It is a particular honor to prepare this tribute to Martin Kaplan at the commencement of the important Conference on Veterinary Public Health in a Global Economy and in celebration of the opening of the new Hill Pavilion at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.

Martin Kaplan was born in Philadelphia, PA, on June 23, 1915 and died on October 16, 2004 in Geneva, Switzerland,aged 89 years. He received his professional education at Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, graduating in 1940.

After a brief period in private practice in Philadelphia,he joined the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), and on VE day 1945, sailed to Greece escorting six prize bulls donated by the Brethren Society of Pennsylvania for the purpose of re-stocking the decimated cattle population of Greece. He then joined the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome where he performed similar work in various countries.

Martin Kaplan was a friend of Albert Einstein and on his return home was, at Einstein's behest, induced to take the Deanship of the veterinary school of what is now Brandeis University. However, through no fault of Martin's, the project fell through and Einstein withdrew his support. Nevertheless, Einstein had a strong influence on Martin Kaplan,encouraging him to take a stand against injustice, and to reach across national barriers in search of peaceful solutions to the world's conflicts. This led him to join the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs later in his career.

In 1947 Martin Kaplan rejoined FAO and while bound for an assignment in China was asked to stop in Poland to organize a symposium. During the next few months the Chinese revolution moved towards its final stages and he was forced to cancel his China plans. In 1949 he joined the then evolving World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, to form a Veterinary Division. The following years were the most formative in Kaplan's veterinary career and were important to world veterinary public health. He created a most effective Veterinary Division in WHO, recruiting distinguished veterinary scientists from around the world. He also pioneered investigations on influenza in birds, and with Dr. Hilary Koprowski at the Wistar Institute, on a successful vaccine for rabies.

Kaplan'saccomplishments in the Veterinary Division of WHO led him to become Director of Science and Technology in the Office of the Director General of WHO. He believed strongly that human health and animal health are closely associated and neither can prosper effectively without the other, especially in the developing world. His essay in 1971 on Science and Social Values is as valid today as it was then, to quote,

"and yet we are faced with war,poverty,increasing disorder and social alienation,distorted priorities,declining freedoms and individual powerlessness. These are products not of man's inherent evil but of the inexorable grinding of the national machines with their imperatives of growth, profit and glory."

In 1958 Kaplan joined the Pugwash Movement on Science and World Affairs, a movement dedicated to bringing together scientists of the world in the interests of peace and in particular the control of weapons of mass destruction. In 1976 he retired from WHO and became Secretary General of the Pugwash Conferences and devoted the next dozen years to its cause, leading in 1997 to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for the organization and its founder, Sir Joseph Rotblat.

Martin Kaplan through his work in science, at the WHO in veterinary medicine and public health,and finally in the Pugwash Movement was a man of giant intellect and global influence. Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine is proud of its alumnus and strives to perpetuate the outstanding work and ideals for which he stood.