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DGSOM 70th Anniversary

DGSOM 70th Anniversary

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Defining Moments

Defining Moments

See some of the moments, people, and milestones that shaped us.

See some of the moments, people, and milestones that shaped us.

  • 1947
  • 1950s
  • 1951
  • 1953
  • 1955
  • 1961-63
  • 1964
  • 1971
  • 1975
  • 1978
  • 1978
  • 1978
  • 1980
  • 1981
  • 1983
  • 1983
  • 1984
  • 1984
  • 1984
  • 1988
  • 1988
  • 1990
  • 1990
  • 1992
  • 1993
  • 1994
  • 1998
  • 1998
  • 2002
  • 2004-10
  • 2008
  • 2008
  • 2010
  • 2012
  • 2015
  • 2016
  • 2018
  • 2019
  • 2019
  • 2020
1947 STAFFORD WARREN AT DESK
1947

First Dean

Stafford L. Warren, M.D., appointed first dean of the medical school. A former colonel in the United States Army Medical Corps and chief of the Manhattan Project’s medical section and a radiologist by training, Dr. Warren is credited with the discovery of a breast imaging technique that led to the invention of the mammogram.

1950s willed body courtesy of clara vamvulescu
1950s

First Willed-Body Program

UCLA establishes the first willed-body program in the world, allowing people to leave their bodies to science upon dying for research purposes. Image courtesy of Clara Vamvulescu

1951 first day of class
1951

Doors Open

Classes begin on Sept. 20 for the medical school’s first students—two women and 26 men—taught by 15 faculty members. Four-year attendance cost $10,000. Since it took several years to build the new school, scientists conduct research in wartime Quonset huts scattered across campus.

1953 Evelyn Hooker
1953

LGBTQ Rights

Psychology professor and research associate Evelyn Hooker, Ph.D., conducts groundbreaking research debunking the belief that homosexuality is a mental illness. See her story.

1955 CHS postcard
1955

Medical Facility of the Atomic Age

UCLA Medical Center opens to patients and is heralded as the first hospital of the Atomic Age—marking the first use of the atomic smasher for medical purposes.

1961 CTScan-C
1961-63

Computerized Tomography

William Oldendorf, M.D., establishes bedrock for non-invasive imaging technologies: computer-assisted tomography (CAT) scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

1964 Terasaki
1964

Tissue Matching

Paul Terasaki ’50, M.S. ’52, Ph.D. ’56, who spent three years with his family in a Japanese-American internment camp before becoming a three-time UCLA graduate, develops the tissue-matching test that makes organ transplants possible. The test is now the international standard for tissue typing. Image courtesy of UCLA

1971 my lesser book
1971

Art and Medicine

Artist May Lesser, M.F.A., embedded with the Class of 1971, completes her four-year medical journey and later publishes The Art of Learning Medicine based on her experience. The book uses her impressive body of artwork—including drawings and color etchings—as well as her commentary to chronicle the human side of medical education.

1975 Wyatt Picture Courtesy of Gail Wyatt
1975

Leading the way

Gail Wyatt, Ph.D. ’73, becomes the first Black woman licensed as a psychologist in the state of California. She is the first Black female full professor in the UCLA School of Medicine and the first person of color to receive a coveted K—or Research Scientist Career Development—Award from the NIH. Image courtesy of Gail Wyatt

1978 First Set of Data - PETT
1978

Molecular Imaging

Michael Phelps, Ph.D., and Edward Hoffman, Ph.D., create UCLA’s first clinical positron emission tomography (PET) center.

1978 Crew Students
1978

Connecting Westwood to South LA

The Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in south Los Angeles and the UCLA School of Medicine establish the Charles R. Drew/UCLA Medical Education Program to train health care leaders who will advance humanistic health in underserved communities.

1978 Community Partnership Venice
1978

Community Partnership

UCLA forms a formal affiliation with Venice Family Clinic, which will become the nation’s largest free medical clinic. Today, with the help of UCLA medical faculty, resident and students, the clinic serves more than 27,000 low-income and homeless LA residents annually.

1980 Trailblazer in surgery Marjorie Fine
1980

Trailblazer in Surgery

Marjorie Fine, M.D. ’75, R.E.S. ’80, becomes the first woman to complete the general surgery residency at UCLA. Dr. Fine went on to become one of the first female surgeons at Saint John’s Hospital and Health Center. During the past decade she has worked overseas in third world countries leading and participating in surgical missionary work.

1981 AIDS MMWR
1981

AIDS Research

UCLA physicians report and describe the first cases of AIDS, a discovery that will lead to the formation of the UCLA AIDS Institute and the school’s standing as a world leader in AIDS research.

1983 UCLA Caltech MSTP Students at beach
1983

Launch of Physician-Scientist Track

Funded by the NIH, the UCLA Medical Scientist Training Program opens its doors to those pursuing a joint M.D.-Ph.D. degree. In 1997, the program formed an affiliation with Caltech to further expand opportunities for innovative research and training.

1983 Owen N Witte
1983

Landmark Leukemia Drug

Owen Witte, M.D., pinpoints a genetic target crucial to the development of life-saving drugs.

1984 Firsher large retina
1984

New Heights

Anna Lee Fisher ’71, M.D. ’76, M.S.’87, a chemist, physician, and NASA astronaut, becomes the first mother in space when she embarks on mission STS-51A aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

1984 heart transplant hillel talks
1984

Pioneers in Heart Transplantation

Hillel Laks, M.D., the first U.S. cardiac surgeon to perform bypass surgery on a donor heart prior to transplantation, founds the UCLA Heart Transplant Program.

