UCSF is not only addressing influenza on a local level, but is preparing for the possibility of an avian (bird) flu outbreak. More than 20 physicians, nurses and other members of the UCSF Medical Center, as well as members of the UC Police Department, campus Risk Management and Environmental Health & Safety, met on Sept. 29 to establish departmental plans in the event that someone arrives at UCSF Medical Center carrying the avian influenza virus, known as H5N1.

Renowned historians Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin will discuss the scientific achievements and personal story of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer at a special UCSF lecture on Friday, November 3. The event is free and open to the public.

As part of our new On the Spot web feature, Dr. Robert Lustig, professor of clinical pediatrics and director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH), agreed to answer your questions.

The campus community is invited to the annual Tomkins Concert & Lecture today in Genentech Hall at UCSF Mission Bay.

The founder of fetal surgery, Michael Harrison, was honored recently by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Surgeons.

Clifford A. Lowell, MD, PhD, has been named the new chair of the UCSF Department of Laboratory Medicine. He will assume his post November 1.

Robert Hiatt, MD, PhD, and Neil Risch, PhD, have been appointed joint chairs of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the UCSF School of Medicine.

Ken Dill makes his case for why science has to go back to the future to leap ahead.

Doctors have found that nearly half of all Parkinson's patients also suffer from depression, and many patients mistakenly assume that the condition is simply something they have to live with. Not so, say physicians at UCSF Medical Center, who are conducting a study to test the effectiveness of antidepressants in patients with the disease.

A UCSF employee reported to UCSF Police that a white male in his mid-50s tried to pull him into his car on Tuesday near the Parnassus campus.