Dr. G. Richard Olds, an internationally recognized tropical disease authority and chair of the Department of Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, today was named vice chancellor of health affairs and founding dean of the medical school at the University of California, Riverside.

Olds will assume his new position by Feb. 1, 2010.

“This is a momentous step forward for the medical school, for the UC-R campus and for the future of Inland Southern California,” Chancellor Timothy White said in a statement.

As chair of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Olds led one of the institution’s largest academic departments, with 11 separate divisions and 280 faculty training more than 800 medical students, 100 residents and 70 fellows.

Last year, the department carried out more than $27 million in research funded by the National Institutes of Health and had more than 100,000 patient visits in a range of medical specialties and sub-specialties.

Olds is also chief of medical service at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, which is currently ranked tenth in the country in quality among all academic medical centers.