UCSD deepens ties with Deepak Chopra.

The promotion does not come with a salary. The 68 year-old physician-spiritualist will continue to interact with the university on a voluntary, unpaid basis. He will continue to be based out of the Chopra Center in La Costa, which he co-founded in 1996 to explore and teach about the wellbeing of mind, body and spirit.

“Until recently UC San Diego has had a small but important relationship with Dr. Chopra and his group, who have provided UC San Diego medical students training in complementary and whole systems approaches to health, and faculty and staff have attended courses at his center,” said Bess H. Marcus, chair of the university’s Department of Family Medicine and Public Health.

“We are now endeavoring to further develop that relationship for both teaching and research. Dr. Chopra is involved in collaborative research being conducted in the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health’s Center of Excellence in Research and Training in Integrative Health. Additionally, over the past four months, a number of UC San Diego faculty have been working with Dr. Chopra to address the problem of physician and trainee burnout and approaches to help remedy it.

“We have also been working with Dr. Chopra on concepts of wellbeing surrounding our new Institute for Public Health, and he will provide a public lecture on this topic May 25th. Dr. Chopra will also be lecturing in the new course on Integrative Medicine and Public Health being developed for the Bachelor of Science in Public Health.”