Philip Pizzo, MD, bids adieu to his position as dean of the School of Medicine on December 1. His twelve-year tenure at the helm of the school has seen accomplishments both great and large. In fact, the school has experienced a rebirth under his watch. New organizational structures strengthened collaborations between basic scientists and clinicians. The faculty has become more diverse. And the school has seen its biggest building boom since it moved to the Stanford campus from San Francisco in 1959. The list of accomplishments is, well, staggering.
Nobel Laureate Paul Berg, PhD, a professor emeritus of biochemistry, said of Pizzo, “His tenure here has been the most productive and transformative time in the history of the medical school on the Stanford campus.”
I sat down with Pizzo in the twilight of his days as dean for a 1:2:1 podcast. We covered a lot of ground in our forty-minute discussion: his childhood in New York City, the early days of HIV crisis and his leadership on that issue at the NIH, and his move west to Stanford, where he achieved perhaps the most far-reaching accomplishments in a storied career. Knowing him, I have to say this is not the epilogue of his life’s story. There’s still a lot more to come.
Previously: Lloyd Minor named dean of Stanford School of Medicine, Dean Pizzo receives top honor from American Pediatric Society, Philip Pizzo wins prestigious pediatrics medal and A new era in education at Stanford's medical school
Related: Marathon man, Philip Pizzo nears the end of his remarkable run as dean
Portrait by Gregory Manchess
