Professor Mahtab Jafari honored at UCSF Campaign Alumni Awards

Professor Mahtab Jafari (UCSF, PharmD, ’94) was honored last weekend at the UCSF Campaign Alumni Awards . This inaugural ceremony named 12 outstanding UCSF alumni whose work has contributed to solving medical challenges, training future leaders, and healing others.

Professor Jafari is our founding faculty member and was recruited to start a new undergraduate major in pharmaceutical sciences over a decade ago. “At our first commencement ceremony we graduated seven students from our undergraduate major and we did not yet have a PhD program,” recalls Jafari. “This year, we expect to graduate over 100 undergraduate students in June. We are ranked in the top 10% of pharmaceutical sciences departments nationwide, which is impressive for such a young department like ours.”

Her research focuses on the impact of botanical extracts and dietary supplements on lifespan and health span to delay the progression of diseases of aging such as Alzheimer’s diseases or cardiovascular diseases. Her goal? To add healthy years to human life.

A passionate teacher, mentor, and student favorite, Professor Jafari currently teaches molecular pharmacology and a course entitled Life 101 which teaches students to adopt healthy lifestyle choices.

Congratulations Professor Jafari!