It was a momentous month as we celebrated with our colleague Roger Tsien, who received notice in the early hours of the morning that he was a co-recipient of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This extraordinary honor was well-deserved by an individual whose commitment to education is as inspiring as his achievements in the laboratory. His current focus on malignancy underscores the incredible resource that our academic medical centers bring to our society, with the most brilliant minds in science working to address the challenges of disease.

We also shared in a moment of sadness as our friend George Palade passed away at age 95. He had a profound influence on the course of science globally, and in his later years as our founding Dean for Scientific Affairs, the course of science at UC San Diego. And, he was a teacher and mentor to many who remember him with great respect and affection, including those who learned from him in a classroom as I did during my early years at Yale, and the many who were fortunate to collaborate with him and benefit from his tremendous skill and wisdom over the course of his illustrious career.

We are fortunate at UC San Diego to have the opportunity to work with and learn from individuals of this caliber, and the many other immensely talented faculty and staff who have brought our institution international recognition. This year we are commemorating the School of Medicine’s 40th anniversary, kicking off with a gala celebration on November 14. The phenomenal success of our medical and pharmacy schools and our medical center system can be directly attributed to the quality of the people who have chosen to be a part of UC San Diego over the past four decades.