SUBJECT:  Dr. David Tarin Steps Down as Director, Cancer Center

After completing a very productive and noteworthy term as Director of the Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center, Dr. David Tarin has informed me that he wishes to return full-time to the faculty and dedicate his time and energy to research, teaching and clinical activities. He will continue as director through the end of this year.

I am greatly appreciative of all Dr. Tarin has done in advancing UCSD's cancer research and patient care program to its current level of national recognition. I will miss working with him as Director of the Cancer Center, but I understand and respect his decision to concentrate his considerable talents on research and teaching.

Dr. Tarin was the Nuffield Reader in Pathology and director of the Cancer Diagnosis and Metastasis Research Laboratory at Oxford University when he was recruited to UCSD to become Director of the Cancer Center and Professor of Pathology in 1997. Under his direction, we successfully completed an exhaustive review by the National Cancer Institute, earning their resounding endorsement and receiving a Cancer Center Support Grant of $19 million over a five-year period. A short time later, we earned distinction by being named one of only 40 Comprehensive Cancer Centers by the NCI, in no small measure because of Dr. Tarin's leadership. A number of talented faculty have been recruited, and our clinical and research programs are robust and growing. He has been instrumental in bringing the Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center from a dream to a reality, with groundbreaking scheduled in November.

Because of all that has been accomplished during Dr. Tarin's term as director, we are well on our way to establishing the Moores UCSD Cancer Center as one of the premier cancer programs in the nation, and as an important partner in cancer care, research and community outreach. We have extraordinary opportunities ahead, and are fully committed maintaining the momentum and building on the success of the last five years.

I have asked Dr. Ken Kaushansky, Chair of Medicine, and Dr. Web Cavenee of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, to work with us on a range of immediate and long-term issues so that we can maintain the current pace of progress in program and facility development. We will launch a search for Dr. Tarin's successor in the next few weeks.

I want to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Tarin for his many contributions to UCSD and the Cancer Center, and I look forward to his continuing leadership in improving cancer diagnosis and treatment through his research, teaching and clinical activities.

                                                Edward W. Holmes, M.D.
                                                Vice Chancellor, Health Sciences
                                                Dean School of Medicine