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Los Angeles: Departments
Pathology
Pediatrics
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Experimental
Therapeutics
Philosophy
Physical Education
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Physics
Physics & Astronomy
Physiological Science
Physiology
Plant Pathology
Policy Studies
Political Science
Preventive Medicine and Public
Health
Psychiatry
Psychology
Public Health
Public Policy
Pathology
The Department of Pathology may be presumed
to have been established concurrently with the Los Angeles Center
for Health Sciences in 1946, but its practical origins began with
the initial planning of curriculum and facilities some months later.
The first appointment of a full-time faculty member was that of
the later professor and chairman on May 1, 1951. The the mid-1960s
complement consisted of 16 full-time faculty, an additional four
full-time in-residence faculty, and 18 part-time volunteer faculty.
The number of interns, residents, and fellows grew from two in 1953
to a level ranging from 18 to 23 in the mid-1960s.
The curriculum permitted a method of instruction
of sophomore medical students emphasizing a tutorial "graduate
school" approach to the subject, topic by topic, through organized
demonstrations and discussions at the same time that the student
was presented illustrations of the entire span of disease through
study of current autopsy cases. Instruction involving this immediate
attention to patient material was possible through the block allotment
of teaching time to pathology and medical microbiology-immunology
and the cooperative arrangements between these two departments.
While no graduate degrees were given in pathology,
extensive use of post-sophomore fellowships was made. Three to six
members of the sophomore class were selected to spend the following
full year in the study of pathology and in research in some field
of experimental pathology, the fellows returning thereafter to the
junior class. This five-year curriculum afforded such students an
exceptional foundation for postdoctoral careers.
An additional significant feature of the undergraduate
curriculum in pathology was the pathology-radiology clerkship required
of junior students. One-eighth of the academic year was split between
the study of current surgical pathology cases and current radiological
cases. This tutorial approach demonstrated its merit both in the
eyes of the clinical faculty who test students' knowledge of disease
and the opinion of the students who completed their undergraduate
work.
The extent of the research activities of the pathology
faculty may be indicated by noting that in 1963, U.S. Public Health
Service grants to the pathology department totaled $728,000, the
largest amount granted to any pathology department in the United
States. source
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Pediatrics
The Department of Pediatrics was born on
July 1, 1950, with the appointment of Dr. John M. Adams as professor
and chairman. The Korean War precipitated an accelerated development
of the medical school and the first class was admitted in September,
1951. A course entitled Family Medicine, administered by pediatrics,
was designed to provide the first year medical student with an opportunity
to see patients and their families. Students were assigned a family
in the well-baby clinics of the city of Los Angeles. They talked
with mothers and visited homes with public health nurses. Emphasis
was placed on the social aspects of medicine, accident prevention
and the development of a doctor-patient relationship. The course
was designed to give the student a longitudinal experience by allowing
him to work closely with the original family throughout medical
school. Dr. Arthur H. Parmelee, Jr., was the first director of the
program.
In the students' second year, the pediatrics department
participated actively in a new course entitled Introduction to Clinical
Medicine. The course provided an opportunity to prepare the student
for his major clinical responsibilities in the third and fourth
years. In the third year, a nine-week clerkship in the outpatient
clinic provided practical training in diagnosis and treatment of
common problems in children. In the fourth year, students were assigned
to the pediatric wards and were given responsibility for patient
care.
On November 1, 1952, as a result of an agreement
between the University and the Marion Davies Foundation, the operation
of the Marion Davies Children's Clinic was assumed by the School
of Medicine. Dr. Forrest H. Adams joined the full-time staff in
July, 1952 and became the first medical director of the clinic.
The original building, located in West Los Angeles, not only provided
patients for care and teaching, but also permitted expansion of
the staff and added valuable research laboratory space. The Marion
Davies Children's Clinic, which housed the department, was added
to the medical center and occupied in July, 1962.
Drs. J. Francis Dammann, Donald B. Lindsley, Stanley
W. Wright David T. Imagawa, and James N. Yamazaki joined the staff
in 1952. The following year, Drs. Nathan Smith and Robert A. Ulstrom
were added to the full-time roster. Dr. Ulstrom returned to an advanced
position at the University of Minnesota in 1956. However, on November
1, 1964, he returned to Los Angeles to become professor of pediatrics
and chairman of the department. source
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Pharmacology, Toxicology and Experimental
Therapeutics
Although the Department of Pharmacology was
established in the summer of 1953 with the appointment of chairman
Dr. Dermot B. Taylor, the Department of Physiology gave the course
in pharmacology for medical students during 1952-53. The first duty
of the new department was the establishment of an eight-unit medical
student teaching program which would provide a basic groundwork
in the action of drugs and sustain students through the large increment
of therapeutic knowledge they would face in their future practice.
