Medicine

Neal Benowitz has been involved in patient care and conducting research at SFGH since 1973. His research focus is on the human pharmacology of nicotine in relation to pathogenesis of and individual differences in vulnerability to tobacco-related disease, and the use of pharmacologic data as a basis for public health policies to prevent and reduce such disease. He has also studied the human pharmacolgy and toxicology of cannabis products.

Dr. Balmes received his MD degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1976. After internal medicine training at Mount Sinai and pulmonary subspecialty, occupational medicine, and research training at Yale, he joined the faculty of USC in 1982. He joined the faculty at UCSF in 1986 and is currently Professor in the Divisions of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG).

Dr. Arjomandi grew up in Ahvaz, a small city in Southwestern Iran, and moved to the United States in 1986 in the aftermath of Iranian revolution (1979), Iraq's invasion of Iran (1980-88), and his family displacement inside Iran (1980-83). When in California, he began his higher education at Los Angeles Pierce College before transferring to University of California San Diego in 1988, where he obtained a bachelor degree in molecular biology and completed a senior honors thesis in developmental biology in Dr. Richard Firtel’s lab.