CAMPUS NOTICE
OFFICE OF THE VICE CHANCELLOR –
HEALTH SCIENCES
April 29, 2014
ALL ACADEMICS, STAFF AND STUDENTS AT UC SAN DIEGO
| SUBJECT: | Appointment of Dean Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences |
We are pleased to announce that James H. McKerrow, MD, Ph.D, will serve as the second Dean of the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. McKerrow will join UC San Diego on July 1, 2014.
Dr. McKerrow is currently professor of pathology and director of the Center for Discovery and Innovation in Parasitic Diseases at UC San Francisco. From 2003 to 2012, he also served as vice chair for research and education in the Department of Pathology.
An expert in the area of neglected tropical diseases, Dr. McKerrow also brings to this role a wealth of experience in natural product research, and drug discovery and development. His keen interest in these areas will help bring together cross-disciplinary researchers at UC San Diego and in the community – in global health, infectious diseases, biology and chemistry, and drug development programs – all of which are of strategic importance to the Health Sciences and the UC San Diego campus.
He is an alumnus of UC San Diego, where he earned his PhD in biology in 1973, focusing on peptide chemistry and molecular genetics. He went on to receive his MD from SUNY, Stony Brook, where he did his internship in Internal Medicine. He completed his residency in pathology at UCSF, where he was chief resident from 1979 to 1980. From 1980 to 1981, he continued at UCSF as a postdoctoral fellow and clinical instructor, moving on to become an assistant (1981-1987), associate (1987-93) and full professor (1993-present) in the Department of Pathology.
He is an active teacher and mentor in graduate and postdoctoral programs, lectures to medical and health profession students, and has hosted underrepresented students each year for summer research internships. Committed to fostering science education in the community, he gives talks each year to grade school and high school students, and has presented three public lectures in the “Ask a Scientist” series in San Francisco.
Dr. McKerrow has co-authored more than a dozen book chapters, published more than 250 articles, and been a keynote speaker at numerous conferences and symposia. His many awards range from teaching awards spanning over two decades at UCSF to the Gregor Mendel Honorary Medal from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, to the 2005 Distinguished Alumnus Award from SUNY, Stony Brook. He is a member of the American Society for Cell Biology, American Society of Microbiology, American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, American Society of Parsitologists, and the American Society of Immunologists. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Chemical Biology and Drug Design and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
We are extremely proud to have a physician-researcher of Dr. McKerrow’s broad experience and expertise and as new Dean of the Skaggs School. We also want to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Palmer Taylor – though certainly not for the last time – for his visionary leadership in the establishment of the Skaggs School and his outstanding service to the University as its founding dean. We know that the transition to our new dean in July will be a seamless one, and one that will allow the faculty and students of the Skaggs School to continue to excel and thrive in their academic, research and clinical roles.
 | Pradeep K. Khosla Chancellor
David A. Brenner, MD |