On February 1, 2024, Gustavo D. Aguirre, VMD, PhD, and William A. Beltran, DVM, PhD, were inducted as members of the Académie Vétérinaire de France (AVF). The AVF provides guidance on scientific, technical, legal, historical, and ethical fields in which the skills of the veterinarian are employed, in particular those relating to animals, their diseases, their relations with humans and the environment, animal production, and veterinary public health. The AVF contributes to the dissemination of scientific progress and the improvement of techniques relating to veterinary activities.
Igor Brodsky, PhD, was elected a
Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Fellows are elected annually through a highly selective, peer-review process based on their records of scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology. The Academy received 156 nominations for fellowship this year.
Rebecka S. Hess, DVM, MSCE, was named an Honorary Member of the European Society of Veterinary Endocrinology (ESVE). This award recognizes individuals who have made exceptional contributions to veterinary endocrinology throughout their lifetimes.
Dr. Louise Moncla Receives Two Scialog Collaborative Innovation Awards
Louise H. Moncla, PhD, is the recipient of two 2023 Scialog Collaborative Innovation Awards through a joint awards program from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The awards program brings together cross-disciplinary “mitigating zoonotic threats research teams” to address diagnostic and public health components associated with emerging animal-borne infectious diseases.

Drs. Nicola Mason and Antonia Rotolo Have An Accomplishment Worth Repeating
The news of Nicola Mason, BVetMed, PhD, and Antonia Rotolo, MD, PhD, receiving the 2023 Sebastian Strong Discovery Science Award was first reported in the summer 2023 issue of the newsletter, but sometimes circumstances require revisiting an accomplishment. What are those circumstances? A photo with a giant check! Most of us never know the excitement of being presented with an oversized promissory note, but Drs. Mason and Rotolo, along with their collaborators, can now tell us what it’s like. Congratulations on the award and on joining the rarefied group of entertainingly oversized check recipients!
Dr. Julie Engiles Receives Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching

Julie B. Engiles, VMD, DACVP, is a 2024 recipient of the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching. The Lindback Award is given in recognition of distinguished teaching, which is defined as teaching that is intellectually demanding, unusually coherent, and permanent in its effect. The distinguished teacher has the capability of changing the way in which students view the subject they are studying. The distinguished teacher is accessible to students and open to new ideas but also expresses their own views with an articulate and informed understanding of an academic field. The distinguished teacher is fair, free from prejudice, and single-minded in the pursuit of truth.
Dr. Ellen Puré Profiled by the Cancer Research Institute for Women’s History Month

In honor of Women’s History Month, the Cancer Research Institute published a profile of Dr. Ellen Puré highlighting “Women Driving Scientific Breakthroughs.”
Left to right: Ana Castejón-González, Stephen Cole, Elizabeth Lennon, Alexandra Crooks, Erin Gibson, Jennifer Lenz, and Lauren Powell
CSAM Announces 2024 CARF Awardees
The Companion Animal Research Fund (CARF), an internal funding program that is administered by Penn Vet’s Department of Clinical Sciences & Advanced Medicine (CSAM), is intended to support new and early-career investigators and to assist established investigators with shifts of research focus. CARF supports clinical, pre-clinical, or pedagogical studies in canine and feline medicine. Preliminary, exploratory, pilot, or hypothesis-generating studies that have the potential to serve as a foundation for future extramural funding are prioritized.
Congratulations to the 2024 CARF awardees:
Ana C. Castejón-González, DVM, PhD, DACVD: Caudal mandibular fracture in cats: Development of a location-specific absorbable plate.
Stephen D. Cole, MS, VMD and Elizabeth M. Lennon, DVM, PhD: Fecal microbiota transfer to eradicate gastrointestinal colonization of carbapenem-resistant enterobacterales in dogs.
Alexandra V. Crooks, VMD: Utility of novel biomarker galectin-3 and cardiac MRI in evaluation of Boxers with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy.
Erin Gibson, DVM: Feasibility and perioperative outcomes regarding ultra-low dose indocyanine green for indirect cholangiography during laparoscopic cholecystectomy in dogs.
Jennifer Lenz, DVM: Pilot study of frunevetmab (Solensia) for palliative therapy of feline bone-invasive oral tumors.
Lauren R. Powell, PhD: An exploratory study of the social determinants of canine behavior.
Estefanía Benavides Accepted into MAF Veterinary Student Scholar Program
Estefanía Benavides, V’25, a dual-degree student who is also pursuing a Master of Science in Translational Research in the Perelman School of Medicine, was accepted into the Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) Veterinary Student Scholar Program (VSSP). The MAF VSSP provides veterinary students in good standing with a stipend of up to $5,500 to pursue a research project under the guidance of a mentor. Estefanía is being mentored by Molly Church, VMD, PhD, and Jorge I. Alvarez, PhD.
Bellwether Celebrates an Historic Milestone
This year, the spectacular 100th issue of Bellwether was published with John Donges, Penn Vet’s associate director of marketing, as guest editor. John has been lovingly highlighting Penn Vet’s research achievements and profiling its faculty in Bellwether for more than 20 years. If you haven’t seen the 100th issue, you are missing out on the fun “seek and find” of veterinary iconography in the cover illustration (pro tip: the answers are on page 56), as well as the four-page foldout of 100 quirky factoids (one from each issue). You can learn more about John and the 100th issue of Bellwether in Penn Today’s “Who, What, Why” column.