The School of Medicine's Division of Infectious Diseases will hold a memorial service today, Dec. 11, for Pamela C. Tucker, a faculty member who died of breast cancer on Nov. 21 at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She was 52.

The service will begin at 5 p.m. in the Woodruff Lecture Hall, 240 Houck Building, at JHMI. A reception will follow.

Pamela Tucker began her career at Johns Hopkins in 1990, when she completed her infectious diseases fellowship here. She joined the ID faculty thereafter, and in the laboratory of Diane Griffin continued her research that was focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of Sindbis virus neurovirulence. She held appointments as an assistant professor in three departments--Medicine, Neurology, and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology--over the ensuing 10 years. In 1997, she chose to leave the laboratory and pioneered the development of an infectious diseases service devoted to the care of organ transplant patients, for which she took round-the-clock call.

A 1970 graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder with a degree in fine arts, Tucker received her medical degree in 1983 from the Georgetown University School of Medicine. She came to Hopkins after working at Northwestern University's McGraw Medical Center and the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill.

Tucker was a staunch supporter of the education of medical students and junior colleagues and was committed to promoting the status of women physicians and investigators within Hopkins. She was known for personally supporting student stipends and for her timely and thoughtful advice to fellows and junior faculty. In 1999, she was selected as director of the Stetler Foundation Awards for women faculty.