Abstract
Wanda M. Haschek-Hock
Achievement Award
Dr. Haschek-Hock has been a tireless advocate for the specialty and is well known by her students and colleagues for her willingness to identify possibilities and opportunities for others to pursue. The students she has mentored are numerous, and she stays in touch with many of them. Many of her students are now carrying the torch for toxicologic pathology in North America and overseas.
During her membership with the Society, Dr. Haschek-Hock was a councilor on the Executive Committee from 1992 to 1996, acting as chair from 1994 to 1995. She continued her efforts in maintaining and growing the Society while serving as secretary/ treasurer from 2002 to 2005. Dr. Haschek-Hock is currently an associate editor of Toxicologic Pathology and a member of the Board of Governors of the ACVP/STP Coalition.
In addition to her activities within the Society, Haschek-Hock has been actively involved in other learned societies. Her past accomplishments and roles include associate editor for Toxicological Sciences (1995 to 1999); editorial board for Fundamental and Applied Toxicology (1984 to 1990); president, SOT Comparative and Veterinary Specialty Section; FDA Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee (1997 to 2002); and Board of Directors for the American Board of Toxicology (ABT) and the Charles Louis Davis, DVM Foundation. In addition, she has served on the Council of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists.
Dr. Haschek-Hock received her Bachelor of Veterinary Science with honors (BVSc [hons]) from the University of Sydney, Australia, and her PhD in veterinary pathology from Cornell University. She is also a diplomat of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists and a diplomat of the American Board of Toxicology, and she is certified in business administration.
Following receipt of her PhD, Dr. Haschek-Hock took the position of postdoctoral fellow in the Pathology Department at the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine before moving to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. While undertaking a hectic research program, she was promoted to group leader of Systemic Toxicology, Toxicology Section, in the Biology Division. Next, Dr. Haschek-Hock was selected as associate professor for the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, Urbana, where she rapidly became tenured and was promoted to professor.
Dr. Haschek-Hock served as Head of the Department of Pathobiology from 1994 to 2001. Her colleagues recognized her expertise as a veterinary pathologist and an active researcher when she was selected as acting director of the Laboratory of Veterinary Diagnostic Medicine from 1995 to 1996. During her tenure as head of the Department of Pathobiology, she also took on the arduous task of interim associate dean for research and assistant director, Agriculture Experimental Station at the University of Illinois.
Dr. Haschek-Hock has authored more than 100 scientific publications and many more invited presentations, abstracts, and posters. Her research has garnered her an international reputation as a toxicologic pathologist. She is the senior editor of the Handbook of Toxicologic Pathology, 1991, 2002, and Fundamentals of Toxicologic Pathology, 1998 (under revision—Elsevier, 2008). Dr. Haschek-Hock has taught numerous courses in veterinary and toxicologic pathology to grateful undergraduate and graduate veterinarians and scientists.
Many members of the Society will affirm that the transformation from a board-certified veterinary pathologist to a toxicologic pathologist takes further education and training; many have taken this course in their initial year as toxicologic pathologists. Dr. Haschek-Hock’s entrepreneurial spirit saw the need for filling this gap, and she created the short course Industrial Toxicology and Pathology, presented six times since 1993, which was given again in Urbana during July 2007.
Not only has Dr. Haschek-Hock been an outstanding advocate for education and training in toxicologic pathology, she has been an outstanding researcher in the field. She has participated in seminal research that has delineated, clarified, or defined toxicities compounds such as T-2 mycotoxin, fumonisin B1, microcystin-LR, and acetaminophen.
Dr. Haschek-Hock is the third recipient of the STP Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to the field of toxicologic pathology.