To secure this objective, a set of teaching policies was developed
and a program of research into the accuracy and validity of student
examinations was started.
In 1954, a basic and specialized program for graduate
students leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees was developed. This
program included advanced courses devoted to the physiochemical
basis of drug action, instruction in biostatistics, both theoretical
and experimental, and basic neuropharrnacology. By 1965,graduate
admissions had risen to 15, the maximum number that could be efficiently
accommodated. In addition, there was been an increasing flow of
overseas visitors, chiefly postdoctoral scholars from the British
Isles who spent varying periods of time studying in the department.
More than 30 such graduates had postdoctoral research studies exceeding
one year each.
The research effort of the department always emphasized
investigation at the most basic molecular level of problems concerned
with the action of known drugs. The chief fields of endeavor are
neuro-, cardiovascular, endocrine, and gastrointestinal pharmacology,
although the first received the chief emphasis because of the department's
close connection with the Brain Research Institute. The department
also developed a useful joint research program with the Departments
of Botany, Physiology, and Chemistry and the Veterans Administration
hospitals.
One of the first and also one of the most important
early appointments was that of Dr. Gordon A. Alles (Alles Laboratories,
Pasadena) as professor of pharmacology in residence. Dr. Alles was
best known for his discovery of the actions of benzedrine and for
his introduction of this drug into medicine. His untimely death
in 1962 was a great loss to the academic staff of the department.
Dr. Alles was a benefactor in innumerable ways, including a donation
to the departmental library, now named the Gordon A. Alles Memorial
Library.
As of 1965, the department had eight full-time
academic staff members and taught 74 medical students per year.
source
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Philosophy
By the mid-1960s, the history of the Department of Philosophy extended
over approximately 40 years. The department began to operate as
a separate entity in the academic year 1924-25. Prior to this date,
a limited number of courses in philosophy were offered under the
joint auspices of a Department of Education, Psychology, and Sociology
(1919-20), a Department of Education, Psychology, and Philosophy
(1920-22), and a Department of Philosophy and Psychology (1922-24).
The operations of the department expanded greatly
after the move to the Westwood campus in 1929. A comprehensive undergraduate
curriculum was developed in the following years; in 1933, a graduate
program was added. In 1934, the department awarded its first two
M.A. degrees; in 1942, three candidates received the first Ph.D.
degrees in philosophy. In this initial phase, the chief responsibility
for planning, building, and running the department lay in the hands
of Professors John E. Boodin, Hugh Miller, Donald A. Piatt, and
Donald C. Williams. Dean Charles H. Rieber and Professor Ernest C.
Moore (later vice-president and provost at Los Angeles) also participated
in the early stages.
Several developments made a special contribution
to the affairs of the department in the 1940s and 1950s. First,
the brief encounter with Bertrand Russell. Though he stayed for
one year only (1939-40), the impact of his presence lingered over
the years. In 1938, Professor Hans Reichenbach came to the Los Angeles
campus from the University of Istanbul. His arrival accelerated
the rate of graduate studies in the department and marked the beginning
of a curricular tradition, with special emphasis on studies in logic
and the philosophy of science, that continued in the mid-1960s.
After Reichenbach's untimely death in 1953, Professor Rudolf Carnap
joined the department, lending his distinction to the advancement
of this program.
In 1941, an endowment for a visiting professorship,
established by Mr. and Mrs. C. N. Flint, became operative. Since
1943, the department useed the funds from this endowment to appoint
14 distinguished philosophers from this country and abroad as Flint
Professors.
Over the years, the department regularly revised
its own curriculum so as to provide expanding coverage in a variety
of fields--logic, epistemology, semantics, metaphysics, ethics,
the philosophy of law, and the history of philosophy. Since 1958,
Professor Ernest A. Moody developed an entirely new program of studies
in medieval philosophy. Upon his death in 1950, Boodin left his
books and a sum of $25,000 to the University. The income from this
fund was used for the purchase of books and journals for the department's
reading room. Various members of the department added to this collection
by leaving their books to the reading room upon their retirement:
Miller (1958), Carnap (1962), and Piatt (1965). By the mid-1960s,
the reading room contained approximately 2,500 books and over 700
volumes of philosophical journals.
