UCSF chancellor
Susan Desmond-Hellman is resigning as UC San Francisco's chancellor to head the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.(Elisabeth Fall / UCSF)
December 17, 2013, 9:11 a.m.
Susan Desmond-Hellman, chancellor of the medical-oriented UC San Francisco since 2009, is resigning to become chief executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a charity that has been active worldwide on health issues.
Desmond-Hellman will leave UC in March, and a search committee for her replacement is expected to begin work in January, according to an announcement Tuesday by UC system President Janet Napolitano. The dean of the campus medical school, Sam Hawgood, will serve as UCSF's interim chancellor until a permanent chancellor is hired. 
An oncologist, Desmond-Hellmann previously held high executive positions at biotechnology giant Genentech Inc. and was key in the development of cancer therapies there, officials said. At UC, she kept the San Francisco campus first in the nation among public universities receiving research funding from the National Institutes of Health and helped develop a new children's hospital, Napolitano said.
Desmond-Hellman "will leave UCSF a better, more vibrant institution than when she arrived in 2009. This is the true measurement of leadership," Napolitano said in a statement.
Desmond-Hellman had raised some eyebrows among UC traditionalists last year when she proposed