As UCSD’s newest vice chancellor of health sciences, David Brenner has a lot on his plate. But Brenner, not one to back away from a challenge, has big plans for the future.
As UCSD’s vice chancellor of health sciences, David Brenner will lead the campus’s medical and pharmacy schools and oversee the UCSD Medical Center.
In his new position, Brenner is responsible for overseeing 900 faculty scientists, physicians and pharmacists and 600 medical and pharmacy students in a dual-hospital system that serves 125,000 patients per year.
“”We’re the only medical school in San Diego,”” Brenner said. “”We have both medical and pharmaceutical students, and my goal is to build state-of-the-art facilities and an exciting new curriculum that will create a synergy between both groups of students. That will be a big challenge here.””
An East Coast native, Brenner graduated from Yale University as a young man with a degree in biology and trekked the impressive five-mile distance to Yale Medical School with the intention of majoring in marine biology.
With that interest in mind, he took a year off to study plate tectonics in the North Atlantic Ocean.
“”That was the most treacherous thing I ever did,”” he said about his experience on the ship based at the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory. “”We used to throw dynamite off the ship to observe deeper into the ocean layers and the entire ship would rise off the water and fall back in.””
Returning to calmer waters at Yale Hospital, Brenner worked for three years as a full-time resident in the liver unit.
He developed a deep interest in genetic liver diseases and the possibility of incorporating microbiological techniques into such studies.
After six years of touring with his ideas, getting married and having two children, Brenner decided to move his family to the West Coast, where he accepted a position as assistant professor of medicine at UCSD.
It was there that he developed his own gastroenterological research program and became the first person to clone a specific liver gene.
“”I had undergrads doing my lab rotations for me as part of their honors theses,”” Brenner said. “”The medical campus is so well integrated with the undergrads here.””
By 1992, however, Brenner’s stint at UCSD had come to an end. He was recruited by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and for the next decade, Brenner said he raised his children as avid Carolina basketball fans and spent his time furthering his research.
Brenner left Chapel Hill to become chair of the Department of Medicine at Columbia University in 2003, where he developed a world-class cardiovascular program that combined medicine and surgery, training and patient care.
While at Columbia, he also spent some time as editor in chief of the medical journal Gastroenterology, where he said he loved “”the big impact [he had] on improving [his] field by helping select the articles that would enter the journal.””
But Benner said he wanted to return to his roots.
“”I loved New York,”” he said, “”But I had a lot of close friends and fond memories here at UCSD. I think this is a very innovative medical school on the verge of doing phenomenal things. The opportunity to bring UCSD health sciences into the 21st century is just staggering.””
While not pursuing a demanding academic career, Brenner said he hopes for the opportunity to reinvest in a favorite pastime: masters crew.
“”I rowed at Mission Bay last time I was here, and I rowed in Carolina,”” he said. “”I’d love to find some time to do it again.””
And of course, he said he intends to follow UCSD basketball, though Carolina will always have a place in his heart.
“”My kids grew up there, so of course we’ll still follow Carolina,”” he said. “”But I think UCSD has the right approach to college athletics. At some schools they tend to confuse athletics with academics, but UCSD has a very good balance.””
Brenner’s depth and experience will certainly be an asset to UCSD’s faculty as the medical center grows.
“”[The job is] a big responsibility, but it’ll bring the best hope for medical care to San Diego,”” he said. “”That’s why people come here to UCSD – it’s not the salary, it’s the sense of community. That is really unique. Having been at six other med centers I can tell you that.””
Brenner will receive an annual salary of $720,000 and a $125,000 relocation allowance.
