsorbing to the air-water in ...
s are responsible for the death of newborns with respiratory distress syndrome; first to develop a synthetic substitute for it, reducing infant death rates significantly * The first care units for AIDS patients and pioneer work in treatment of AIDS * First to train pharmacists as drug therapy specialists * First university west of the Mississippi to offer a doctoral degree in nursing * First to develop an academic hospitalist program (and coined the term "hospitalist") ( Robert M. Wachter) * First high volume HIV counseling and testing program at the UCSF Alliance Health Project * First US medical school to offer an elective for medical students to get academic credit for editing health-related articles on Wikipedia. * On June 5, 2015, surgeons at UCSF and California Pacific Medical Center successfully completed 18 surgeries in the nation's first nine-way, two-day kidney transplant chain in a single city.


Student life

There are more than 180 registered campus organizations at UCSF. These groups and clubs cover a broad range of interests, including educational, social, cultural, artistic, recreational, political and spiritual. Every year, these organizations sponsor more than 1,200 activities and events. The student government at UCSF consists of the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA), which serves the collective interests of graduate and professional students. It aims at improving student life on a university and system-wide level with dialogue, action, and activities between students, faculty, and staff. It focuses on discussing University policy, informing constituents, advocating student interests, fostering relationships between academic programs, strengthening connections to better support students, and initiating actions and proposals, ''Synapse'' is the student newspaper at UCSF. It was founded in 1957, and since 1997 the newspaper has been both in print and online. In the fall 2015 the newspaper rebranded from ''Synapse: The UCSF Newspaper'' to ''Synapse: UCSF Student Voices''. The mission of ''Synapse'' is to serve as the forum for the campus community, and it covers campus news and events, entertainment, and restaurant reviews, and a wide range of feature stories, editorials, and weekly columns, to the entire UCSF community. The newspaper focuses heavily on science and health, but it also covers arts, national news, and opinion articles. UCSF students are eligible to become University of California student regent, a position on the University of California Board of Regents created by a 1974 California ballot proposition to represent
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...
students on the university system's governing board. Student regents serve an approximately one-year term as 'student regent-designate', followed by a one-year term as a full voting member of the Regents. Virtually any UC student in good academic standing may apply to be student regent. Traditionally, the position alternates between undergraduate and graduate students as well as between the various UC campuses.


Notable people


Chancellors

* John Bertrand Morant Saunders (1964–1966) * Willard Fleming (1966–1969) *
Philip Randolph Lee Philip Randolph Lee (April 17, 1924 – October 27, 2020) was an American physician who served as the United States Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs under President Lyndon B. Johnson from 1965 to 1969 and President Bill Cl ...
(1969–1972) * Francis A. Sooy (1972–1982) * Julius R. Krevans (1982–1993) * Joseph B. Martin (1993–1997) *
Haile Debas Haile Debas (born 1937, AsmaraFikes, RobertHaile Debas T. (1937- )at blackpast.org) is an Eritrean physician and academic administrator at the University of California, San Francisco. Life Haile T. Debas was born in Asmara, Eritrea, in 1937. F ...
(1997–1998) * J. Michael Bishop (1998–2009) *
Susan Desmond-Hellmann Sue Desmond-Hellmann is an American oncologist and biotechnology leader who served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2014–2020. She was previously Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisc ...
(2009–2014) * Sam Hawgood (2014–present)


