Calvin Schwabe Award
The Calvin W. Schwabe Award is presented annually by the AVEPM to honor lifetime achievement in veterinary epidemiology and preventive medicine.
Calvin W. Schwabe was a professor of epidemiology in the schools of veterinary medicine and medicine at the University of California, Davis. He was widely known as the father of veterinary epidemiology and established the first department and graduate program in epidemiology within the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. Dr. Schwabe made important scholarly contributions in a broad array of subjects including epidemiology, diseases of animals transmissible to people, interactions of veterinary and human medicine, parasitic zoonoses and their control, tropical health, public health practice, livestock health in pastoral societies, ancient origins of human and veterinary medicine and the philosophy of science. In the 1980’s, he coined the phrase “One Medicine” to unify human and veterinary efforts to reduce zoonotic diseases. Dr. Schwabe was the inaugural winner of the award named in his honor.
Award Recipients
2025 AVEPM Calvin Schwabe Award
Interface of epidemiology and the complex issue of companion animal welfare
– A Symposium honoring the lifetime professional achievements of Dr. Jan Scarlett –
Jan Scarlett, DVM, MPH, PhD
Cornell University
“Challenges to conducting epidemiologic research regarding companion animal welfare”
The 2025 Calvin W. Schwabe award was awarded to Jan Scarlett, Professor Emerita of Epidemiology, founder, and former Director of the Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program at Cornell University. In the mid 1990’s a consultation with animal welfare groups changed the direction of her career. That experience awakened her passion for companion animal welfare and married it to her epidemiologic and preventive medicine skills. With Dr. Lilia Miller (ASPCA), she offered the first didactic course in the country addressing the welfare and population health management of shelter animals. With funding from the National Council on Pet Population and Policy she helped design and conduct some of the first studies of factors leading to relinquishment of animals to shelters. That consultation led to a series of seminal epidemiologic studies that stimulated interest and opened the door to a growing literature regarding the welfare/medical care of shelter and other homeless animals (that continues to this day).
2025 Invited Symposium Speakers
Margaret Slater, DVM, PHD
ASPCA
“Illuminating the welfare implications of free-roaming unowned cats via epidemiological approaches”
Alexandra (Sasha) Protopopova, MS, PhD, CAAB
The University of British Columbia
“The use of mixed methods to explore the complex issue of companion animal relinquishment to and adoption from animal shelters”
Rachael Kreisler, VMD, MSCE, DACVPM (Epidemiology)
Midwestern University
“Epidemiological Insights: Classic Tools for Modern Animal Shelter and Community Animal Health Research”
Remaining relevant: Conceptual advances in research in veterinary populations
Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics…Back to the Future
From Science to Policy and On to Practice
Utilizing Big Data in Veterinary Medicine
Counteracting animal diseases at the global level
– A Symposium honoring the lifetime professional achievements of Dr. Ian Gardner –
Will D. Hueston, DVM, MS, PhD
Roger S. Morris
Yrjö T. Gröhn
Ian R. Dohoo
Dale D. Hancock
Dr. Preben W. Willeberg
Hollis N. Erb, DVM, MS, PhD
David W. Hird, DVM, MPVM, PhD
Clive C. Gay, DVM, MVSc, MACVSc
S. Wayne Martin, DVM, MSc, MPVM, PhD
James H. Steele, DVM, MPH
Robert K. Anderson, DVM, MPH