Athens, Ga. – The Merial-NIH National Veterinary Scholars Symposium returns to the University of Georgia campus on Aug. 5-8, where it is being hosted by the College of Veterinary Medicine.
An estimated 350 students and scholars from across the U.S. are expected to attend as well as speakers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Division of Comparable Medicine, the Georgia Aquarium and Washington State University. The attendees will share research and ideas on the topic of “Beyond One Health,” and veterinary students will have the opportunity to network with and learn from scientists who are on the cutting edge of their research fields.
This year, for the first time, the conference also will welcome European veterinary scholars from international summer programs supported by Merial. A veterinary career development course organized by the Burroughs Welcome Fund also will run concurrently with the symposium for the second year in a row.
“This year’s symposium has chosen the theme ‘Beyond One Health’ to discuss how research in veterinary medicine is currently addressing global health,” said Dr. Harry W. Dickerson, the college’s associate dean for research and graduate affairs. “We expect this event will further strengthen the reputation of these national symposia as the premier national meetings for veterinary research and research training.”
The keynote speaker is Dr. James Fox, who is director of the DCM at MIT. Fox has authored more than 490 articles, 80 chapters, obtained three patents on his work and has edited and authored 13 texts in the field of in vivo model development and comparative medicine. Fox’s speech is part of the George H. Boyd Distinguished Lecture series, sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research with funding from the William S. and Elizabeth K. Boyd Foundation.
Other symposium speakers are Dr. Guy Palmer, holder of the Creighton Chair and director of the School for Global Animal Health at WSU, who will speak on “Globalization,” and Dr. Gregory Bossart, senior vice president of veterinary services and the chief veterinary officer for the Georgia Aquarium.
Registration for the event is open, and the link can be accessed from the symposium homepage www.veterinaryscholar.org/symposium2010.php. Early registration closes on July 9; the abstract submission deadline is July 14. Late registration will be conducted onsite on Aug. 5. For more information and responses to questions, contact gvspcvm@uga.edu.
This year’s Merial-NIH Veterinary Scholars National Symposium could not have been achieved without the help of generous sponsors including Merial, The National Institutes of Health, the Burroughs Welcome Fund, the American Veterinary Medical Association, and the American Veterinary Medical Foundation.
This will mark the third time the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine has hosted the symposium.
The UGA College of Veterinary Medicine, founded in 1946, is dedicated to training future veterinarians, to conducting research related to animal diseases, and to providing veterinary services for animals and their owners. Research efforts are aimed at enhancing the quality of life for animals and people, improving the productivity of poultry and livestock, and preserving a healthy interface between wildlife and people in the environment they share. The college enrolls 102 students each fall out of more than 550 who apply. For more information, see http://www.vet.uga.edu/.
