UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann Profiled in The New York Times
UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH, is profiled in the Oct. 11, 2011 edition of the New York Times, in an article titled, “An Innovator Shapes an Empire.”
Susan Desmond-Hellmann, MD, MPH
Noting that UCSF is “widely regarded among scientists as one of the nation’s crown jewels of biomedical research, and a birthplace of biotechnology and innovation,” reporter Denise Grady highlights Desmond-Hellmann’s goal of making UCSF “the world’s pre-eminent health sciences innovator.”
The article traces Desmond-Hellmann’s history – her training as an oncologist, her time studying HIV/AIDS and Kaposi’s Sarcoma in Uganda, her stint in private oncology practice, and her “stunningly successful career” in the pharmaceutical industry. It also highlights her determination to lead UCSF through the challenging fiscal environment while keeping an eye on excellence.
An accompanying video focusing on Desmond-Hellmann as the leader of UCSF includes childhood photos of the eventual physician and executive. Her focus is always on translational research, she says, no matter how basic the research might be. “When I hear a great science story – and it may be a very basic science story -- how mitochondria work, what the liposome does -- I immediately think, ‘how is that applicable to a human being?”
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Photo by Elisabeth Fall/fallfoto.com