The UCSF School of Medicine is the medical school of the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It con ...

and is located at the base of

Mount Sutro Mount Sutro is a hill in central San Francisco, California. It was originally named Mount Parnassus. Geography The low mountain is in elevation. Mount Sutro is one of the many named hills within San Francisco, and among its original "Seven Hill ...

on the Parnassus Heights campus 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 17th ...

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 ...

. Founded in 1864 by Hugh Toland, it is the oldest medical school in California and in 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 primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranked the school third in research training and second in primary care training; it is the only medical school in the nation to rank among the top three in both categories. Six members of the UCSF faculty have received 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, accord ...

and five have received the

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral and social scienc ...

. For fiscal year 2022, UCSF was the top 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 late ...

(NIH) research funding and awards amongst all U.S. organizations, with $818.3 million in funding across 1,497 awards. The school is affiliated with the

UCSF Medical Center The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center is a research and teaching hospital in San Francisco, California and is the medical center of the University of California, San Francisco. It is affiliated with the UCSF School of Med ...

, which is ranked, in the 2022-23 '' U.S. News & World Report'' rankings, as the 12th best hospital in the United States and third best hospital in the state of California. 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. The UCSF School of Medicine has seven major sites throughout 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 Go ...

and is composed of 28 academic departments, eight organized research units, and five interdisciplinary research centers. The main site is at the Parnassus Heights campus, which is home to the UCSF Medical Center and the

Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute The Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute (LPPI) is a psychiatric teaching hospital, part of the Psychiatry Department at the University of California, San Francisco. It is located at 401 Parnassus Avenue at Hillway Avenue on the Parnassus campus o ...

. The UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay opened in 2015 and is home to the

UCSF 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 Campu ...

UCSF Betty Irene Moore Women's Hospital UCSF Betty Irene Moore Women's Hospital is a women's hospital in San Francisco, California, part of the University of California, San Francisco health system. It is part of the UCSF Medical Center camps of Mission Bay. Opened on February 1, 201 ...

and the

UCSF Bakar Cancer Hospital UCSF Bakar Cancer Hospital is a cancer hospital in San Francisco, California, part of the University of California, San Francisco health system. It is part of the UCSF Medical Center campus of Mission Bay. Opened on February 1, 2015, part of a $1 ...

History

The school was founded in 1864 as the Toland Medical College by Hugh H. 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 Toland Medical College and the faculty of Cooper Medical College chose to suspend operations and join the new school.A History of UCSF: San Francisco's First Medical Institutions
UCSF, Accessed October 6, 2010. In 1873 the college affiliates 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, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

. Together with the School of Dentistry, they became

UCSF The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It con ...

's first two “Affiliated Colleges” and were followed by the College of Dentistry in 1881 and the UC Training School for Nurses in 1907. The

was founded in 1868, and by 1870 Toland Medical School began negotiating an affiliation with the new public university. Meanwhile, some faculty of Toland Medical College 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 The Regents of the University of California (also referred to as the Board of Regents to distinguish the board from the corporation it governs of the same name) is the governing board of the University of California (UC), a state university sy ...

, and the school became "The Medical Department of the University of California."A History of UCSF: University Affiliation
UCSF, Accessed October 10, 2010. UCSF 1908

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 Adolph Heinrich Joseph Sutro (April 29, 1830 – August 8, 1898) was a German-American engineer, politician and philanthropist who served as the 24th mayor of San Francisco from 1895 until 1897. Born a German Jew, he moved to Virginia Cit ...

donated 13 acres in Parnassus Heights at the base of Mount Parnassus (now known as

). The new site, overlooking Golden Gate Park, 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. The University gained more independence in the 1960s when it started to be seen as a campus in its own right instead of as the medical center of the UC system. The four departments were renamed as "School of ..." and the

UCSF Graduate Division The UCSF Graduate Division is the graduate school of the University of California, San Francisco, and is located in San Francisco. It is recognized as one of the premier biomedical graduate schools in the United States. It offers 19 PhD programs, ...

was founded in 1961. 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. 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. Renowned scientist

J. Michael Bishop John Michael Bishop (born February 22, 1936) is an American immunologist and microbiologist who shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Harold E. Varmus and was co-winner of 1984 Alfred P. Sloan Prize. He serves as an activ ...

, recipient of both the

Lasker Award The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1945 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, which was ...

and

Nobel Prize in 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, according ...

(together with UCSF professor

Harold Varmus Harold Eliot Varmus (born December 18, 1939) is an American Nobel Prize-winning scientist. He is currently the Lewis Thomas University Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and a senior associate at the New York Genome Center. He was ...

