AVEPM 2009 Schwabe Symposium

The Calvin W. Schwabe Award is presented annually by the AVEPM to honor lifetime achievement in veterinary epidemiology and preventive medicine. The 2009 honoree is:

Hollis N. Erb, DVM, MS, PhD

On behalf of the Association for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine (AVEPM), I am pleased to announce that Dr. Hollis N. Erb, Professor of Epidemiology from Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, has been selected as the 2009 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, Clive C. Gay, and David W. Hird. This award will be presented on December 6, 2009 at the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CRWAD) at a special symposium featuring a keynote address delivered by Dr. Erb in addition to presentations from colleagues and protégés.

Dr. Hollis N. Erb biography: Dr. Hollis Erb is Professor of Epidemiology at the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine where she has been a member of the faculty since 1979. Throughout her career, she has been highly respected as a mentor and research collaborator, and for her passion in promoting epidemiology and methodologically sound research design. Dr. Erb earned her BS (1972) and her DVM (1974) from the University of California-Davis, where she was mentored by Calvin Schwabe and first met S. Wayne Martin, who would later become her graduate supervisor at the University of Guelph. Following graduation, she undertook an internship in large-animal medicine at the Ontario Veterinary College, followed by an MS in Preventive Medicine, and PhD in Epidemiology. Her graduate work examined Holstein dairy-cow epidemiology. After joining the faculty at Cornell University, she continued to study the epidemiology of health and production issues in dairy cattle, but she quickly became a key resource and collaborator for graduate students, clinicians and diagnosticians in many other diverse areas. At the time of this award, she has been an author on more than 320 refereed papers in addition to contributions to equally numerous abstracts and proceedings papers. As evidence of the tremendous diversity of her professional efforts, her papers have described research in common pets and livestock, in addition to ducks, sandhill cranes, woodchucks, silver foxes, owl monkeys, white-tailed deer, and Asian elephants. Dr. Erb has been the thesis supervisor for 5 MS and 5 PhD students, and has served on the graduate committees of 46 students. She has also influenced many more students through teaching epidemiology, study design, and applied biostatistics to veterinary students, graduate students, or interns and residents in the classroom or computer laboratory. She served as Section Chief for Epidemiology in the Department of Population Medicine & Diagnostic Sciences for 9 years.

Dr. Erb is perhaps best known as the influential Editor-in-Chief of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, a role in which she prominently served for two decades (1988 through 2008). She still serves as the journal’s Senior Associate Editor. Hollis served as president of the Association of Teachers of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and Public Health (later renamed the Association of Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine). She also served on the International Management Committee of the International Society for Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics (ISVEE) and on the Scientific Advisory Committee for ISVEE 9 (Breckenridge). She has served on grant-review panels for the USDA, taught in the USDA’s Area Epidemiology Officer Training Program, and served on the Panel on Animal Health for the Board on Agriculture of the National Research Council.