The Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education’s annual symposium, It’s About a Billion Lives, will take place on Friday April 17, 2026. Co-hosted by the UCSF Multiethnic Health Equity Research Center and the UCSF Smoking Cessation Leadership Center, this in-person event will be held at the Robertson Auditorium at the UCSF Mission Bay campus.

This year’s symposium will center on the theme 'Together for Health Equity.' In addition to the symposium’s traditional keynote speakers and research updates, this year we’re making space for the next generation of tobacco control and health equity researchers. Students from the SF BRIDGE program, UC Merced, and the Smoke and Vape Free Scholars Initiative will present their own unique tobacco control research through a poster session and lightning talks. Additionally, the fifth annual UCSF Emerging Health Equity Scholar Awardees will present their work.