Visiting Academics

Professor Wes Johnson - University of California

Professor Wes Johnson, from the University of California, is one of the world’s top Bayesian statisticians. He visited the Camden campus in December and February, August 2006 to work with the Farm Animal & Veterinary Public Health group developing Bayesian models for estimating animal level prevalence from pooled faecal culture (PFC) results, a technique currently used in Australia for diagnosis of ovine Johne’s disease (OJD). Professor Johnson also conducted a seminar where recent advances in nonparametric approaches to survival data were discussed, in particular, a model that allows survival curves to cross, possibly due to a toxic treatment effect resulting in early deaths but which is ultimately effective as a treatment and used as illustration a cancer clinical trial.

Associate Professor Todd Duffield

Associate Professor Duffield is from the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. During his visit he was working with Adjunct Professor Ian Lean and had financial support from Elanco, US.

Todd has established an international reputation as a dairy researcher and veterinary scientist. His work on periparturient metabolic disease, subclinical ketosis and negative energy balance has resulted in several landmark publications, which have changed our understanding of these problems. Todd is one of the few individuals who have been able to harmonize the boundaries of pure nutrition and nutritional management for animal health.

Professor Ian McConnell - Cambridge University

Professor Ian McConnell is Professor of Veterinary Science and Director of Research at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, England. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE), Founder Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and Professorial Fellow at Darwin College Cambridge. He was the Miengunyah Distinguished Fellow at the University of Melbourne in 2006.

Professor McConnell visited the Faculty to give his personal perspective of “one medicine” and the value of naturally occurring animal diseases as real problems offering unique insights into disease processes. He presented a lecture that was illustrated with discoveries from some of his research on the ruminant lentiviruses as studied in sheep, a valuable model for AIDS and retroviral pathogenesis, scrapie a relevant model for vCJD and other examples of animal diseases of comparative significance.

Associate Professor Jorgen Agerholm - Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Copenhagen, Denmark

Veterinary pathologist, Associate Professor Jorgen Agerholm, from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen, Denmark recently completed a two month sabbatical at the Camden campus of The University of Sydney with Associate Professor Peter Windsor. Dr Agerholm has published extensively on inherited diseases, mostly working with Holstein-Fresians and Danish Red dairy cattle.

Danish and Australian scientists are collaborating to help reduce silent international transmission of diseases, particularly in dairy cattle. Associate Professor Agerholm brought with him glass slides and images of many inherited diseases and congenital abnormalities of livestock. He regularly visited the NSW Department of Primary Industries’ Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute, also at Camden, to compare cases in the Australian registry of veterinary pathology.

It was suggested that some of the diseases seen in cattle in Denmark may already exist undetected in Australia and vice versa. One disease in Denmark, not yet seen in Australia but that could occur as it is attributable to common sires, is complex vertebral malformation or CVM.

Associate Professor Windsor and Dr Agerholm share an interest in inherited diseases causing congenital abnormalities. Their analysis has considered a common factor - the use of the same elite sires for artificial breeding in many countries. The collaboration has also linked the University of Sydney registry to the national pathology registry at EMAI.

Dr ChuanQing Wang - Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou, China

Dr ChuanQing WANG is Professor of Infectious Diseases and Head of the Department of Veterinary Science Agricultural University, Zhengzhou. His research interests are in the rapid diagnosis and prevention of animal infectious diseases and recently has had projects in immunology and virology in pigs and poultry. He gained his BSc in Animal Medicine Science in 1982 from Henan Agricultural University and his PhD in 1998 from Nanjing Agricultural University.

Dr Wang's visit is funded by the Chinese Government and he will join the Farm Animal Health group at Camden in 2006 to work in aquatic animal virology. This is a field of growing importance internationally and Dr Wang will assist in an ARC Linkage project that aims to control nodavirus infection in barramundi aquaculture.

Professor Ian Gardner - University of California, Davis

Professor Ian Gardner, Professor of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine and Epidemiology, University of California, Davis, received a prestigious New South Wales Residency Expatriate Scientists Awards and visited the Faculty of Veterinary Science for three months in 2004.

This program is a joint initiative of three partners: the University of Sydney, CSIRO and the NSW Department of Education and Training. The selection process was based on the academic quality, the relevance and potential benefit of the applicant's collaborative research proposal for the University of Sydney and/or CSIRO and the ability of the applicant to communicate effectively especially with high school students.

Professor Gardner made a tremendous impact in his tour of NSW high schools to promote science, and in the Faculty where he presented numerous seminars, and undergraduate lectures. Research outcomes included proposals for joint projects in Johne’s disease, and links between the two universities in Veterinary Public Health.

Dr Edward Mather - Michigan State University

Dr Edward Mather, Deputy Director of the National Food Safety and Toxiocology Center at Michigan State University (MSU), visited the Faculty in February 2003. Dr Mather was a special international guest at the first residential for the postgraduate coursework Veterinary Public Health Management program at the invitation of then Dean Professor Reuben Rose.

Dr Mather, as Program Director of the on-line Professional Master of Science in Food Safety (ProMS) Program at MSU, had experience to share in the establishment of on-line training programs. He provided an inspirational speech at the inaugural annual dinner, sharing his insights on food safety and public health issues in the USA. In addition he attended the residential teaching sessions and offered comment on suitability of the structure and content for Masters students. Dr Jenny-Ann Toribio later visited MSU and further joint activity in the discipline is planned.