UCSF Academic Senate’s Twenty First Annual
Faculty Research Lecture in Clinical Science Awarded to Diane Havlir, MD
The Academic Senate is pleased to announce the selection of Diane Havlir, MD, as recipient of the Twenty First Annual Faculty Research Lectureship in Clinical Science for her contributions to HIV medicine. The lecture, titled “Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Journey of a Thousand Miles”, will take place on Wednesday, December 14, 2022, 3:30-5:00 p.m. on the Parnassus Campus at HSW-301 and will be broadcast over Zoom.
Lecture Title: Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Journey of a Thousand Miles
Date/Location: Wednesday, December 14, 2022, 3:30-5:00 p.m., Parnassus Campus HSW-301 and Zoom
Zoom: http://tiny.ucsf.edu/dec14frl
Passcode: 028558
UCSF Events Calendar: 21st Faculty Research Lecture in Clinical Science Event
Dr. Havlir’s nomination celebrates her groundbreaking work in HIV medicine and her vision and leadership in guiding the successful UCSF clinical response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Havlir founded and continues to direct the Sustainable East Africa Research in Community Health (SEARCH), a randomized study of 32 communities of 10,000 individuals each in Uganda and Kenya where HIV, malaria, and TB often overlap. SEARCH is studying the impact of universal anti-retroviral treatment for HIV and other treatment strategies with support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Global Fund, and the World Bank. This study may be the most complex, fascinating, and impactful clinical trial ever performed among people living with HIV. As the leader of this effort, she served as Primary Investigator (PI) of a $23 million NIH grant, the largest awarded to a Department of Medicine PI in 2021. Building a research program in East Africa of this size and scope, which is one of UCSF’s greatest contributions to global health, requires vision, drive, and the ability to inspire others – all attributes that Dr. Havlir has in abundance.
When the COVID-19 pandemic came to San Francisco, Dr. Havlir recognized an area of great need in San Francisco’s Mission District and immediately became a large part of the city’s response, advising the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Her awareness of the disparate impact of COVID-19 on the Latinx population was rapidly translated into action. She started a massive testing and vaccination program, the ‘Test-to-Care’ model, for Latinx populations in San Francisco called Unidos en Salud (United in Health). Through this program, she raised funding and set up sites for community testing to reduce transmission rates in the city. She was essential in putting together multidisciplinary teams, including laboratory-based scientists at UCSF, Gladstone, and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, to deploy and assess SARS-CoV-2 tests in the community at a time of very great need under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. This work led to a series of important publications beginning in the summer of 2020 that documented the immense toll of COVID-19 in the Latinx population, particularly among essential workers.
Dr. Diane Havlir is a UCSF Professor and Chief of the HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine Division at Zuckerberg San Francisco General (ZSFG), home to world-renowned HIV research and the Ward 86 clinical program. She is also the Associate Chair of Clinical Research in the Department of Medicine, the Principal Investigator of the Sustainable East Africa Research in Community Health (SEARCH) Study, the Director of the UCSF AIDS Research Institute (ARI), and the Robert L. Weiss Memorial Chair for HIV/AIDS Research.
Dr. Havlir is a visionary research leader who has made discoveries that have transformed disease management for countless patients and informed major public health policies internationally. We look forward to hearing her inspirational description of her approach to science.
Since 2001, this award has been bestowed on an individual member of the UCSF faculty with outstanding achievements in clinical research. Nominations are made by UCSF faculty, who consider the clinical research contributions of their colleagues and submit nominations for this prestigious award to the Academic Senate Committee on Research. Each year, the Committee on Research selects the recipient of this award.
A list of the past recipients of the award can be viewed here.