The UCSF Alumni Achievement Awards

Many outstanding, talented UCSF alumni are changing the world and making a difference in their communities.

Each year, the Alumni Association of UCSF (AAUCSF) presents alumni awards to recognize these alumni and their outstanding accomplishments, service, and contributions. A dedicated alumni committee selects alumni awardees based on nominations submitted by members of the entire UCSF community.

At the annual Alumni Weekend, one living alumnus/a will be honored in each of the following categories:

Alumni Discovery Award: This award honors an alum who has made outstanding achievements creating positive change through basic science/health care research and has brought distinction to themselves and the UCSF community.
Alumni Practitioner Award: This award honors an alum whose work is marked by boundless clinical empathy, understanding, and caring within health care.
Alumni Mentor Award: This award recognizes an alum who has devoted their career to inspiring, mentoring, and educating the next generation of scientists and health care providers.
Alumni Entrepreneur Award: This award recognizes an alum who demonstrates the highest caliber of innovation in science and/or health care through risk-taking actions and/or value-creating transformations.
Alumni Humanitarian Service Award: This award recognizes an alum who has made a transformative contribution to their local community, the nation, or the world that has helped make it a better place. These honorees have achieved recognition for making a noteworthy, positive change to the human condition through health care and science.
Alumni Early-Career Award: This award honors an alum who has graduated or completed training within the last 10 years, has advanced rapidly in their career, and has displayed significant achievement in the areas of leadership and professional success, pushing the boundaries of science and health care.
Alumni Philanthropic Impact Award: This award honors an alum who has made UCSF a philanthropic priority and whose gift has made a significant impact on the University’s ability to improve and advance education, research, and/or health care. (Nominations will be made by current UCSF faculty and staff members only.)

Find out who received the UCSF Alumni Achievement Awards in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.

See previous winners from the 2018 – 2020 UCSF Campaign Alumni Awards.

About the Nomination Process

Nominations should be no more than 500 words in length (up to 5,000 characters). All UCSF alumni, including former residents/fellows and postdocs, are eligible. Supporting links are encouraged (e.g., news articles, online profiles, or quotes) but not required. Self-nominations will not be considered.

About the Selection Process

Winners will be selected by a committee who will consider alumni diversity in every sense, including school and degree, specialty, background, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and more.