Two UCSF Faculty Elected to AAAS

A renowned molecular biologist and an internationally acclaimed global health leader from UC San Francisco have been elected as members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which recognizes the world’s most accomplished leaders in science, social science, humanities, arts, business, nonprofits and public affairs.

The Academy’s class of 2014 which was announced on April 23, has 204 new members, including two members of the UCSF faculty:

• Warner C. Greene, MD, PhD, is director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology at the UCSF-affiliated J. David Gladstone Institutes, the Nick and Sue Hellmann Distinguished Professor of Translational Medicine, and a professor of medicine, microbiology, and immunology at UCSF. 

Greene is renowned for his research into human retroviruses, such as HIV. Recent research has provided unique new insights into how HIV destroys CD4 T cells, which are a key component of the body’s immune system.

• Jaime Sepúlveda, MD, MPH, MSc, DrSc, is executive director of UCSF Global Health Sciences. He was formerly a senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he played a key role in shaping the foundation’s global health strategy, and Vice-Minister of Health in Mexico, where he designed the country’s universal vaccination program, modernized the national health surveillance system and founded Mexico’s National AIDS Counsel.

Greene and Sepúlveda join 55 other UCSF faculty members who have been elected to the Academy in previous years. The new class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 11, 2014, at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The academy also elected philanthropist Chuck Feeney to its membership this year. Through The Atlantic Philanthropies, which he founded, Feeney has donated $292 million in support of UCSF and its new campus at Mission Bay, making him the largest single contributor to any UC campus.

Since its founding in 1780, the Academy has served as a scholarly society and independent policy research center, convening leaders from the academic, business, and government sectors to address critical challenges worldwide and providing nonpartisan policy advice to decision-makers in government, academia, and the private sector.

The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners. A complete list of new members, as well as the Academy’s new release, can be found on the Academy’s website.