In the fall of 1964, the total enrollment in philosophy
consisted of 2,393 students of whom 94 were undergraduate and 90
were graduate majors. The curriculum grew in number of courses and
in areas of specialization. The number of candidates for higher
degrees increased steadily: 40 M.A. degrees were awarded between
1934 and 1965; 29 Ph.D. degrees between 1942 and 1965. Expanding
operations brought a corresponding increase in staff: in 1924-25,
there were three regular instructors; in 1964-65, the active teaching
staff consisted of 16 members, and the department had an administrative
staff of four full-time and three part-time employees. source
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Physical Education
The Department of Physical Education had its inception in the Los
Angeles State Normal School in 1915. Four years later, it became
a part of the Southern Branch of the University as two separate
departments for men and for women in the Teachers College.
By 1924, the responsibilities of the two departments
included the preparation of teachers of physical education, teaching
and supervising in the required program for the general college
students, intramural sports, general recreation for students, faculty,
and employees, adapted physical education for handicapped students,
and intercollegiate athletics later organized under ASUCLA.
With the construction of the two gymnasium and
swimming pools in 1931, the total program of the department rapidly
became established and was recognized as a vital and natural part
of the University. Only six years later, graduate study for the
M.S. degree was authorized. Also, the merger of the two departments,
except for budgetary purposes, and the establishment of divisions
for men and for women within a single department were approved.
In 1939, the department became a part of the new
College of Applied Arts, inaugurating another period of rapid development.
In cooperation with the School of Education, the Ed.D. degree with
a specialization in physical education was added in 1947 and with
a specialization in health education four years later.
In 1952, the divisions for men and women were
eliminated, a unified budget was initiated, coordinators of men
and women staff and facilities were appointed, and a philosophical
commitment for a unified department was implemented through a unit
plan of organization. By this time, undergraduate degree or concentration
programs had expanded considerably with authorizations for dance,
physical therapy, recreation, school health education, and rehabilitation.
Graduate study was authorized in recreation, school health education,
and rehabilitation.
The first research facility, the Human Performance
Laboratory for studies of physiological and kinesiological factors
in work, sports, and dance, was dedicated in 1958. Additional research
facilities were: Performance Physiology Laboratory (1958); Perception
and Motor Learning Laboratory (1965); and Underwater Research Laboratory
(1965).
In 1960, the department was transferred from the
College of Applied Arts to the Division of Life Sciences, College
of Letters and Science. After more than a decade of experimentation,
a revised physical education major centering in kinesiology, or
the art and science of human movement, and involving primarily one
of three allied fields of study--physiology, psychology, or sociology
was approved in 1962. This major was destined to be a model for
adoption by other universities, especially after the State Board
of Education approved it in 1965 as being equivalent to that of
an academic subject-matter major.
Before the merger of the separate departments
in 1937, the chairmen were: for men--James Cline (prior to 1925)
and William H. Spaulding (1925-36); and for women--Gertrude K. Colby
(prior to 1926) and Ruth V. Atkinson (1926-36). Since 1937 the chairmanship
was held successively by Frederick W. Cozens (1937-39), John F.
Bovard (1939-47), Carl Haven Young (1947-52), Ben W. Miller (1952-62),
and Donald T. Handy after 1962.
The leadership of the faculty of the department
was acknowledged throughout the nation. Faculty members received
an unusual proportion of elected offices and special honors and
awards. They consistently pioneered on the frontiers of the profession
in such problems and research areas as tests and measurements, unified
and democratic administration, research and creative work in movement,
counseling and guidance, and curriculum revision. source
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Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
The Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation,
School of Medicine, Los Angeles, was established in September, 1958
with the appointment of a professor who later became chairman. An
eight-hour lecture course was given to the senior medical students
which included the physiological basis for the use of physical agents
in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, the interdisciplinary
approach to medical rehabilitation, and the use of community service
for meeting the needs of the disabled. Interdepartmental lectures
were integrated with pediatrics, medicine, surgery, and psychiatry.
An approved three-year residency program affiliated with the Wadsworth
and Long Beach Veterans Administration Hospitals was established
in 1959.
