Events

Top: (From left) Vatche Manoukian, Andre Agassi, Stefanie Graf and Tamar Manoukian. Bottom: (From left) Dr. Eric Esrailian, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Marilyn Katzenberg and Jim Gianopulos. Photos: Reed Hutchinson

An inaugural dinner to celebrate the Ambassadors of the UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases was held October 24, 2013, in Beverly Hills, California. The Ambassadors, a new group of volunteer community leaders, are:

• Andre Agassi, founder, Andre Agassi Foundation for Education
• Chris and Vicky Cornell, founders, Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation
• Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO, XPRIZE Foundation
• Jim Gianopulos, chairman and CEO, Twentieth Century Fox Film
• Dr. Gary Gitnick, co-chief, UCLA Division of Digestive Diseases and founder, The FulFillment Fund
• Andrew Hauptman, chairman, Andell, Inc.
• G. Bradford Jones, founding partner, Redpoint Ventures
• Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO and co-founder, DreamWorks Animation SKG
• Vatche Manoukian, co-founder, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Foundation
• Kevin Mayer, executive vice president, Corporate Strategy and Business Development, The Walt Disney Company
• Joan Payden, president and CEO, Payden & Rygel
• Chip Rosenbloom, president, Open Pictures
• Bren Simon, co-founder, Melvin and Bren Simon Charitable Foundation

The Ambassadors will play a key role in broadening awareness of the division and its work by serving as thought leaders and engaging others to envision what the future can hold for research, patient care and education. The event was catered by chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck and hosted at the home of Dr. Eric Esrailian (FEL ’06), co-chief of the division, and his wife Dr. Melina Esrailian.

Dr. Eric Kandel presents the Leo Rangell inaugural lecture. Photography: Ann Chau

The Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA hosted the inaugural Leo Rangell Endowed Lecture on November 14, 2013, at UCLA’s Carnesale Commons.

Dr. Eric R. Kandel, a 2000 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine and 2013 Leo Rangell Visiting Scholar from Columbia University, was the keynote speaker. Nearly 700 faculty, students and guests attended Dr. Kandel’s presentation, which featured a discussion of the arts and artists of the early 1900s in Vienna and an examination of the modern understanding of the human mind.

The Leo Rangell Professorial Endowment in Psychoanalysis is made possible by a generous gift from Stewart and Lynda Resnick to celebrate, perpetuate and advance the work of Dr. Leo Rangell in psychoanalysis through an investment in scholarship, education and research in the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.