UCLA adjunct professor brings lessons from martial arts to classroom

Six years ago, three strangers attacked Ivan Lopez from behind while he was walking home at night from a bus stop on Venice Boulevard, leaving him bleeding and injured.

“I thought they were going to kill me,” said Lopez, a 55-year-old adjunct professor in the department of head and neck surgery at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. “It never occurred to me that I would need to learn to defend myself.”

After the attack, remembering Bruce Lee movies he watched growing up in Mexico City motivated him to start attending martial arts classes at the John Wooden Center. Six years later, he earned a black belt in Shotokan Karate and holds the record for the most martial arts classes taken through UCLA, with 69 classes since 2009.

Lopez joined UCLA faculty in 1992 when he moved to Los Angeles from Mexico City, where he taught at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

On a typical weekday, Lopez works in his laboratory until 5 p.m., tutoring graduate students in the School of Medicine and conducting research on the pathology of the inner ear. Then he heads to the John Wooden Center to exercise and train until 8 p.m.

“I really only sleep four or five hours a night,” Lopez said. “But exercising keeps up my energy, and sometimes I get new ideas for my research.”

Though Lopez mainly practices Shotokan Karate, which he said is systematic and structured, Lopez also trains in Muay Thai, a form of Thai kickboxing that uses the entire body, including hands, knees and elbows.

“You have to do a lot of exercise, and it’s really exhausting,” Lopez said. “But I am 55 and I’m in very good physical condition because of (martial arts).”

The focus, discipline and poise he practices through Shotokan Karate give him more confidence when teaching in front of his medical students, Lopez said.

“People think martial arts is all about fighting, but you have to learn how to present yourself in front of an obstacle,” Lopez said.

Lopez had always been very shy, but martial arts helped him become a role model and a leader to other students in his classes, said Beth Hyatt, Lopez’s Shotokan Karate sensei at the John Wooden Center.

Five years ago, the John Wooden Center created the Ivan Lopez Award to honor Lopez, who has never missed any of his martial arts classes, Hyatt said. The annual award is given to the student who best represents the values of the UCLA Martial Arts Program, said Ferris Yeh, one of Lopez’s former Karate instructors.

“He’s never going to be a national champion, but he is incredibly driven, and he’s such an excellent example for the other students,” Hyatt said.

Lopez is one of the few students at the Wooden Center who has trained in several different martial arts, including Muay Thai and Brazilian jiujitsu, said Yeh.

Yeh added that learning martial arts at a late age can be difficult because older people have less flexibility, but he said Lopez maintains a positive attitude.

“(Lopez) works as hard as he can. He’s a very humble person and a very open-minded guy,” Yeh said.

Lopez plans to remain at UCLA to continue teaching, doing research and practicing martial arts.

“UCLA has an amazing (martial arts) program, probably one of the best in the world,” Lopez said. “No matter what age you are, you have the opportunity to do whatever you want.”