Two UCSD Health Sciences faculty, Davey Smith, M.D., who runs the Center for AIDS Research at UCSD, and Chris Searles, M.D. of the UCSD Combined Family Medicine & Psychiatry Residency Program, were selected by San Diego Metropolitan Magazine in the ninth annual 40 Under 40 special edition. The magazine recognizes our region’s exceptional young business and civic leaders. Also selected from UCSD were Lihini Aluwihare, from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Melanie Cruz Walsh of UCSD’s Division of Physical Sciences.

Smith is Medical Director of the Early Intervention Program in the Antiviral Research Center at UCSD, where he is an assistant professor of medicine. His focus is the transmission of HIV and his mission is to find ways to interrupt it. Smith’s responsibilities include clinical teaching at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Tuesday Night Clinic at Family Health Centers of San Diego. His collaborations include AIDS projects in India and Lesotho in southern Africa. Smith is a vital member of the San Diego County HIV Planning Council, where he chairs the standards of care committee.

His medical papers are numerous, and a recent one set aside the customary medical jargon for its title, “Running With Scissors,” to alert physicians about the dangers of using antiretroviral therapy without monitoring viral load. When the 37-year-old Smith isn’t writing papers, he’s writing poetry, giving readings in book stores in San Diego and other West Coast cities.

As co-director of the UCSD Combined Family Medicine & Psychiatry Residency Program, Chris Searles goes out in the field with the mobile medical unit or to St. Vincent de Paul Family Health Center and Clinic, or Hoover and Southwest high schools or the Scripps Family Medicine Residency program in Chula Vista. Searles’ clinical practice is devoted to the primary care of underserved communities.

A native San Diegan, Searles, 38, earned his undergraduate degree at UCSD — in writing — and his medical degree from UC Davis. Now he is an assistant clinical professor at UCSD. His specialty is behavioral medicine; his passion, to find creative ways to deal with preventable disease and shore up the health disparities that exist for families below the poverty line. He founded RecreationRx.org, a statewide initiative that partners physicians with recreational organizations. Searles’ main prescription for preventing obesity: exercise. And his ongoing mission is to find ways to break down the barriers — primarily financial — to exercise. A Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Searles also is a Chula Vista parks and recreation commissioner and immediate past chair of the Chula Vista city ethics board.

40 Under 40 is the only program in San Diego honoring young entrepreneurs, professionals and civic leaders for their excellence primarily in the workplace. They are nominated by readers and selected by a panel of distinguished judges independent of the Metropolitan.

The American Board of Allergy and Immunology (ABAI) announced that it has elected Stephen I. Wasserman, M.D., Professor of Medicine, and Director, Allergy/Immunology section, as the organization’s president-elect. Wasserman will assume his duties as President on January, 1, 2010.

ABAI is the entity that oversees the certification of physicians specializing in Allergy and Immunology.

As a teacher, researcher and physician, Wasserman has devoted more than 30 years of his career to the specialty of allergy and immunology. Wasserman has been on the UC San Diego faculty since 1979, where he founded the Allergy and Immunology training program within the Department of Medicine. From 1986 – 1988, Wasserman was Acting Chair of the Department of Medicine; and served as Chair from 1988 – 2000.

From 2000 to the present, he has been listed in America’s “Top Doctors.” Wasserman has received numerous grants for asthma research, in addition to writing and co-writing over 200 articles and book chapters.

Wasserman is also a featured doctor on the ABCNews.com “OnCallPlus” special section on asthma. He answered various questions regarding topics such as the standard treatment of asthma, steroid use in controlling asthma, and the latest research being conducted at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

Wasserman is a member of several professional societies including ABAI where he served as Chairman, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, where he served as president from 1998 – 1999, and the American Board of Medical Specialties, where he currently serves as Secretary/ Treasurer. He is also certified by the American Board of Allergy and Immunology where he was elected as a Director, Secretary, and Examination co-chair and served as Chairman.