Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics Newsletter

Message from the Chair

Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo

Happy New Year!!

Before we dive into 2018, I'd like to reflect on the end of 2017.

As a department, we came together for many activities and events, including a very generative all-faculty retreat. The retreat was held on November 29th at the General's Mansion in Fort Mason. Executive Vice Dean Catherine Lucey provided outstanding retreat facilitation, and Dean Talmadge King spent the afternoon with us sharing priorities for the UCSF School of Medicine. Most importantly, faculty in attendance were actively engaged in generating ideas about our departmental "brand" and activities that can further our mission and vision. Many thanks to Chuck McCulloch, Mark Pletcher, and Jacqueline Torres who participated as a part of the planning committee and Kristen Newhouse for the phenomenal organization and support. Please enjoy some photos from the retreat, as well as pictures of the holiday party and the special celebration that the PhD students held to honor Bob Hiatt.

Faculty retreatAt the retreat we reaffirmed commitment to our triple mission to support a) original research and scholarship, b) education and training, and c) collaboration and consultation. I have proposed these five focus areas to further our departmental missions based on the retreat discussions, the departmental survey, and one-on-one conversations with many of you.

  1. Communication and Cohesion
  2. Faculty Development
  3. Strategic Partnerships
  4. Integration of Educational Programs
  5. "One Big Idea"

We have quite a bit of work ahead within each of these focus areas, but I am confident and energized by what we might achieve with these efforts. I hope you will stay tuned and stay engaged in this work in 2018.

Kirsten

  HONORS & NEWS
Scarlett Gomez

Scarlett Gomez has been awarded a 5-year R01 grant of $3.5 million from the National Cancer Institute to examine active surveillance use and patient-reported outcomes among a diverse population of men diagnosed with low risk prostate cancer.

 John Witte

John Witte was awarded the University of North Carolina Robert Millikan Memorial Lecture, an annual invited seminar to honor Millikan, a cancer epidemiology professor at UNC who died in 2012. Witte's mid-November talk focused on genetically correcting prostate specific antigen levels to improve prostate cancer screening.

 Mark Segal

Mark Segal received a $317,000 one-year R01 award for reconstruction of 3D genome architecture from chromatin conformation capture data.

More News:

  • The Prostate Cancer Foundation has posted on their website a new guide for diet recommendations for men with prostate cancer developed by June Chan and her team, the Cancer Center nutritionists and UCSF Cancer Center patient advocates.
  • Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo delivered the Ancel Keys Lecture of the American Heart Association Council In Epidemiology earlier this month. Prior Ancel Keys lecturers include our former department Chair Stephen Hulley.
  • Check out a new UCSF-wide recognition tool: UCSF Recognize at Recognize.ucsf.edu. This tool, which requires MyAccess login, allows anyone at UCSF to publicly recognize anyone else, regardless of their position or physical location. The site is user friendly, allowing recognitions to be given quickly and meaningfully. All recognitions automatically are sent to the recipient’s manager and get posted to the site for others to view all the stellar work being done at UCSF.
  • Please welcome these new employees who joined us in January: Julissa Cabrera, Salma Shariff-Marco, Anusha Vable and Bo Fan.

If you have news or honors you’d like to submit for an upcoming newsletter, send an email with the details to Anne Wolf.

 

  EVENTS
  • Information Session on K12--IMPACT: Implementation Science for Pulmonary and Cardiac Research Training
    Jan. 10, 2 – 3 pm
    MH 2106
  • Maps and Apps: Improving Malaria Elimination Decision Making with Data Science and Technology
    Jan. 17, 3 – 4 pm
    Hugh Sturrock, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics
    MH 2700
  • Epi Tools Workshop: Quantitative Bias Analysis
    Feb. 7, 1 – 4 pm
    Hailey Banack, postdoctoral associate, SUNY, Buffalo, Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health
    MH 1406
  • Cocktails with Kirsten
    Feb. 9
    Watch for details
  • Ask your HR questions
    Feb. 13, 9 am – 2 pm
    HR staff specialists Lizzie Kennon and Melissa Bacina
    Huddle Room 2810
  • Continuous Safety Monitoring in Large Phase I Cancer Clinical Trials with Multiple Expansion Cohorts
    Feb. 21, 3 – 4 pm
    Masha Kocherginsky, PhD, Northwestern University and Theodore Karrison, PhD, University of Chicago
    MH 2700

  PUBLICATIONS