Notable alumni and faculty

* Bruce Alberts, 2016 Albert Lasker Special Achievement Award for fundamental discoveries in DNA replication and protein biochemistry, 2012 National Medal of Science * James P. Allison, 2018 Nobel laureate for the discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation * Andy Baldwin – bachelor for the tenth season of '' The Bachelor'' * Carolyn Bertozzi - Nobel laureate, known for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry * J. Michael Bishop – former UCSF Chancellor.
Nobel Nobel often refers to: *Nobel Prize, awarded annually since 1901, from the bequest of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel Nobel may also refer to: Companies *AkzoNobel, the result of the merger between Akzo and Nobel Industries in 1994 *Branobel, or ...
laureate in Medicine (1989), worked to discover the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes *
Elizabeth Blackburn Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, (born 26 November 1948) is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who is the former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Previously she was a biological researcher at the University of California, ...
, professor of biology and physiology at UCSF,
Nobel Nobel often refers to: *Nobel Prize, awarded annually since 1901, from the bequest of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel Nobel may also refer to: Companies *AkzoNobel, the result of the merger between Akzo and Nobel Industries in 1994 *Branobel, or ...
laureate in Medicine (2009), discoverer of the ribonucleoprotein
enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products ...
,
telomerase Telomerase, also called terminal transferase, is a ribonucleoprotein that adds a species-dependent telomere repeat sequence to the 3' end of telomeres. A telomere is a region of repetitive sequences at each end of the chromosomes of most euk ...
. Appointed a member of the
President's Council on Bioethics The President's Council on Bioethics (PCBE) was a group of individuals appointed by United States President George W. Bush to advise his administration on bioethics. Established on November 28, 2001, by Executive Order 13237, the council was dir ...
in 2001 and fired in February 2004, reportedly for her public disagreements and political differences with Council chair Leon Kass and the Bush Administration, particularly on the issue of
therapeutic cloning In genetics and developmental biology, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a laboratory strategy for creating a viable embryo from a body cell and an egg cell. The technique consists of taking an enucleated oocyte (egg cell) and implantin ...
*
Herbert Boyer Herbert Wayne "Herb" Boyer (born July 10, 1936) is an American biotechnologist, researcher and entrepreneur in biotechnology. Along with Stanley N. Cohen and Paul Berg he discovered a method to coax bacteria into producing foreign proteins, the ...
, National Medal of Science (1990) and Shaw prize 2004, cofounder of Genentech * Enoch Callaway – psychiatrist, co-founder of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology and Neurobiological Technologies *
Richard Carmona Richard Henry Carmona (born November 22, 1949) is an American physician, nurse, police officer, public health administrator, and politician. He was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the seventeenth Surg ...
– former
Surgeon General of the United States The surgeon general of the United States is the operational head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States. T ...
* Priscilla Chan – pediatrician, spouse of Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), of ...
* John Allen Clements, first to isolate
pulmonary surfactant Pulmonary surfactant is a surface-active complex of phospholipids and proteins formed by type II alveolar cells. The proteins and lipids that make up the surfactant have both hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions. By adsorbing to the air-water in ...
and to develop it artificially * Terence Coderre – Professor of Medicine and the Harold Griffith Chair in Anaesthesia Research at
McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Univer ...
* Eric Coleman is an American geriatrician and professor at the University of Colorado. His research concerns care transitions. Coleman was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2012. *
Zubin Damania Zubin Damania (born April 23, 1973) is an American physician, assistant professor, comedian, internet personality, and musician. He also has been writing and performing comedic raps as ZDoggMD, an internet celebrity known for his music videos, p ...
, physician, comedian, internet personality, musician, and founder of Turntable Health * Haile T. Debas, former UCSF Chancellor; former Dean, School of Medicine; founding Executive Director, Department of Global Health Sciences *
Joseph DeRisi Joseph Lyman DeRisi is an American biochemist, specializing in molecular biology, parasitology, genomics, virology, and computational biology. Life He received a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (1992) from the University of California ...
biochemist, specializing in molecular biology, parasitology, genomics, virology, and computational biology. In 2004 was named a MacArthur Fellow, in 2008 was awarded the 14th Annual Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy, and Employment, in 2014 he received the John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science from the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2016 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences * Michael V. Drake – former
University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...
Chancellor; former University of California Vice President-Health Affairs; former president of
Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...
; current president of the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...
* Jennifer Doudna – Adjunct professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology, Nobel laureate in Chemistry (2020) * Laura J. Esserman, surgeon and breast cancer oncology specialist, named in ''
