[September 13, 2011; Philadelphia, PA] –Joan C. Hendricks, VMD, PhD, the Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet), announced that Dr. Ilaria Capua has been named the winner of the 2011 Penn Vet World Leadership in Animal Health Award and that Penn Vet student Dr. Jonathan Lustgarten has been named the 2011 Student Inspiration Award winner.
Both Dr. Capua and Dr. Lustgarten will receive a $100,000 unrestricted grant to use toward realizing their veterinary missions and proposed projects.
“These awards are among the most prestigious and coveted in the world of veterinary medicine,” said Dean Hendricks. “I am always humbled and impressed by the innovative researchers, thinkers and student and professional leaders in the field that are named recipients. Dr. Capua and Dr. Lustgarten are no exception and I congratulate each of them for this distinct honor.”
The presentation of these awards is slated to take place at 4:00 PM on Wednesday, September 14 at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Pennsylvania campus. During the ceremony, Drs. Capua and Lustgarten will present on their work.
About Dr. Ilaria Capua
Dr. Ilaria Capua is Director of the Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences at the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Legnaro, Italy and of the National, FAO and OIE Reference 
Laboratory for avian influenza and Newcastle disease, and the OIE Collaborating Centre for Diseases at the Human-Animal Interface. Her group of over 70 staff provides diagnostic expertise globally and conducts cutting-edge research on influenza viruses and viral zoonoses. From 2005 to 2009 she was Chairman of OFFLU, the OIE/FAO network on animal influenza, and in 2006 she ignited the international debate to share influenza virus sequences globally and across disciplines.
She has extensive experience in coordinating international research projects funded by the European Commission and has also worked closely with FAO managing Technical Cooperation Projects covering 40 countries. She is a member of WHO’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Group on Influenza, and a Stream Leader for WHO’s Global Research Agenda on Influenza.
In 2007 she was among the winners of the Scientific American 50 award and in 2008 was included among Seed Magazine’s Revolutionary Minds for her leadership in science policy. The journal Science has featured her in a profile.
Dr. Capua earned her degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Perugia, Italy and pursued a post-graduate diploma in animal health and hygiene of animal breeding and production at the University of Pisa. Her PhD was earned from the University of Padova.
About Dr. Jonathan L. Lustgarten
Dr. Jonathan L. Lustgarten is a third-year veterinary student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Prior to beginning Penn Vet in 2009, Dr. Lustgarten earned both a master’s in 
Bioinformatics (2007) and a PhD (2009) in Biomedical Informatics from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
He was first exposed to bioinformatics and electronic medical systems for both veterinary and human medicine during his undergraduate career at Carnegie Mellon University. His interest intensified after taking advanced computing courses and an externship at the Bergen Animal Hospital in Teaneck, New Jersey where he worked with Dr. Harriet Lederman, a Penn Vet graduate. It was then that Dr. Lustgarten realized the possibilities of integrating advanced computing into veterinary medicine.
Originally from Demarest, New Jersey, Dr. Lustgarten envisions creating a state-of-the-art, easily deployed, electronic veterinary health record system to help veterinarians and staff in caring for animals during disaster relief efforts. This system, the Rehabilitation and Emergency COmputerized VEterinary Records, or RECOVER, will be a complete system that will assist veterinarians and staff compile accurate information about animals rescued, provide efficient and easy ways of communication between people and rescue centers, allow for continuity of care as staff rotate through the centers, and allow for easy tracking of animals throughout the process of rescue and recovery.
About the Awards
The awards program has been established with a gift from the Vernon and Shirley Hill Foundation. Alan M. Kelly, BVSc, MRCVS, PhD, Dean Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, serves as the chair for the awards committee.
The World Leadership in Animal Health Award is presented to a veterinarian who has dramatically changed the practice and image of the profession and substantially influenced the lives and careers of others. Nominations for this award are open to all veterinarians worldwide.
The Penn Vet Student Inspiration Awards are presented to currently enrolled Penn Vet students who demonstrate the potential to significantly advance the frontiers of veterinary medicine. Penn Vet graduates earn the unique and prestigious Veterinariae Medicinae Doctoris (VMD) degree, which recognizes the School’s roots in Penn’s School of Medicine.
These awards encourage students to invent their futures in veterinary medicine and provide opportunities far beyond those at any other veterinary school in the world. The Penn Vet Student Inspiration Awards recognize students’ potential to advance the frontiers of veterinary medicine and expand the profession’s impact on the well being of animals and society.