SUBJECT:

Daniel Masys Retirement

UCSD is losing an extraordinary member of its community with the departure of Daniel Masys, M.D., Adjunct Professor of Medicine, Director of Biomedical Informatics and Director of the UCSD Human Research Protection Program. Dr. Masys has accepted the position of Professor and Chairman of the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Chief Academic Officer of the Center for Academic Computing at Vanderbilt University. This is a well-deserved opportunity for Dan, but a loss for us. He will be retiring from UCSD on December 31 in order to begin at Vanderbilt the first week in January.

Dr. Masys was recruited to UCSD in 1994 from the National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, where he was director of the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications. His contributions to UCSD have been too numerous to mention, as he has provided leadership in the application of bioinformatics technology to many areas spanning basic and clinical research and patient care, including internet accessible health information.

His leadership of UCSD's Institutional Review Board, the Human Research Protections Program, has led to reorganization of the office to meet growing demands, and the novel use of technology to facilitate the work of the Board. In fact, his development of the electronic Institutional Review Board ("e-IRB") has received international attention and has brought many visitors to UCSD to see this model in action. Among his many honors, Dr. Masys is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

While we regret his departure, we wish Dan the best in his new position, which gives him the opportunity to fully focus on bioinformatics.

Planning for his replacement as HRPP director is underway.

Edward W. Holmes, M.D. Vice Chancellor Health Sciences, Dean, School of Medicine David N. Bailey, M.D. Deputy Vice Chancellor Health Sciences