Dr. Aaron Kornblith Named Inaugural Appointee, Michael L. Callaham, MD, Endowed Professorship in Emergency Medicine

The UC San Francisco Department of Emergency Medicine is pleased to announce that Aaron Kornblith, MD, MS (pictured), has been named the inaugural appointee of the Michael L. Callaham, MD, Endowed Professorship in Emergency Medicine. 

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This Professorship was established to honor the pioneering and far-reaching contributions of Dr. Callaham, who was one of the first physicians to pursue a career in emergency medicine. Over more than three decades at UCSF, Dr. Callaham had a profound impact on our emergency medicine community, including tens of thousands of patients. He was the driving force of emergency medicine in San Francisco, whose paradigm-advancing efforts created a strong foundation for our specialty to flourish in the Bay Area and beyond. This includes the establishment of the Department of Emergency Medicine at UCSF in 2008, for which Dr. Callaham served as the inaugural Chair through February of 2013.

The establishment of this Professorship ensures that his legacy of innovation, excellence, and service will continue to shape the future of emergency medicine by supporting the research, teaching, and service activities of distinguished faculty who embody his spirit of innovation and dedication to advancing emergency care not for some, but for all.

Dr. Kornblith has built his career as a general and pediatric emergency physician at UCSF. Following the completion of his residency training in our emergency medicine program in 2013, where he served as Chief Resident and trained under Dr. Callaham, Dr. Kornblith completed dual fellowships in pediatric emergency medicine and pediatric emergency ultrasound at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. He also earned a master’s degree in Clinical and Epidemiological Research from UCSF, reflecting his commitment to advancing knowledge through rigorous science.

Now an associate clinical professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at UCSF, Dr. Kornblith also serves as Co-HEDA PI of the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN), Director of the UCSF Emergency Data Lab, affiliated faculty with the UCSF Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute and Center for Intelligent Imaging, and a member of the UCSF AI Governance Committee. His career has centered on advancing diagnostics for sick and injured patients through clinical trials, data science, and translational acceleration. As a National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation-funded physician-scientist, he has led multicenter studies through PECARN and the National Emergency X-Radiography Utilization Study (NEXUS), developed AI-driven methods to enhance diagnostic rigor and equity, and built the UCSF Emergency Data Lab to accelerate innovation into practice. A dedicated mentor, he has guided students, residents, fellows, and peers, creating structured research and pipeline programs to expand opportunities for the next generation.

Through the Professorship, Dr. Kornblith aims to build cross-disciplinary strategic partnerships at UCSF and beyond, accelerate the responsible translation of AI into clinical workflows, strengthen clinical trial infrastructure, expand mentorship and pipeline programs for the next generation of physician-scientists, and develop diverse funding strategies to sustain these efforts.