By Scout Nelson
The Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases, or CEEZAD, has organized a symposium to celebrate the retirement of esteemed researcher Luis Rodriguez. This special event will take place at 9 a.m. on Thursday, June 20, at the Boehringer Ingelheim Auditorium within the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Luis Rodriguez has dedicated over 30 years to studying vesicular stomatitis virus, a significant insect-borne virus impacting both livestock and humans. His extensive research has primarily focused on understanding how foot-and-mouth disease viruses affect domestic animals like swine and cattle.
Throughout his career, Rodriguez has held crucial roles, including research leader in the Foreign Animal Disease Research Unit and Senior Leadership Group Agency Representative at the Plum Island Animal Disease Center of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service.
The symposium, led by Juergen Richt, a distinguished professor and director of CEEZAD/CEZID, will feature an array of guest speakers.
These include Alfonso Clavijo, director of USDA's National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility; Heinz Feldmann, who leads NIH/NIAID’s Laboratory of Virology and Disease Modeling and Transmission; Koos Coetzer, emeritus professor at the University of Pretoria; Barbara Wieland, director at the Institute of Virology and Immunology of Switzerland; and Mahesh Kumar, senior vice president of global biologics R&D at Zoetis, Inc.
This event promises to be a fitting tribute to Rodriguez’s remarkable career and his enduring impact on the field of veterinary science.
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Categories: Kansas, General