1984 Liver transplant short
1984

First on the West Coast

Helmed by Ronald Busuttil, M.D., Ph.D., UCLA opens the first liver transplant program west of the Mississippi. One of the first such programs in the nation, it is now one of the world’s largest transplantation programs.

1988 Genetic Basis of disease grunstein
1988

Genetic Basis of Disease

Michael Grunstein, Ph.D., demonstrates that histones influence gene expression and disease development.

1988 Patricia Bath
1988

New Visions

Patricia Bath, M.D., invents Laserphaco, a device and technique that begins the laser era of cataract surgery. She is the first Black woman to receive a medical patent, the first woman to serve on the UCLA Stein Eye Institute faculty, the first Black female surgical faculty at UCLA, and the first female chair of an ophthalmology residency program at a U.S. medical institution. Image courtesy of Eraka Bath

1990 Student led street medicine
1990

Student-led Street Medicine

Students join the Department of Family Medicine at UCLA to create the Student Run Homeless Clinic, which provides free medical care and services to the unhoused at pop-up sites across Los Angeles.

1990 Brain aneurysm Treatment
1990

Brain Aneurysm Treatment

Guido Guglielmi, M.D., invents detachable coils that stop deadly bleeding from brain aneurysms.

1992 Innovations in teaching doctoring
1992

Innovations in Teaching

UCLA School of Medicine launches “Doctoring” curriculum, which takes a new, patient-centered approach to medical education. Students are introduced to a wide variety of communication skills and psychosocial factors (including substance abuse, domestic violence, and mental health) that play an important role in patient encounters. The program serves as a model for dozens of other medical schools in the U.S. and around the world.

1993 Revolutionizing Residency training
1993

Revolutionizing Residency Training

UCLA launches the Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) Program, allowing residents and fellows to pursue a Ph.D. at UCLA, Caltech, or the RAND Corporation simultaneously with their clinical specialty training. Learn more.

1994 Neufeld
1994

Metabolic Genetic Origin

Elizabeth Neufeld, Ph.D., receives the National Medal of Science for research critical to treating metabolic disorders.

1998 Slamon Lab
1998

Precision Cancer Treatment

Dennis Slamon, M.D., Ph.D., identifies the HER2/neu oncogene, which leads to the development of the breast cancer drug trastuzumab (Herceptin), that has saved millions of women’s lives by targeting a specific genetic alteration.

1998 Ignarro Nobel Prize
1998

Molecular Signaling

Louis Ignarro, Ph.D., receives the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for demonstrating the signaling properties of nitric oxide.

2002 a transformational gift geffen
2002

A Transformational Gift

Entertainment executive and philanthropist David Geffen donates $200 million, the largest single gift to a school of medicine in U.S. history, to the medical school, which is renamed in his honor. The unrestricted gift helps propel the school to its current status as a world-class institution for education and research. Photo by Imeh Akpanudosen/Getty Images for UCLA

2004 prostate cancer treatment
2004-10

Prostate Cancer Treatment

Charles Sawyer, M.D., and Michael Jung, Ph.D., develop a drug to fight castration-resistant prostate cancer.

2008 championing future health leaders
2008

Championing Future Healthcare Leaders

UCLA joins Programs in Medical Education (PRIME), a UC-wide initiative, and launches a five-year program to earn an M.D. and a master’s degree. PRIME develops leaders in medicine addressing policy, care, and research in health care for the underserved.

2008 the future of medicine
2008

The Future of Medicine, Now Open

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, designed by I.M. Pei, opens its doors on June 29, replacing the 1950s Center for Health Sciences (CHS) that was structurally weakened by the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

2010 academic leadership gene washington
2010

Academic Leadership

A. Eugene Washington, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc., an internationally-renowned clinical investigator and health policy scholar, becomes the first Black dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Image courtesy of UCLA

2012 game changer GeffenScholars
2012

Game-Changing Scholarship

David Geffen gives $100 million to establish the David Geffen Medical Scholarships, enabling approximately 25% of medical students to graduate debt-free.

2015 successful gene therapy bubble boy
2015

Successful Gene Therapy

Donald B. Kohn, M.D., cures “Bubble Baby” disease using gene therapy.

2016 Kelsey Martin
2016

First Woman Dean

Kelsey C. Martin, M.D., Ph.D., becomes the first female dean of the medical school. A neuroscientist who was inspired to pursue medicine by her experience as a Peace Corps volunteer, Dr. Martin is a leader in driving cross-disciplinary activities that bridge clinical medicine with academic scholarship in the basic sciences, social sciences, data sciences, and engineering. Photo by Ann Johansson

2018 south Tower move
2018

South Tower Move

Thirty-three laboratories and hundreds of biomedical researchers move from historically siloed units into a new, shared space in the CHS South Tower. The medical school’s compact, walkable campus instills a collaborative culture across research labs, the hospital, clinics, and schools of nursing, engineering, and dentistry. View the move.

2019 Linda Liau
2019

Fighting Brain Tumors

Linda Liau, M.D., Ph.D. ’99, M.B.A. world-renowned brain surgeon and cancer researcher who is pioneering the use of a dendritic cell-based vaccine for glioblastoma, is elected chair of the American Board of Neurological Surgery. She is the first woman to chair the organization in its 80-year history and the first woman to chair the UCLA Department of Neurosurgery.

2019 Upping the game changer
2019

Upping A Game Changing Scholarship

David Geffen gives an additional $46 million to the David Geffen Medical Scholarships fund, opening the doors for 120 additional students to benefit.

2020

Meeting the moment

Students assist at COVID-19 testing sites and form the LA COVID Volunteers, a group of 700+ UCLA scholars who provide free child care, grocery runs, and PPE to essential workers and their families during the pandemic. They deliver more than 50,000 face shields to UCLA Health and community partners in need. Read more.

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