TIME Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...
s 100 most influential people in the world in 2016. * Paul Ekman, who showed that human emotional expressions were universal and developed the Facial Action Coding System *
Richard Feachem Sir Richard George Andrew Feachem, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, KBE, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, FREng (born 10 April 1947) is Professor of Global Health at both the University of California, San Francisco, ...
, founding Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (2002–2007) *
Courtney Fitzhugh Courtney D. Fitzhugh is an American hematologist-oncologist and scientist. She is a clinical researcher and head of the laboratory of early sickle cell mortality prevention at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Life Fitzhugh was bo ...
, physician and laboratory director at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute * Diana E. Forsythe, anthropologist noted for her work on artificial intelligence and medical informatics * David E. Garfin, made significant contributions to electrophoresis in both the engineering and biology communities. *
Julie Gerberding Julie Louise Gerberding (born August 22, 1955) is an American infectious disease expert who was the first woman to serve as the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As of May 2022, she is the CEO of the Foundati ...
– Director,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georg ...
(CDC) *
Stanton Glantz Stanton Arnold Glantz (born 1946) is an American professor, author, and tobacco control activist. Glantz is a faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine, where he is a Professor of Medicine (retired) in ...
, regarded as the
Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the Un ...
of the anti-big-tobacco movement *
Joseph Goldyne Joseph R. Goldyne (born 1942), is an American artist, curator, and author. He is known for his monotype prints and drawing and he was one of the co-founders of 3EP Ltd. Press. Biography Joseph Goldyne was born on 20 April 1942 in Chicago, Ill ...
– M.D., fine artist, printmaker, painter, curator. *
Jere E. Goyan Jere E. Goyan (August 3, 1930 – January 17, 2007) was an American pharmacist who served as Commissioner of Food and Drugs The United States Commissioner of Food and Drugs is the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency of th ...
, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration * Walter S. Graf, cardiologist, pioneer in creation of emergency paramedic care system *
Victoria Hale Victoria Hale founded the nonprofit pharmaceutical company The Institute for OneWorld Health in San Francisco, California in 2000 and was its chairman and CEO until 2008, when she became Chair Emeritus. She then went on to found Medicines360, a ...
, both alumna and professor, founded the nonprofit pharmaceutical company The Institute for OneWorld Health, 2006 MacArthur Fellow * Joseph Gilbert Hamilton, Hamilton studied the medical effects of exposure to radioactive isotopes, which included the use of unsuspecting human subjects * Eva Harris, professor in the School of Public Health at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...
, and the founder and president of the Sustainable Sciences Institute. Research efforts focused on combating diseases that primarily afflict people in developing nations; 1997 MacArthur Fellows Program *
Michael R. Harrison Michael R. Harrison (born May 5, 1943, in Portland, Oregon) served as division chief in pediatric surgery at the Children's Hospital at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for over 20 years, where he established the first fetal trea ...
– developed the initial techniques for fetal surgery and performed the first fetal surgery in 1981, and then went on to establish the UCSF Fetal Treatment Center, which was the first of its kind in the United States * Griffith R. Harsh – Vice Chair of the Stanford Department of Neurosurgery and the Director of the Stanford Brain Tumor Center. He is also the spouse of Meg Whitman. *
Ira Herskowitz Ira Herskowitz (July 14, 1946 – April 28, 2003) was an American phage and yeast geneticist geneticist who studied genetic regulatory circuits and mechanisms. He was particularly noted for his work on mating type switching and cellular differenti ...
, geneticist, noted for his work on cellular differentiation, 1987
MacArthur Fellows Program The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...
* Julien Hoffman – professor emeritus of pediatrics; senior member of the Cardiovascular Research Institute *
Dorothy M. Horstmann Dorothy Millicent Horstmann (July 2, 1911 – January 11, 2001) was an American epidemiologist, virologist, and pediatrician whose research on the spread of poliovirus in the human bloodstream helped set the stage for the development of the polio ...
(1911–2001), virologist who made important discoveries about
polio Poliomyelitis, commonly shortened to polio, is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. Approximately 70% of cases are asymptomatic; mild symptoms which can occur include sore throat and fever; in a proportion of cases more severe sy ...
. * Nola Hylton, radiologist and pioneer in the use of
Breast MRI One alternative to mammography, breast MRI or contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), has shown substantial progress in the detection of breast cancer. Uses Some of the uses of MRI of the breasts are: screening for malignancy in women ...
* Janet Iwasa, cell biologist and animator * David Juliusphysiologist known for his work on molecular mechanisms underlying detection of thermal stimuli and natural products. Received the 2010 Shaw Prize, 2017 Gairdner Award, 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, 2020
Kavli Prize The Kavli Prize was established in 2005 as a joint venture of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and the Kavli Foundation. It honors, supports, and recognizes scientists for outstan ...
