Dr. Gerald S. Lazarus, holder of an endowed professorship and chair of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has been appointed dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis. A highly regarded researcher, educator and clinician, Lazarus, 53, succeeds Dr. Hibbard E. Williams, who returned to teaching and research this past September after 12 years as dean. The school's executive associate dean, Dr. James J. Castles, will continue as interim dean until Lazarus begins his appointment on March 1, 1993. "Dr. Lazarus' reputation as a productive researcher, a compassionate clinician and an inspiring teacher is sterling," said UC Davis Chancellor Theodore L. Hullar. "An authority on the mechanisms of inflammation, he has been awarded National Institutes of Health funding for more than 20 years, including the largest program project grant ever awarded in dermatology. His deeply held sense of humanity, caring and commitment to patient care is extraordinary. And he is passionate about teaching, about seeking innovative ways to mentor the next generation of medical care practitioners. We are most fortunate to have attracted a person of Dr. Lazarus' accomplishment and character." Lazarus said that, as dean, he will continue to actively teach and to see patients at least one-half day per week. "A medical school leader should be respected as a physician, educator, scientist and humanitarian," he said. The newly appointed dean said he believes the School of Medicine "is poised to become one of the preeminent educational programs and academic medical centers in the country. The campus's firm grounding in science creates opportunities for establishing cross-discipline programs of excellence that can catalyze additional scientific investigation within the School of Medicine." Lazarus acknowledges the financial challenges ahead. "The future is going to be difficult, with a constriction of resources to support clinical care at the national and local level, as well as a likely continued underfunding of education within the state of California. But I am confident the medical school faculty and staff have the ability, the resolve and the commitment to succeed and to increase the excellence and stature of the school." Since 1982, Lazarus has chaired the Department of Dermatology at Penn's School of Medicine and held the Milton B. Hartzell Professorship. His previous appointments include chair of the Division of Dermatology and Callaway Professor of Medicine at Duke University Medical Center, 1975-82; head of the dermatology section at Montefiore Hospital and Medical Center and associate professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, 1972-75; visiting scientist and research fellow at the University of Cambridge, 1970-72. A 1959 graduate of Colby College in Waterville, Maine, he received his M.D. degree from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., in 1963 and served his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center. He also was a clinical and research associate in dermatology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and chief resident in dermatology at Harvard Medical School. Lazarus is the author of more than 120 scientific papers, 45 peer-reviewed clinical papers, 50 abstracts and five books. He has received multiple awards, including a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship to study molecular biology at the University of Geneva, a Sulzberger (Professor of the Year) Memorial Lectureship from the American Academy of Dermatology, the Montagna Distinguished Lectureship of the Society for Investigative Dermatology, and the first Arthur Rook Professorship at Cambridge University. He regards several outstanding teaching awards from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine as his most important honors. At the University of Pennsylvania, Lazarus has increased the dermatology department's endowment from $600,000 to more than $11 million, developed basic and clinical research so that the department is the nation's No. 1 recipient of National Institutes of Health funding for dermatology, developed a clinical drug studies unit to evaluate innovative new drugs for clinical use, increased outpatient visits from 15,000 to 40,000 and initiated an in-patient service with more than 300 admissions per year. Lazarus is a member of a number of scientific societies, including the Association of American Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Society for Investigative Dermatology, and the American Dermatological Association. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member of the board of directors of the American Academy of Dermatology. He also serves as an editorial board member or associate editor of several professional journals.