Trends in curriculum developmental programs included
additional interdepartmental teaching in anatomy (functional anatomy),
physiology, biophysics, and medical diagnosis. Proposals for electives
in physical medicine and rehabilitation were made for a four and
one-half week course to be given eight times a year and an 11-week
course to be given two times a year. This would allow the students
to study in more depth the problems of the long-term diseased and
disabled patient.
A four-year pre-physical therapy curriculum was
established in the College of Letters and Science and qualified
the student to enter the certificate course in physical therapy
which was planned for the new Rehabilitation Center on the campus.
In January, 1965, the responsibility for the physical
medicine and rehabilitation program at Harbor Hospital was assumed
by the department. It became an integral part of the teaching and
research program.
Research activities included electromyography,
nerve conduction velocity, the effects of spinal traction, movement
of the sacroiliac joint, and measurement of physiological parameters
in disease states, including muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis,
and patients with cardiovascular disease. Detailed serum enzyme
studies were made in neurological diseases. The faculty was also
involved in the development and testing of new prostheses and mechanical
assistive devices. The opening of the Rehabilitation Center's Human
Performance and Environmental Laboratory allowed broader research
on the disabled patient.
During the academic year, 1964-65, the faculty
of the department taught 380 hours to medical students and 830 hours
to graduate students. source
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Physics
The Department of Physics began in September,
1919, with one professor, John Mead Adams. He, with William Crowell
in chemistry and George E. F. Sherwood in mathematics, had been
charged with producing, almost overnight, a program in physical
science. Adams collected three bricks from a construction project,
bought three spring balances, and proceeded to teach physics to
the rush of freshmen, G.I.'s from World War I, and some women headed
for teaching positions. The next year, 1920, he had two student
assistants, one of whom was Leo R. Delsasso, whose service to the
department spanned the years 1920-63.
In 1922, Vern O. Knudsen joined the staff, serving
as chairman of the department (1932 38) prior to becoming dean of
the Graduate Division and eventually, chancellor. In 1923, the first
upper division lecture courses were added; in 1924, the first upper
division laboratories were added; and in 1925, the first bachelor's
degrees were awarded, one of them to Delsasso. By this time, the
staff numbered six, plus three assistants. Samuel J. Barnett joined
the staff in 1926 and became the second chairman of the department
(1926-31).
Although initiated on the Vermont campus, research
in the fields of spectroscopy by Joseph W. Ellis, E. Lee Kinsey,
and Joseph Kaplan, and in acoustics by Knudsen and his students,
was for the first time adequately provided for in the new Physics-Biology
Building on the Westwood campus.
By 1933, graduate work was authorized. In the
fall of 1934, regular graduate courses leading to the master's degree
were offered in the department for the first time. Permission was
also granted to Norman Watson, a graduate student at Berkeley, to
do research for a Ph.D. under Knudsen at Los Angeles. Watson received
his Ph.D. degree for this work at Berkeley in 1937. Robert Leonard
and Richard Bolt received their Ph.D.'s under the same plan in 1939
and 1940. By 1936, work leading to the Ph.D. degree was authorized
at the Los Angeles campus and the first Ph.D. degree in physics
was awarded in 1940.
During the chairmanship of Kaplan (1938-43), World
War II made heavy demands on the department. Most staff members
and graduate students were either called into the services or were
assisting in programs of research and teaching connected with the
war effort.
During the chairmanship of Ellis (1944-49), the
department initiated a program of low energy nuclear physics. Under
the supervision of J. Reginald Richardson, Kenneth R. MacKenzie,
and Byron T. Wright, the first Lawrence cyclotron was transferred
to Los Angeles from the Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley. Out of
this program, the first sector-focused cyclotron to become operable
was developed. A group in theoretical physics started with the addition
to the staff of Alfredo Baños, David S. Saxon, and Robert
J. Finkelstein. A program of high energy physics was started after
the end of the war by Harold K. Ticho. Recently, under the chairmanship
of Kinsey (1949-59), a program in solid state physics was established.
Hans E. Bömmel, joined the staff in 1961.
To care for the needs of the rapidly expanding
department, a second building was planned during the chairmanship
of Kinsey, constructed during the chairmanship of Delsasso (1959-63),
and occupied in the fall of 1963 at the beginning of the chairmanship
of Saxon. This building was called Knudsen Hall and the original
building was named Kinsey Hall--thus honoring two former chairmen
of the department. source
Physics is now a part of the Department of Physics
and Astronomy. See also Department
of Astronomy.