), became the eighth Chancellor in 1998. He oversaw one of UCSF's major 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''™. The 2010s saw increased construction and expansion at Mission Bay, with the ''Smith Cardiovascular Research Building'', the ''UCSF Medical Center at Mission Bay'', and the Benioff Children's Hospital in 2010, the ''Sandler Neuroscience Center'' in 2012, and ''Mission Hall'' and the ''Baker Cancer Hospital'' in 2013. In 2012, the school opened the UCSF Anatomy learning center. The Children's Hospital was named after Mark Benioff, who donated $100 million toward the new facility. 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. The school started the new Bridges curriculum in 2016 with the class of 2020.

Faculty

The School of Medicine has 2,498 full-time faculty. There have been six

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 over the past six decades, and among its 2018 faculty members are: * 43 members of the National Academy of Sciences * 84 members of the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Eng ...

* 18 Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators * 32 NIH Innovator and Young Innovator Awards * 64 members of the

American Academy of Arts & 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, and ...

List of deans

* Hugh H. Toland (1864-1870) * R. Beverly Cole (1870-1875, 1878-1882) * Alonzo A. O'Neill (1875-1878) * Robert A. Maclean (1882-1899) * Arnold A. D'Ancona (1899-1913) * Hebert C. Moffitt (1913-1919) * Wallace I. Terry (1919-1920) * David P. Barrows (1921-1923) * Lionel S. Schmitt, acting (1923-1927) * R. Langley Porter (1927-1936, 1939-1940) * W. McKim Marriott (1936) * Chauncey D. Leake (1937-1939) *

Robert Gordon Sproul Robert Gordon Sproul (May 22, 1891 – September 10, 1975) was the first system-wide president (1952–1958) of the University of California system, and the last president (11th) of the University of California, Berkeley, serving from 1930 to ...

(1940-1942) * Francis S. Smyth (1942-1954) * John B. Lagen (acting) (1954-1956) * John B. De C. M. Saunders (1956-1963) * William O. Reinhardt (1963-1966) * Stuart C. Cullen (1966-1970) * Charles T. Carman (1970) * Julius R. Krevans (1971-1982) *

Joseph B. Martin Joseph Boyd Martin (born October 20, 1938 in Bassano, Alberta, Bassano, Alberta) is a Canadian physician who is the Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Professor Emeritus of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. Prior to that, he served as the Dean of H ...

(1989-1993) * Haile Debas (1993-2003) *

David A. Kessler David Aaron Kessler (born May 13, 1951) is an American pediatrician, attorney, author, and administrator (both academic and governmental) serving as Chief Science Officer of the White House COVID-19 Response Team since 2021. Kessler was the commi ...

(2003-2007) * Sam Hawgood, (2007-2014) * Bruce Wintroub, Interim (2014-2015) * Talmadge E. King Jr. (2015–present)

Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health

The Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, founded in 1999, is a research center studying obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive science at the

School of Medicine and the San Francisco General Hospital. Its focus includes research, clinical care, policy development, and training on issues affecting sexual health. This includes resources and advocacy to advance reproductive autonomy, including access to contraception and abortion services, and access to care during pregnancy and childbirth. The Center's founding director was Claire Brindis; as of 2021 it is led by Jody Steinauer. It includes over 200 medical, research, and other staff across the university, and runs a series of residencies and clinical care programs. The Bixby Center's programs include research programs, fellowships and residencies, and training and clinical centers. Research programs include ''Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health'', studying how policies and public discussion shape people's sexual and reproductive lives; ''Beyond the Pill'', studying and promoting access to contraceptive health care for women; and ''PRONTO International'' and the ''Safe Motherhood Program,'' developing care strategies and training to optimize care during

childbirth Childbirth, also known as labour and delivery, is the ending of pregnancy where one or more babies exits the internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section. In 2019, there were about 140.11 million births glob ...

. Obstetrics and gynecology residencies include a two-year fellowship in Family Planning'','' and the Kenneth J. Ryan residency program in the United States and Canada. Training and clinical centers include the California Prevention Training Center for

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

and STD care and prevention, the New Generation Health Center for youth in San Francisco. Bixby has also supported international clinics, including the ''Family AIDS Care & Education Services'' in Kisumu County, Kenya, in partnership with the Kenya Medical Research Institute, and the Clinical Trials Research Center at the

University of Zimbabwe The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) is a public university in Harare, Zimbabwe. It opened in 1952 as the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and was initially affiliated with the University of London. It was later renamed the University ...

, both researching treatment and prevention of HIV-related illness and women’s health. A sister center on Population and Reproductive Health, was set up at UCLA.

History

Faculty

List of deans

Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health

References

External links