San Francisco Chronicle - Thursday, May 29, 2003
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer

Coates informed his colleagues at the university's AIDS Research Institute this week that he will resign as executive director in September, after accepting an offer from UCLA. He has led the organization since its founding in 1996.

"UCSF has been a wonderful place to work, and the AIDS program has evolved nicely," said Coates, during a telephone interview from South Africa, where he is checking up on active UCSF studies. "It was time to turn that over to new leadership."

Under the umbrella of the institute, Coates pooled scientists from 50 laboratories at UCSF, the city health department, the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology and the UC Berkeley School of Public Health into an organization that coordinated AIDS research from molecular biology in Bay Area laboratories to AIDS clinics in Africa.

"He leaves a thriving clinical, research and outreach program," said Dr. Haile Debas, dean of the UCSF School of Medicine. "Tom has done a spectacular job, and will be sorely missed, both personally and professionally."

Debas, who is retiring, said his successor will pick a replacement to head the AIDS Research Institute after Coates leaves in September.

A psychologist who earned his doctorate at Stanford, the 57-year-old Coates is a premier AIDS researcher who himself is HIV-positive. He took the reins of the AIDS Research Institute when he was director at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, an organization he continued to lead while running the institute.

Coates said he is taking a UCLA professorship because his partner, Robert DuWors, was offered a major appointment at UCLA. DuWors was associate director for administration at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center and will become deputy director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA.

As part of the deal for DuWors, Coates was also offered an opportunity to continue his research and teach at UCLA.

"We're a two-career family," Coates said. "When they came after him, I felt that perhaps it was a good time for me to make a change. . . . To their credit, they honored our domestic partnership."

As a professor in the division of infectious diseases at UCLA Medical School, Coates said he will continue to do the work he loves most: international HIV research and the training of young AIDS specialists.

A cool diplomat in the cauldron of academic politics, Coates built his reputation by turning UCSF's multiple AIDS fiefdoms into a coordinated program that represents the largest pool of HIV research outside of the National Institutes of Health. The combined laboratories pulled in grants from the NIH and private donors to run a research organization that spent more than $95 million a year.

"He was certainly the fulcrum for getting things done," said UCSF virologist Dr. Jay Levy. "He knew who to turn to, who would pitch in and help. It's a really big loss for our campus."

Dr. Michelle Roland, an AIDS specialist at San Francisco General Hospital, said staffers are so accustomed to Coates' leadership that they fear for the future of the institute after he leaves. "It's almost impossible to imagine ARI without Tom." she said. "He provided me with mentorship from the beginning of my career here. He was the person I would turn to for scientific questions, political questions, or personal guidance."

But Coates himself said he is confident that the organization will thrive after he leaves. "It's in good hands," he insisted. "The amount of depth of talent at UCSF is incredible. . . . All I did was pull it together."

E-mail Sabin Russell at srussell@sfchronicle.com.

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