in neuroscience, 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. * Sarah H. Kagan is an American gerontological nurse, and Lucy Walker Honorary Term Professor of Gerontological Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a MacArthur Fellow. * Yuet Wai Kan, Lasker Award (1991) and Shaw Prize (2004) * Selna Kaplan – former professor of pediatrics;
pediatric endocrinologist Pediatric endocrinology (British: Paediatric) is a medical subspecialty dealing with disorders of the endocrine glands, such as variations of physical growth and sexual development in childhood, diabetes and many more. By age, pediatric endocrinol ...
* Stuart Kauffman is an American medical doctor, theoretical biologist, and complex systems researcher who studies the origin of life on Earth. He was a professor the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Calgary. He has a number of awards including a MacArthur Fellowship and a Wiener Medal. * Uzma Khanum, sister of Pakistani Politician Imran Khan. * David Kessler – former dean of the UCSF School of Medicine and Yale University School of Medicine, and former Commissioner of the
Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...
in the Clinton Administration *
Peter Kollman Peter Andrew Kollman (July 24, 1944–May 25, 2001) was a professor of chemistry and pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco. He is known for his work in computational chemistry, molecular modeling and bioin ...
– developer of the
AMBER Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In M ...
force field in
molecular dynamics Molecular dynamics (MD) is a computer simulation method for analyzing the physical movements of atoms and molecules. The atoms and molecules are allowed to interact for a fixed period of time, giving a view of the dynamic "evolution" of th ...
simulation and an internationally renowned computational chemist *
Arthur Lander Arthur D. Lander, M.D., Ph.D. is Director of the Center for Complex Biological Systems at the University of California, Irvine. Education He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and is an alumnus of John Dewey High School there. He received a Bachelor ...
, M.D. PhD Developmental biologist at
University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and p ...
* Jeanne LaBerge, M.D., Interventional radiologist * Marguerita Lightfoot, Professor of Medicine and Chief of Prevention Science, *
Jay A. Levy Jay A. Levy, M.D. (born November 21, 1938, Wilmington, DE) is an AIDS and cancer research physician. He is a professor of medicine with specialties in virology and immunology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Biography Lev ...
, who, along with Robert Gallo at the
National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. T ...
and
Luc Montagnier Luc Montagnier (; , ; 18 August 1932 – 8 February 2022) was a French virologist and joint recipient, with and , of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). He worked as a r ...
at the
Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (french: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vacc ...
, was among the first to identify and isolate HIV as the causative agent in AIDS *
Richard Locksley Richard Locksley is a medical doctor, professor and researcher of Infectious disease (medical specialty), infectious diseases, who pioneered approaches to study immunology.American Academy of MicrobiologyRichard Locksley ''American Academy of Micr ...
, medical doctor, professor and researcher of
infectious diseases An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable di ...
at the University of California, San Francisco *
Michael Marletta Michael A. Marletta is an American biochemist. He graduated from the State University of New York at Fredonia with an A.B. degree in biology and chemistry, and from the University of California, San Francisco with a Ph.D. degree in pharmaceutica ...
is currently Ch and Annie Li Chair in the Molecular Biology of Diseases at the University of California, Berkeley. 1995 MacArthur Fellow. * C. Cameron Macauley, photographer and film producer *
Wendy Max Wendy B. Max is a professor of Health Economics and the director of the Institute for Health & Aging in the School of Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. Her focus is on the cost of illness and she has done important work on t ...
, professor of Health Economics * Michael Merzenich, Professor emeritus neuroscientist – brain plasticity research, basic and clinical sciences of hearing pioneer – CEO Scientific Learning, Posit Science *
Dean Ornish Dean Michael Ornish (born July 16, 1953) is an American physician and researcher. He is the president and founder of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, and a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Unive ...
, who first established that
coronary artery disease Coronary artery disease (CAD), also called coronary heart disease (CHD), ischemic heart disease (IHD), myocardial ischemia, or simply heart disease, involves the reduction of blood flow to the heart muscle due to build-up of atherosclerotic pl ...
could be reversed with lifestyle changes alone, author of the few bestseller books on the subject of healthy lifestyle choices * Laura Otis is an American historian of science, and Professor of English, at Emory University, 2000 MacArthur Fellows Program *
Ardem Patapoutian Ardem Patapoutian (born 1967) is an Armenian-American molecular biologist, neuroscientist, and Nobel Prize laureate. He is known for his work in characterizing the PIEZO1, PIEZO2, and TRPM8 receptors that detect pressure, menthol, and temperature ...
,
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...
laureate known for his work in characterizing the PIEZO1, PIEZO2, and TRPM8 receptors * William W. Parmley – Former Editor of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and General Authority of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...
* Stanley Prusiner – Nobel laureate in Medicine (1997), discovered and described prions * Shuvo Roy, Inventor of artificial kidney * William Seeley, alumni,
neurology Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal ...
