University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Locations.
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Locations.
Leading the Way
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It is the only campus in the 10-campus UC system dedicated exclusively to the health sciences.
> University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
A San Francisco Institution
With more than 20 locations throughout San Francisco and beyond, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is an industry of its own, contributing greatly to the intellectual vigor and economic vitality of the City by the Bay. The only UC campus devoted exclusively to the health sciences, UCSF specializes in patient care, research, and education.
Parnassus
The Original UCSF Campus
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) campus at Parnassus Heights is the original site of the Affiliated Colleges that evolved into the health sciences university that it is today. The Parnassus campus is now a distinctive landmark at the foot of San Francisco’s Mount Sutro.
The Parnassus Campus
History of Parnassus
From its origins following the California Gold Rush, UCSF established itself along Parnassus Avenue in 1898 on land donated by San Francisco Mayor Adolph Sutro. At the time, Parnassus Heights was in the remote western part of San Francisco, but its medical facilities suddenly became a central player in saving lives when the 1906 earthquake and fire struck. With much of San Francisco — even its hospitals — destroyed in the disaster, a tent city arose in Golden Gate Park, housing 40,000 people near the growing health sciences institution.
In 1914, the prestigious Hooper Foundation for Medical Research selected Parnassus as the site for its research work, creating the first medical research foundation in the United States incorporated into a university. Hooper investigators contributed to an expanding research enterprise on Parnassus that led to a 1949 vote by the UC Board of Regents designating the campus, rather than UC Berkeley, as the main site for all medical science.
The 20th century was a period of remarkable growth, with the addition of new research institutes and facilities, culminating in administrative independence and the selection of John B. de C.M. Saunders, MD, as UCSF’s first chancellor in 1964.