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Physiological
Science
The Department of Physiology came into being
as an integral part of the School of Medicine, which was established
in 1946 by the state legislature. Prior to 1951, instruction in
physiology had been given in the Department of Zoology. The instruction
was oriented toward general and comparative rather than human physiology.
This gap was filled by the Department of Physiology, both at the
medical undergraduate and academic graduate levels.
Thus, the mission and activities of the department
were twofold from the beginning. In its role of teaching medical
students, its growth and development paralleled that of the School
of Medicine. The size of the first year medical class rose from
28 in 1951 to 72 in 1965. The curricular structure remained essentially
unchanged, but the course content and teaching methods continually
evolved in response to the advance of knowledge, which was unusually
rapid in this field.
The department was authorized to conduct M.S.
and Ph.D. degree programs in 1952. The number of graduate students
rose from two in 1953 to a level of 35 by the mid-1960s. The major
strength of the department's research and graduate instruction was
in neurophysiology and cardiovascular studies.
An important aspect of the department's activities
was its relation to two associated projects. It was one of the groups
making up the Brain Research Institute since the latter's establishment
in 1959; four staff members had their laboratories in the institute.
The Los Angeles
County Heart Association in 1957 established a Cardiovascular
Research Laboratory at the Los Angeles campus under the auspices
of the Department of Medicine. However, the laboratory in its role
of training investigators operated to a considerable extent through
the Department of Physiology, since the laboratory's director and
associate director held appointments in physiology. In addition,
the department actively participated in the research activities
of several Veterans Adminstration hospitals in this area. An addition
to the department's activities was the Brain Information Service,
which provided computer storage and retrieval of the world's literature
in the basic neurological sciences for neurologists of this country
and abroad.
The department's faculty members, in addition
to their teaching and research, served as editors for most of the
leading American journals of physiology. Particularly noteworthy
was the initiation and editing here of the first section of the
American Physiological Society's Handbook of Physiology.
In the mid-1960s, two of the department's faculty
members served the University in administrative positions: one as
associate dean of the School of Medicine, the other as University-wide
dean of academic planning. source
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Physiology
There is no history currently available
for this department.
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Plant
Pathology
The assignment of Pierre A. Miller to UCLA
on June 15,1933 initiated plant pathology on that campus as an extension
of the Department of Plant Pathology at Riverside under the chairmanship
of Howard S. Fawcett. This was done to add plant pathology to the
study curriculum in subtropical horticulture and to conduct research
on diseases of subtropical fruit plants. Miller inaugurated the
introductory course in plant pathology during the fall semester
1933-34 and developed a second course on diseases of subtropical
fruit plants in 1934. In 1939, when Kenneth F. Baker was appointed
to the UCLA staff, a shift in research emphasis from diseases of
ornamental plants was developed. Seminar and research courses completed
the instructional offerings of this department. John G. Bald was
added to this staff in 1948 to investigate diseases of bulbous ornamental
plants, and Donald E. Munnecke joined that group in 1951 to develop
a program dealing with disorders of nursery ornamentals and fungicidal
control of them. Upon Professor Miller's retirement in 1958, Robert
M. Endo joined the staff to establish a research program on turfgrass
diseases.
The declining activity in agricultural instruction
on the UCLA campus after 1958 precipitated the decision to reduce
the plant pathology staff there by transferring Baker to the plant
pathology department on the Berkeley campus and Munnecke and Endo
to the Riverside campus on July 1, 1961.
Bald remained at UCLA to instruct the plant pathology
course 120, which was last offered during the fall of 1964. The
UCLA section of the department ceased to exist on July 1, 1964,
at which time a Department of Agricultural Sciences was formed to
accommodate College of Agriculture faculty remaining at UCLA.
During this relatively short period of departmental
activity at UCLA, significant contributions to plant pathology were
accomplished in both instruction and research. This group established
a strong reputation in the field of research on diseases of ornamental
plants and turf. The nursery industry benefited from concepts evolved
by these research workers for the use of pathogen-free planting
stock and utilization of a planting medium in which it is possible
to control disease-producing organisms and plant nutrition. Although
not possessing an undergraduate or graduate major program, five
persons who participated in the introductory course as undergraduates
completed their education in plant pathology on other campuses of
the University, and through an arrangement with the Berkeley Department
of Plant Pathology, three M.S. degrees and six Ph.D. degrees were
granted to students who conducted their dissertation research at
UCLA with members of that staff. source
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Policy Studies
There is no history currently available
for this department.
