AVEPM 2008 Schwabe Symposium

The Calvin W. Schwabe Award is presented annually by the AVEPM to honor lifetime achievement in veterinary epidemiology and preventive medicine. The 2008 honoree is:

David W. Hird, DVM, MPVM, PhD

On behalf of the Association for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (AVEPM), I am pleased to announce that Dr. David W. Hird, Professor Emeritus from the University of California at Davis, has been selected as the 2008 recipient of the Calvin W. Schwabe Award for Lifetime Achievement in Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine.   This award is presented annually by the AVEPM, and previous recipients include Drs. Calvin W. Schwabe, Robert K. Anderson, James H. Steele, S. Wayne Martin, and Clive C. Gay. This award will be presented on December 7, 2008 at the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD) at a special symposium featuring a keynote address delivered by Dr. Hird in addition to presentations from colleagues and protégés.

Dr. David W. Hird biography: Dr. David Hird is Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Davis having served on that faculty for 28 years (1980-2008). Throughout his distinguished career he has been widely regarded as a preeminent educator and leader in the fields of veterinary epidemiology and preventive medicine. Dr. Hird earned his baccalaureate degree from Stanford University and his DVM from the University of California, Davis. His interest in international work and global veterinary medicine began early in his career. He spent the first 4 years as a veterinarian working overseas at the University of Chile as a large animal ambulatory clinician, with the United Nations (FAO) in Venezuela working with beef cattle, and in Australia working as a companion animal and dairy veterinarian. Dr. Hird returned to the UC Davis, where he completed the Master of Preventive Veterinary Medicine (MPVM) degree. He then expanded his career experiences working as the County Veterinarian in Imperial County, California, where much of the work involved public health issues of the California-Mexico border, such as rabies and tuberculosis. He also directed the animal control program and instituted a feedlot health monitoring program. Dr. Hird continued his training at the University Minnesota where he completed his PhD in veterinary microbiology and epidemiology in 1980 under the guidance of Dr. Ashley Robinson. He joined the faculty of the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis in 1980 where he worked until his retirement in 2008. His areas of emphasis while working at Davis included quantitative epidemiology, livestock health and productivity, animal health surveillance, and education in epidemiology and international veterinary medicine. Dr. Hird is an author on more than 150 manuscripts in peer-reviewed publications and conference proceedings. He is a Diplomate in the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and a Fellow in the American College of Epidemiology. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, and has served as a consultant to the USDA and in several South American countries on disease surveillance and control programs for livestock. Dr. Hird is the recipient of several teaching awards from both students and faculty at UC Davis, and was also a principal organizer for the Tenth Symposium of the International Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics (ISVEE) in Viña del Mar, Chile. Dr. Hird may be best known as a consummate teacher and leader in education related to veterinary epidemiology, public health, and one medicine. He is internationally known for his leadership in of several programs at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. These include his work as the founding Director of the Office of International Programs, Director of the MPVM Program, and Chair of the UC Davis Graduate Group in Epidemiology.