2007 ACVM Distinguished Veterinary Microbiologist - Dr. Gordon Robert Carter
Dr. Gordon R. Carter was born in Manitoba, Canada and received his early education in the Guelph, Ontario area. He obtained his DVM in 1943 from the Ontario Veterinary College, his MSc from Iowa State University in 1950 and his DVSc from the University of Toronto in 1956. Dr. Carter’s field has been the microbiology of infectious diseases of animals with special emphases on the laboratory diagnosis of these conditions as well as a lifetime of work with the Genus Pasteurella.
Dr. Carter’s professional experiences have been in a number of institutions and countries. He was employed at Connaught Medical Laboratories, Toronto, Government of Jamaica, Animal Diseases Research Institute, Ottawa during his early career. As a graduate student at Ames, Iowa he taught veterinary students and this experience lead him to academic institutions. For a ten year period he was a faculty member at the Ontario Veterinary College primarily in research. A shorter period followed at the University of Georgia where he gained experience in diagnostic microbiology and wrote the first edition of his book on this subject. As a professor at Michigan State University for 15 years he was active in teaching, research and the supervision of the clinical microbiology laboratory. While there, he supervised 30 graduate students and received the Distinguished Faculty Award in 1976. In 1981, he moved to the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. In 1986 he retired as Professor Emeritus. He continued writing and revising books, some published in Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Persian. With associates he has recently contributed 3 books for online publication with the International Veterinary Information Service.
The extent of his research is indicated by more than 100 articles published in refereed journals. He contributed reviews and articles on pasteurellosis in many venues, including Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology. The 1st edition of his “Diagnostic Procedures in Veterinary Bacteriology and Mycology” published in 1967 has been followed by 4 further editions. His popular “Essentials” book has gone through six editions.
His international activities have included a year in Burma under the Canadian Colombo Plan, a year with FAO as advisor on animal health problems in Thailand, Cambodia, Burma and Vietnam. He was a participant in UNESCO training courses on Diagnostic Veterinary Microbiology in Sri Lanka and Tanzania.
Dr. Carter has been a consultant on pasteurellosis and infectious diseases in Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico and Africa. He is an emeritus and past member of 6 professional organizations, making contributions at conferences and annual meeting. In 1997 the CRWAD meeting was dedicated in his honor.
The distinguished career during the last 60 years makes Dr. Carter worthy of recognition by his peers.