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Political
Science
Courses in government were first offered
in 1920-21 by Dr. Charles E. Martin. Within two years the staff
had grown to six and the offering included well-rounded programs
in international relations, politics, comparative government, public
administration and municipal government. Little reorganization was
needed when upper division work was formally authorized in February,
1923, except to expand the offering in political theory. Public
law became a strong field in 1925-26 when Charles Grove Haines joined
the staff, which totaled ten members by the mid-1960s.
Of this early staff, the founding member (Martin)
was to become president of the American Society of International
Law; William H. George became dean of arts and sciences at the University
of Hawaii; Marshall F. McComb, a judge since 1927, now serves on
the California Supreme Court; Clarence A. Dykstra became city manager
of Cincinnati, president of the University of Wisconsin, and then
returned to the Lo Angeles campus as its third chancellor. Both
he and Haines became presidents of the American Political Science
Association.
By 1925-26, class enrollments exceeded 1,500 per
semester, but about 600 were in-service courses that were largely
discontinued. Undergraduate enrollment grew steadily and exceeded
3,000. By the 1960s, the number of baccalaureates granted generally
exceeded those of any other department save engineering, or any
curriculum save general elementary education.
One of the first departments or fields authorized
to give graduate instruction, the department awarded its first master's
degrees in 1934, and its first doctorates in 1939. By the mid-1960s,
doctorates granted totaled 76 and the department had 53 students
who were formally admitted to candidacy for the doctorate plus 79
post-M.A.students preparing for their Ph.D. qualifying examinations.
Although the basic program remained relatively stable, greater emphasis
was given to area studies. The department furnished a disproportionate
share of directors of the various area centers, and its members
consistently headed the Committee on Political Change and the International
Securities program. Increasing emphasis was given to behavioral
studies, with an excellent laboratory and ready access to the University
Computing Facility and Western Data Processing Center. The departmental
library had well over 4,000 reference volumes and a basic selection
of current journals in the field, all received as gifts or on indefinite
loans.
By the mid-1960s, the teaching staff, including
visitors, numbered 47, of whom 38 were in residence. Throughout
its history, members of the department were active in civic, governmental,
and professional affairs at the local, state, and national levels.
Furthermore, studies of the profession rated the department as one
of the "elite 11" whose graduate degrees carry the greatest
prestige. source
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Preventive
Medicine and Public Health
The Department of Preventive Medicine and
Public Health at the Los Angeles campus was established in 1953.
Budgetary provision was made initially for two professors and two
non-academic positions. A Committee on Instruction in Public Health,
appointed by the chief campus administrative officer in 1950, recommended
that a modern medical center should include a School of Public Health
working closely with the departments in the School of Medicine (especially
the Department of Preventive Medicine) through joint appointments,
research, and teaching. In support of the 1953-54 budget for preventive
medicine and public health, the dean of the School of Medicine stated
that the purpose was to provide staff and facilities to furnish
the curriculum required to serve the campus generally and the Schools
of Medicine and Public Health specifically. Program in biostatistics,
epidemiology, health administration, occupational health, and social
welfare in medicine were soon developed. They were staffed by tenure
professors with joint appointments in the School of Public Health.
The faculty of the department gives instruction to all medical students
in these subjects. Graduate programs were conducted in conjunction
with the School of Public Health. Considerable support was provided
by the department's staff to the family medicine program of the
Department of Pediatrics.
Noteworthy achievements were made in the use of
electronic data processing and in training in biostatistics. The
Division of Biostatistics, under the leadership of Professor Wilfrid
J. Dixon, established a $3.3 million Health
Science Computing Facility in 1963--the largest of its kind.
This was preceded for several years by a rapidly growing staff and
training program. The Division of Biostatistics and the computing
facility developed statistical and mathematical methods of aid to
medical research, provided a computing system in support of medical
research, and developed new programs and techniques to make use
of the computer more effective.
These programs attracted postdoctoral fellows,
research investigators, and students from various parts of the world.
The activities were strongly supported by the National Institutes
of Health.
The Division of Social Welfare in Medicine, established
in the department in 1956 with a staff of social workers, provided
service to patients in the hospitals and clinics as an integral
part of the professional activities of the medical center. The staff
participated in teaching and research guided by an interdepartmental
committee representing the clinical departments and Schools of Nursing,
Public Health, and Social Welfare; Student Health Services; and
hospital administration. source
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Psychiatry
During the first two years of operation of
the medical school and prior to the formal establishment of a full-time
department, the groundwork was laid for the teaching of psychiatry
emphasizing a psychodynamic orientation. Instruction content was
drawn from the basic science fields and included a review of personality
development, psychiatric disorders, and their pathology. The Department
of Psychiatry was officially organized on May 1, 1953, with Dr.
