Edward A. Dennis

Edward Dennis is a Distinguished Professor and Chancellor I Endowed Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biochemistry in Physical Sciences and Pharmacology in the School of Medicine at UC San Diego. He has a BA from Yale, PhD from Harvard, postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School, and honorary doctorates from Goethe University and the University of Lyon. Dennis has been a professor at UC San Diego since 1970, Chair of the Faculty Academic Senate (1987-88), and twice chaired the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (1999-02, 2017-19). He has over 440 publications with career research focus on the enzyme phospholipase A2 which is central to lipid metabolism, membranes, signal transduction and inflammatory diseases. He led a ten-year $77M NIH grant called LIPID MAPS to develop the field of lipidomics (lipidmaps.org) and is now developing lipidomics-based blood tests to detect fatty liver disease leading to liver cancer. He served as founding board chair and president of the Keystone Symposia on Molecular and Cellular Biology, was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Lipid Research, and locally serves as chair of the ResMed Foundation Board of Directors and on the La Jolla Playhouse Board of Directors. He was the recipient of the 2025 Revelle Medal.