Dr. Bertram Katzung got his M.D. degree from the State University of New York, Syracuse in 1957 and the Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of California, San Francisco in 1962. After an internship at Moffitt Hospital, he joined the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (now CMP) at UCSF in 1958. Dr. Katzung was Acting Chair of the Department from 1978 to 1981. His research focused on cardiac function, especially cardiac cellular electrical activity, as affected by drugs, including digitalis and antiarrhythmic agents.

Professor Bertram Katzung directed the Department’s teaching program for all professional students from 1972 through 1995.