Dear Colleagues,
I’m pleased to be writing to you today in my new role as Interim Chancellor of UCSF.
UCSF is at an exciting point in its evolution, and I look forward to working with many of you in the coming months to continue to advance excellence across our mission areas of research, education, patient care, and community service.
I know I speak on behalf of the entire UCSF community in thanking Sue Desmond-Hellmann for her leadership over the last four-and-a-half years and in wishing her the very best in her role as chief executive officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
UCSF made great progress under Sue’s leadership. Her legacy includes the strong leadership team she built, the financial strength she fostered and the scale of the projects this campus has undertaken in such a short time. The Chancellor’s Executive Cabinet is fully committed to partnering with me to ensure the current transition is a seamless one.
The coming months promise to be rewarding. Later this month, UCSF is planning to launch a yearlong celebration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of Toland Medical College, a celebration that in February 2015 will include the opening of three new hospitals at UCSF’s Mission Bay Campus. We also will continue advancing key initiatives, including UCSF 2.0, which is focused on charting a future vision for the entire institution, and the UCSF Health System, a clinical enterprise strategy to ensure we are well positioned as the healthcare landscape continues to evolve.
The breadth of what we do at UCSF is unsurpassed, from fundamental, curiosity-driven science to the application of those discoveries to patient care and...
Dear Colleagues,
I am extremely pleased to announce that Alan Ashworth, PhD, FRS, an acclaimed cancer scientist, will become the new director for the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. His appointment will officially begin January 1, 2015.
Dr. Ashworth currently is professor of molecular biology, leader of the Gene Function Team in the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre and chief executive officer of the Institute of Cancer Research in London. Together with its partner hospital, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, the ICR is one of the top cancer centers globally.
Dr. Ashworth is renowned for his research on genes that determine cancer risk, especially for his key role in the discovery of BRCA2 in 1995. His is also known for his innovative approaches to exploiting genetic weaknesses in cancer cells as a way to generate new therapies and for his passion for the development of precision cancer medicine, translating laboratory studies into improvements in patient care.
Dr. Ashworth is an elected member of EMBO and the Academy of Medical Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is the recipient of a number of scientific prizes and awards including The European Society of Medical Oncology Lifetime Achievement Award, the David T. Workman Memorial Award of the Samuel Waxman Cancer Research Foundation and the Meyenburg Foundation’s Cancer Research Award.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the search committee who so ably assisted me in Dr. Ashworth’s recruitment.
Dr. Ashworth will succeed Dr. Frank McCormick as director of the Cancer Center at USCF. Dr. McCormick joined UCSF in 1997, launched our cancer center and...