professor at UCSFv, where he leads the Selective Vulnerability Research Lab. He is a 2011 MacArthur Fellow. *
Steve Schroeder Steven A. Schroeder is Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he also heads the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center. He served as the president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnso ...
– Former CEO,
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is an American philanthropic organization. It is the largest one focused solely on health. Based in Princeton, New Jersey, the foundation focuses on access to health care, public health, health equi ...
*
Michelle Tam Michelle Tam is an American blogger, food writer, and bestselling cookbook author known for recipes and food writing focused on the Paleolithic diet and lifestyle. Nom Nom Paleo Wanting to see her adopted diet and lifestyle reflected online, Ta ...
, creator of Nom Nom Paleo and James Beard Foundation Award nominated cookbook author, blogger, and food writer * Julie Theriot, microbiologist, professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and heads the Theriot Lab. She was a Predoctoral Fellow, and Investigator at the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fi ...
, 2004 MacArthur Fellows Program * Thea Tlsty, professor of pathology, known for her research in cancer biology *
Kay Tye Kay M. Tye (born c. 1981) is an American neuroscientist and professor and Wylie Vale Chair in the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. Her research has focused on using optogenetics to identify connections in the brain that are involved in inn ...
– neuroscientist * Harold Varmus – Nobel laureate in Medicine (1989), worked with J. Michael Bishop to discover the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes. Also served as director of the
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the lat ...
during the
Clinton Administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over ...
, as president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center from 2000 to 2010, and currently as the director of the
National Cancer Institute The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. T ...
. * Paul Volberding, whose pioneering work in the early days of the AIDS pandemic was noted in Randy Shilts' book And the Band Played On * Robert M. Wachter, a prominent expert in patient safety, who coined the term hospitalist and is considered the academic leader of the field of
hospital medicine Hospital medicine is a medical specialty that exists in some countries as a branch of family medicine or internal medicine, dealing with the care of acutely ill hospitalized patients. Physicians whose primary professional focus is caring for ...
. Wachter is now chair of UCSF's Department of Medicine. * Peter Walter molecular biologist and biochemist, Shaw Prize (2014) and Lasker Award (2014) *
Ted Wong Ted Wong (November 5, 1937 – November 24, 2010) was a martial arts practitioner best known for studying under Bruce Lee. Early life Wong was born in Hong Kong in 1937. His father, a native Californian of Chinese descent, was stationed there ...
– United States Army Major General, Chief of the U.S. Army Dental Corps (2011–2014) * Ron Vale molecular motors particularly on kinesin and dynein, he has received the Lasker Award (2012) and the Shaw Prize (2017)- *
Pablo DT Valenzuela Pablo Valenzuela (; born June 13, 1941) is a Chilean biochemist dedicated to biotechnology development. He is known for his genetic studies of hepatitis viruses; participated as R&D Director in the discovery of hepatitis C virus and the invention ...
– co-founder of the American biotech company Chiron Corporation, the first Chilean biotech company Bios Chile, and of Fundacion Ciencia para la Vida in Santiago Chile. *
V. Sasisekharan Viswanathan Sasisekharan (born 1933) is an Indian biophysicist known for his work on the structure and conformation of biopolymers. He introduced the use of torsion angles to describe polypeptide and protein conformation, a central principle of ...
, proposed an alternate model for the Watson-Crick double helix * Eric M. Verdin, MD – fifth President and Chief Executive Officer of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging * George Whipple -
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, accordi ...
in 1934 for discoveries concerning
liver The liver is a major organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for digestion and growth. In humans, it i ...
therapy in cases of
anemia Anemia or anaemia (British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin. When anemia comes on slowly, t ...
. *
Rachel Wilson Rachel Alexandra Wilson (born May 12, 1977) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her roles as Heather in ''Total Drama'' and Tamira Goldstein in ''Breaker High''. Life and career Wilson was born in Ottawa, Ontario. She started actin ...
, professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, 2008 MacArthur Fellow *
Shinya Yamanaka is a Japanese stem cell researcher and a Nobel Prize laureate. He serves as the director of Center for iPS Cell (induced Pluripotent Stem Cell) Research and Application and a professor at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyo ...
, who developed for reprogramming adult cells to pluripotential precursors, thus circumventing an approach in which embryos would be destroyed. Yamanaka won Shaw prize in 2008 and the Nobel prize for Medicine in 2012. * Kimberly Tanner, PhD in Neuroscience, currently a full professor at
San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...
as the current director of SEPA

focusing on biology education in higher education


Footnotes


References


External links

* {{authority control University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
Public universities and colleges in California Universities and colleges in San Francisco Medical schools in California Pharmacy schools in California Sunset District, San Francisco Educational institutions established in 1864 1864 establishments in California Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges