UCSD Appoints New Dean
for the Division of Biological Sciences
July 27, 2007
Steve A. Kay has been appointed dean of the Division of Biological Sciences, effective Sept. 17. He will hold an appointment as a professor in the cell and developmental biology section and as dean will hold the prestigious Richard C. Atkinson chair in the biological sciences.
Kay is a highly distinguished researcher and pioneer in systems biology who comes to UCSD from his positions as chairman of the department of biochemistry and professor of cell biology at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and Director of the TSRI Institute for Childhood and Neglected Diseases. He also serves as vice chairman of the Scripps Florida Steering Committee and co-authored the Scripps Florida Business Plan that led to the appropriation of over $500 million in state and local funds to establish a campus of TSRI in Palm Beach County, Florida. Kay also holds an appointment as adjunct professor in UCSD's department of psychiatry. Kay received his doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Bristol, in the United Kingdom. He has received several awards, including a Keck Foundation Faculty Award, the Honma Prize for Life Sciences in 1999 and his work was cited in Science magazine's "Breakthroughs of the Year" consecutively in 1997 and 1998 and again in 2002.
While on leave from TSRI, Kay became the principal founder, chief technology officer and senior vice president of Phenomix Corporation and from 1999 to 2002, he served as the director of discovery research at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, where he built a large department of researchers applying functional genomics technology to biomedical research and drug discovery. He was a member of the faculty of the biology department and the medical school at the University of Virginia - Charlottesville and also held a faculty appointment with The Rockefeller University in New York. His experience as a strong administrative leader, scholar and researcher will be invaluable for the Division of Biological Sciences and the campus. Kay has extraordinary interpersonal skills and is an imaginative and energetic partner in educational and scientific enterprises. These qualities will serve the division well with its joint appointments and collaborative activities with community partners such as the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences, the Burnham Institute and TSRI.