Dean Gerhardt Schurig elected treasurer of national veterinary organization
Dr. Gerhardt Schurig, dean of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, has been elected treasurer of the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC), a Washington, D.C. based organization that represents academic veterinary medicine in North America.
As treasurer, Schurig will serve on the AAVMC Board of Directors and preside over the financial affairs of the organization.
“I’m honored to be elected and I’m looking forward to serving,” said Schurig. “The AAVMC is providing strong leadership for the profession during a very critical time in the history of the profession.”
The AAVMC seeks to improve the quality of life for people and animals by advancing veterinary medical education, improving animal health and welfare, strengthening biomedical research, promoting food safety and food security, and enhancing environmental quality.
The organization coordinates the affairs of all 28 United States veterinary medical colleges, four Canadian colleges of veterinary medicine, United States. departments of veterinary science and comparative medicine, animal medical centers, and three international veterinary schools. The association represents more than 4,000 faculty, 5,000 staff, 10,000 veterinary students, and 3,000 graduate students at these institutions.
The AAVMC has been actively working with the American Veterinary Medical Association to develop federal government support for the Veterinary Public Health Workforce Expansion Act of 2007, legislation that would provide $1.5 billion over ten years to build programs and infrastructure at United States colleges of veterinary medicine.
Schurig was appointed dean of the VMRCVM in June, 2004. Prior to his present position, Schurig served as associate dean for Research and Graduate Studies, as director of Virginia Tech’s new Institute for Biomedical and Public Health Sciences, and as a senior researcher and former director of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Infectious Diseases.
Schurig, a professor and veterinary immunologist in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology who joined the faculty in 1978, is internationally renowned for his work in developing vaccines against bovine brucellosis, a zoonotic disease that causes reproductive problems in cattle and undulant fever in humans.
Schurig earned his D.V.M. degree in 1970 from the University of Chile. After earning master’s degree and Ph.D. from Cornell University, Schurig spent two years working in the Department of Veterinary Science at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
The Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM) is a two-state, three-campus professional school operated by the land-grant universities of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and the University of Maryland at College Park. Its flagship facilities, based at Virginia Tech, include the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, which treats more than 40,000 animals annually. Other campuses include the Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center in Leesburg, Va., and the Avrum Gudelsky Veterinary Center at College Park, home of the Center for Government and Corporate Veterinary Medicine. The VMRCVM annually enrolls approximately 500 Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and graduate students, is a leading biomedical and clinical research center, and provides professional continuing education services for veterinarians practicing throughout the two states. Virginia Tech, the most comprehensive university in Virginia, is dedicated to quality, innovation, and results to the commonwealth, the nation, and the world.