Norman Q. Brill, appointed chairman of the department and medical
director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute. The construction of
the institute in 1960 completed the plan for a psychiatric facility
which was closely integrated with the rest of the School of Medicine.
The original plan of presenting psychiatry in
each of the four years of medical school was carried out and refined.
The first year introductory course entitled The Basic Science of
Human Behavior described normal personality development and function
and the interactions between the individual and the environment,
using both biological and psychodynamic data. The department also
participated in the Correlation Clinics of the first year and in
the interdepartmental course, Family Medicine.
In the second year, the student was given a detailed
study of the classification of the mental disorders and their underlying
psychopathology. Concurrently, 12 additional hours of instruction
in psychiatric history-taking and mental examination were presented
as part of another interdepartmental course, Introduction to Clinical
Medicine.
Throughout the third year, each student spent
one-half day a week in the Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic, where
emphasis was placed on the use of brief psychotherapeutic methods
in treating the less severe emotional disturbances commonly encountered
in medical practice.
A clinical clerkship involving the study of hospitalized
patients in Los Angeles County General Hospital, Camarillo, Brentwood
Neuropsychiatric Hospital, and the Neuropsychiatric Institute was
conducted during the fourth year. In addition, weekly clinics, centering
about case presentations and lectures were given to demonstrate
the importance of emotional problems in the common types of medical
and surgical disorders.
On a graduate level, the department offered an
approved three-, four-, and five-year residency training program
in general psychiatry. Postgraduate fourth- and fifth-year training
program were offered in child psychiatry and in social and community
psychiatry.
During 1964-65, the department had 70 residents
and fellows in training; about 25 per cent of the graduates obtained
full-time academic teaching positions. source
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Psychology
Even before 1900, the Los Angeles State Normal
School was sufficiently progressive to have developed a Department
of Psychology. By 1900, there was a laboratory with adequate equipment
and courses in general, child, educational, and clinical psychology.
In addition, there were courses in experimental methods and experimental
psychology. Thus, psychology at Los Angeles had its antecedence
less than 20 years after the formal founding of the discipline in
1879.
When the normal school moved to North Vermont
Avenue in 1914, the Department of Psychology was housed in one of
the central buildings. Following the absorption of the normal school
into the University in 1919, the growth of the institution was rapid
and the department shared in this development. The academic duties
of the staff were supplemented by services to the Whittier State
School, the juvenile court, and the Los Angeles police department.
In 1921, the Psychology Clinic School was established by the Regents.
With the development of a four-year College of
Letters and Science, it was decided to strengthen the Department
of Psychology, especially in the experimental area. Shepherd Ivory
Franz, a distinguished physiological psychologist, was brought to
Los Angeles as professor of psychology and chairman of the department
in 1924.
When the campus was moved to Westwood, psychology
was housed in the library building and shared vivarium space on
the roof of the old Physics Building with the Department of Biology.
By this time, psychology was offering a very well-rounded curriculum
and producing a succession of highly successful bachelors of arts
who later proceeded to doctoral degrees at other institutions. When,
in September, 1933, graduate study was initiated at Los Angeles,
one of the original 13 departments authorized to accept graduate
students was psychology.
Almost simultaneously with the initiation of graduate
work, the untimely death of Franz occurred. In 1935, Knight Dunlap
came to the Los Angeles campus from Johns Hopkins with the understanding
that he was to participate in the planning of a new psychology laboratory
more worthy of a developing major department. In 1937, the department
was approved to accept candidates for the doctor of philosophy degree.
In 1940, what was to be the first wing of a building to house all
of the life sciences was occupied largely by psychology, but partly
by sociology and anthropology.
The greatest development in complexity of activity
took place at the graduate level. In addition to strong programs
in experimental and physiological psychology, the department was
approved by the American Psychological Association to offer training
in the areas of clinical and counseling psychology. By the mid-1960s,
the department enrolled over 190 graduate students and, with chemistry,
was the largest producer of doctor of philosophy degrees on the
Los Angeles campus. In addition, the department had over 700 undergraduate
major students. source
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Public Health
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Public Policy
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