AAVMC announces research excellence award winner

Dr. Jürgen A. Richt (Photo courtesy of the AAVMC)

The Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) has named Jürgen A. Richt, DVM, PhD, as the recipient of the 2021 Excellence in Research Award. Established in 2010, this annual award recognizes outstanding research and scholarly achievements in veterinary medicine.

This year, the award will be presented during the AAVMC’s 2021 Annual Conference and Iverson Bell Symposium, which will be held virtually March 3-5, 2021.

“The AAVMC’s annual series of professional awards recognize outstanding veterinary medical educators who excel in various areas of academic veterinary medicine,” says AAVMC Chief Executive Officer Andrew T. Maccabe, DVM, in an association release about the announcement.

“Their dedication, achievements, and contributions serve as a model of excellence for their colleagues and inspire new generations of veterinarians.”

Richt is board certified in veterinary immunology and serology and microbiology. His extensive research efforts have led to strategies to identify, control and/or eradicate pathogens with a significant impact on veterinary medicine, human health, and food security.

Richt is also the Regents and University Distinguished Professor at the Kansas State University of Veterinary Medicine (KSU-CVM) and director of both the Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases and the National Institutes of Health COBRE Center on Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. Currently, he is focused on establishing preclinical animal models for SARS-CoV-2 to help evaluate the efficacy of vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19.

“[His] ability to rapidly mobilize collaborative research teams has been clearly demonstrated and translated into critical discovery during the COVID-19 pandemic,” says KSU-CVM Dean Bonnie Rush and Professor Derek Mosier, who co-wrote Richt’s nomination letter. “We can think of no other single investigator who has had as significant an impact on veterinary comparative virology as Dr. Richt.”