Abstract
The E. P. Pope Memorial Award is presented in memory of Dr. Edward P. Pope who was one of the founders of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (AAVLD) and who served with distinction as its Secretary-Treasurer from 1959 to 1972. The award was established in his honor in 1974. The Pope Award is the highest award given by the Association and is presented to an individual who has made noteworthy and significant contributions to the Association in regard to implementing and advancing the recognition of the specialty of veterinary diagnostic laboratory medicine. The 2022 E. P. Pope Memorial Award was presented to Dr. François Elvinger during the 66th Annual Meeting of the AAVLD.
François Elvinger, Dr.med.vet., PhD, diplomate ACVPM, ECVPH, AVES (Hon.), Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, currently serves as the Executive Director of the Animal Health Diagnostic Center & New York State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, and Associate Dean of Diagnostic Operations and Government Relations of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
A native of Luxembourg, in Western Europe, Dr. Elvinger earned his veterinary degree and title of Dr.med.vet. at the Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover in Germany, worked as a research and teaching associate in the school’s Institute for Milk Hygiene and Technology and a veterinarian in mixed, mostly food animal practice in Luxembourg, and then embarked across the Atlantic to earn a PhD in dairy science at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL. He held his first faculty position as a veterinary epidemiologist at the Tifton Veterinary Diagnostic and Investigational Laboratory of the University of Georgia where he became board certified in Veterinary Preventive Medicine. Following promotion to Associate Professor, Dr. Elvinger took a faculty position in the Large Animal Clinical Sciences Department at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, where he was promoted to Professor and became founding Head of the Department of Population Health Sciences and founding Director of the Virginia Tech Public Health Program, before moving to his current positions at Cornell University.
Dr. Elvinger has dedicated his career to the enhancement of animal and public health through veterinary diagnostics and surveillance, working on the methodology of test validation and on characterization and enhancement of surveillance strategies, as well as scientific study design in infectious disease projects. He has contributed 60+ peer-reviewed publications either as first or co-author based on 30+ very collaborative research grants as PI or co-PI. Throughout his career he worked intensively within AAVLD, USAHA, and in cooperation with APHIS Veterinary Services. After joining the AAVLD and the USAHA in 1991, he chaired his first AAVLD committee in 1994, the Committee on Animal Disease Reporting, which produced the DxMonitor, an early veterinary diagnostic laboratory–based animal health and disease quarterly report. He has held numerous leadership positions as chair, founding chair, and co-chair of committees of both organizations ever since, including co-founder of the AAVLD Epidemiology Committee and of one of the two earliest AAVLD and USAHA Joint Committees, on Animal Disease Surveillance and Animal Health Information, now Animal Health Surveillance and Information Systems, which he both co-chaired for more than 10 y, with his colleagues, mentors, and close friends Drs. Bruce Akey, Mo Salman, and Mark Thurmond. He has co-chaired the Steering Committee on the National Animal Health Reporting System (NAHRS; 1998–2011) and has chaired the Steering Committee of the National Animal Health Surveillance System (NAHSS; 2004–2012), both joint projects of AAVLD, USAHA, and USDA:APHIS:VS and CEAH. His work on launching NAHRSS and NAHSS earned him the APHIS Administrator’s Award in 2007 at the annual meeting in Reno, NV. Dr. Elvinger held the AAVLD Presidency with its many pre- and post-presidency chair commitments in 2015. He now serves as a member of the Coordinating Council of the National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN), and he co-chairs the Joint Committee on the NAHLN, as well as the AAVLD Foundation Committee.
Dr. Elvinger currently and truly enjoys every day at work at Cornell’s Animal Health Diagnostic Center, where he works with more than two hundred talented and fabulously dedicated diagnostic faculty, managers, and technical and administrative staff who work up more than a quarter million accessions annually, having the privilege to work with State and federal veterinarians, referring veterinarians, food animal producers, and all animal health stakeholders to maintain and improve the health of animals entrusted to our care in New York State, the United States and beyond.
At home, with his wife Dawn, he tries to keep track of the whereabouts across the world of their three wonderful children, Maghan, in fashion technology innovation, Kristin, in population health and diagnostics finance, and Nicholas, in construction management. Luxembourg is still on his mind – hoping now to restart his annual trip across the Atlantic, usually shortly after the AAVLD & USAHA annual meeting.
A word from Dr. Elvinger
Veterinary laboratory diagnostics is a work of science, quality, dedication, engagement, and in particular, collaboration. Collaboration across diagnostic disciplines, collaboration and coordination with State and federal partners and referring veterinarians in the field, and responsiveness to all animal health stakeholders are essential for maximizing the effects and benefits of the most progressive and productive veterinary diagnostic laboratories in the world, all represented here in the AAVLD.
It is a privilege to have the opportunity to thank the veterinary laboratory diagnostic community for this huge honor, an honor that I would like to reflect on my dear colleagues, mentors, and friends, Drs. Mark Thurmond, Mo Salman, and Alfonso Torres, and in particular Dr. Bruce Akey, who have guided and supported me throughout my 30+ y of membership, participation, and leadership in the AAVLD. I want to recognize friends and past and present USDA colleagues and partners Drs. Valerie Ragan, Brian McCluskey, Beth Lautner, and Christie Loiacono, present (Dr. Joy Bennett of New York) and past State veterinarians and their staff, fellow diagnosticians and lab directors across the country, and the many I had the pleasure and privilege to work with and for. And I want to share this honor with the many fabulous diagnosticians and technical and administrative staff at the Cornell University Animal Health Diagnostic Center & New York State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. Their dedication, expertise, and quality work make coming to the lab every day a pleasure and a privilege. Thank you. My final thank you goes to my wife Dawn, for her support, and for being a good sport in letting me be at our annual meetings for more than half of our 36 October wedding anniversaries.
I call on all, in particular my younger colleagues, for their continued engagement in our AAVLD and its sister organization, the U.S. Animal Health Association, to maintain and expand the strength and leadership of both organizations for the benefit of animal health and welfare, and food production for the world.
I am truly honored to have received the E. P. Pope Memorial Award.