Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff
Published: Monday, April 30, 2012
New York (TADIAS) – When Haile T. Debas was a young man growing up in Ethiopia, his dream was to become a fighter jet pilot, but when he was turned down by the Ethiopian Air Force, he turned his attention to studying medicine and ended up becoming the head of the The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) – one of the leading educational institutions of medical science and health research in the world.
In a video released earlier this month, the UCSF Public Affairs office announced that Dr. Haile was one of four internationally renowned innovators and leaders who were recognized by UCSF for their outstanding contributions to advance health worldwide. The current Chancellor, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, bestowed the university’s highest honor and presented the UCSF Medal to Haile T. Debas at the 2012 Founder’s Day Banquet on April 5th.
According to UCSF, Dr. Haile was born in Asmara, Eritrea in 1937 and completed his undergraduate studies in Addis Ababa where his early academic achievement was rewarded with a top student award by Emperor Haile Selassie. Following undergraduate training, he received his M.D. in Canada from McGill University in 1963, and completed his surgical training at the University of British Columbia. His postgraduate training included a year as a research fellow at the University of Glasgow/Western Infirmary in Scotland, and two years at UCLA as a Medical Research Council Scholar in gastrointestinal physiology. In 1987, Haile came to UCSF as Chair of the Department of Surgery. During his tenure, UCSF became one of the country’s leading centers for transplant surgery, the training of young surgeons, and basic and clinical research in surgery.
Dr. Haile served as Dean of the UCSF School of Medicine from 1993-2003. Under his leadership, the school became a national model for medical education, an achievement for which he was recognized with the 2004 Abraham Flexner Award of the AAMC. In 1997, Haile T. Debas was appointed the seventh Chancellor of UCSF, agreeing to accept the appointment for a period of one year. He currently serves on the United Nations Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa and on the Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy of the National Academy of Sciences.
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