Four to receive UCSF's highest honor on April 27
The UCSF Medal—the University’s highest honor—will be awarded to four distinguished individuals at the annual Founders Day banquet on Tuesday, April 27.
Recipients are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the health sciences. The UCSF Medal is the equivalent to the honorary degree given by many universities.
UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop will present the awards at a ceremony at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. Recipients of faculty research and teaching awards also will be honored at the event.
## The 2004 UCSF Medal recipients are:
* LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN, MD, medical correspondent for The New York Times and a columnist for Science Times, for his contributions toward increasing the public understanding of medicine and science.
* PHIL BORGES, DDS, an award-winning photographer and an alumnus of the UCSF School of Dentistry, for his achievements as an educator, humanitarian and artist.
* MARY-CLAIRE KING, PHD, a professor of genome sciences and of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle and a human rights advocate, for her scientific distinction in the field of genetics and for her humanitarian accomplishments.
* NAN TUCKER MCEVOY, owner of the McEvoy Ranch and former chair of the board of the San Francisco Chronicle Publishing Company, for her exemplary support of cultural, historical and educational institutions throughout the nation.
The campus community and friends of UCSF are invited to attend the Founders Day Banquet and Medal Ceremony at 6:30 pm at the Westin St. Francis Hotel. The cost of the event is $70 per person. For more information or reservations, call 415/476-4454.
* LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN, MD, has won many awards for his articles in The New York Times on a wide range of topics, including SARS, HIV, Legionnaires’ disease, cancer, heart disease and the health of political leaders. He has covered all the important health sciences and medical stories of the past three decades. He also writes “The Doctor’s World” column in the paper’s Science Times. Altman received the American Heart Association’s Howard W. Blakeslee Award in 1982, 1983 and 1995, and its Howard Lewis Career Award in 2001. His series on AIDS in Africa, which brought the world’s attention to this global pandemic, won a George Polk award in 1986. He is a clinical associate professor of medicine at New York University and Bellevue Medical Centers and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
* PHIL BORGES, DDS, documents indigenous and tribal cultures worldwide through his photography and books. His work has focused on the plight of the Tibetan people, alternative medicine, shamanism and the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. His award-winning 1996 exhibit and book, “Tibetan Portrait: the Power of Compassion,” featured text by the Dali Lama and an epilogue by Elie Wiesel. In 2000, he published “The Gift,” which documents the work of Interplast, Inc., a nonprofit organization working with physicians in developing countries to provide free reconstructive surgery to needy children and adults. A graduate of the UCSF School of Dentistry, Borges practiced orthodontics for 18 years before pursuing photography full-time.
* MARY-CLAIRE KING, PHD, is the Disney Foundation American Cancer Society Research Professor at the University of Washington, Seattle. She is a pioneer in the modern application of human genetics to diagnose disease and an activist for the use of biology to help those who have been oppressed or underserved. King was one of the first biologists to support the idea that familial breast cancer could be traced to a particular gene. Her work led to the identification of the BCRA 1 gene, implicated in certain types of inheritable breast cancer. Her doctoral dissertation in 1975 brought to light that the human and chimpanzee genomes are 99 percent identical. King has used genomic sequencing to identify victims of human rights abuses throughout the world and has carried out DNA identifications for the United National War Crimes Tribunal. She also helped Argentine grandparents reunite with their families by using genetic tests to prove relations. King is a member of the Institute of Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
* NAN TUCKER MCEVOY is an activist and supporter of cultural, historical and educational institutions throughout the country. The granddaughter of M. H. de Young, founder of the San Francisco Chronicle, McEvoy began her career as a journalist before joining the Peace Corps as one of its original staff members. She later co-managed the Peace Corps office in Africa and served as special assistant to the director. She returned to San Francisco in 1981 to run the family newspaper. In 1991 she founded McEvoy Ranch in Petaluma, which now produces award-winning organic olive oil. She served as Director Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution and a member of the Board of Governors for the San Francisco Symphony. She is a director of the UCSF Foundation, and has previously volunteered on two fund-raising campaigns. She has contributed generously to the UCSF Mission Bay campus and the Thoracic Oncology Program at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center. McEvoy has endowed a chair in pulmonary medicine at UCSF.