Hearing Loss Expert Joins P&S as ENT Chair

Lawrence Lustig, MD, a leading expert in hearing loss, will join P&S this year as chair of the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery. He also will be otolaryngologist-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. Both appointments are effective July 1, 2014.

Dr. Lustig, currently professor of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, succeeds Lanny Close, MD, who stepped down in May 2013 after nearly 19 years as chair and chief. During Dr. Close’s tenure as chair, the department quadrupled in size. Joseph Haddad Jr., MD, the Lawrence Savetsky Professor of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery and director of pediatric otolaryngology/head & neck surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, served as interim chair and chief during the search for a new chair.

Dr. Close remains on the faculty as professor of otolaryngology/head and neck surgery.

Dr. Lustig treats the full spectrum of ear disorders in adults and children, as well as skull base disease. His specialties include skull base surgery, cochlear implants, the genetics of hearing loss, cochlear gene therapy, balance disorders, and hair cell physiology. He has written book chapters and published more than 125 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He co-edited a textbook, “Clinical Neurotology: Diagnosing and Managing Disorders of Hearing, Balance and the Facial Nerve.”

Dr. Lustig joined UCSF in 2004. He has served as chief of the Division of Otology & Neurotology at both UCSF and San Francisco General Hospital, director of the Douglas Grant Cochlear Implant Center, clinical chief of the otolaryngology service on the Parnassus campus, and co-director of the Center for Balance and Falls. Before joining UCSF, Dr. Lustig was on the faculty at Johns Hopkins University, where he completed a fellowship in otology, neurotology, and skull base surgery. He received his MD from UCSF, where he completed a residency in otolaryngology/head and neck surgery.