Medical School History

Classes begin on Sept. 20 for the medical school’s first students—two women and 26 men—taught by 15 faculty members. Four-year attendance cost $10,000. Since it took several years to build the new school, scientists conduct research in wartime Quonset huts scattered across campus.

The Medical Center opens to patients and is heralded as the first hospital of the Atomic Age—marking the first use of the atomic smasher for medical purposes.

Paul Terasaki ’50, M.S. ’52, Ph.D. ’56, who spent three years with his family in a Japanese-American internment camp before becoming a three-time graduate, develops the tissue-matching test that makes organ transplants possible. The test is now the international standard for tissue typing. 

Gail Wyatt, Ph.D. ’73, becomes the first Black woman licensed as a psychologist in the state of California. She is the first Black female full professor in the School of Medicine and the first person of color to receive a coveted K—or Research Scientist Career Development—Award from the NIH

The Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in south Los Angeles and the School of Medicine establish the Charles R. Drew/Medical Education Program to train health care leaders who will advance humanistic health in underserved communities.

Marjorie Fine, M.D. ’75, R.E.S. ’80, becomes the first woman to complete the general surgery residency at the medical school. Dr. Fine went on to become one of the first female surgeons at Saint John’s Hospital and Health Center. During the past decade she has worked overseas in third world countries leading and participating in surgical missionary work.

Funded by the NIH, the Medical Scientist Training Program opens its doors to those pursuing a joint M.D.-Ph.D. degree. In 1997, the program formed an affiliation with Caltech to further expand opportunities for innovative research and training.

Anna Lee Fisher ’71, M.D. ’76, M.S.’87, a chemist, physician, and NASA astronaut, becomes the first mother in space when she embarks on mission STS-51A aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

Helmed by Ronald Busuttil, M.D., Ph.D., UCLA opens the first liver transplant program west of the Mississippi. One of the first such programs in the nation, it is now one of the world’s largest transplantation programs.

Patricia Bath, M.D., invents Laserphaco, a device and technique that begins the laser era of cataract surgery. She is the first Black woman to receive a medical patent, the first woman to serve on the Stein Eye Institute faculty, the first Black female surgical faculty at the medical school, and the first female chair of an ophthalmology residency program at a U.S. medical institution. 

Guido Guglielmi, M.D., invents detachable coils that stop deadly bleeding from brain aneurysms.

Dennis Slamon, M.D., Ph.D., identifies the HER2/neu oncogene, which leads to the development of the breast cancer drug trastuzumab (Herceptin), that has saved millions of women’s lives by targeting a specific genetic alteration.

Entertainment executive and philanthropist David Geffen donates $200 million, the largest single gift to a school of medicine in U.S. history. The gift helps to propel the medical school to its status as a world-class institution for education and research. The medical school is renamed to the David Geffen School of Medicine in his honor.

The medical school joins Programs in Medical Education (PRIME), a UC-wide initiative, and launches a five-year program to earn an M.D. and a master’s degree. PRIME develops leaders in medicine addressing policy, care, and research in health care for the underserved.

A. Eugene Washington, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc., an internationally-renowned clinical investigator and health policy scholar, becomes the first Black dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. 

Donald B. Kohn, M.D., cures “Bubble Baby” disease using gene therapy.

David Geffen gives an additional $46 million to the David Geffen Medical Scholarships fund, opening the door for an additional 120 medical school students to benefit.