Awards

On Saturday, October 25, 2025 the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine hosted the annual Alumni Awards Banquet to recognize and celebrate the 2025 Rising Star and Alumni Achievement award winners. Congratulations to this year's awardees!

The American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS) Board of Regents selected UC Davis Professor Emeritus Dr. John Pascoe as the recipient of the Al and Carolyn Schiller Distinguished Service Award for exceptional contributions to ACVS. Dr. Pascoe has dedicated 22 years of service to establishing Veterinary Surgery as a premier veterinary journal.

Dr. Jaeyoung Kim, a third-year medical oncology resident, won the Robert S. Brodey Memorial Award at the 2025 Veterinary Cancer Society (VCS) Annual Conference held recently in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The award recognizes an outstanding oral research presentation. At the conference, Dr. Kim presented her original research “High-Grade, Stage 1 Mast Cell Tumors: Outcome and Prognostic Factors in 63 Dogs Treated With Local Therapy and Adjuvant Chemotherapy.”

The Dentistry and Oral Surgery Service recently attended the Veterinary Dental Forum (VDF), the annual meeting of the American Veterinary Dental College (AVDC). Two members of the service received awards in recognition of their dedication to the advancement of veterinary dentistry.

The California Legislature recently passed an Assembly Resolution honoring UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine Professor Rodrigo Gallardo. Assembly Member Resolution No. 1257 congratulates Dr. Gallardo upon his receipt of the California Poultry Federation’s (CPF) prestigious Golden Rooster Award.

According to CPF, the Golden Rooster Award is the California poultry industry’s highest honor. It is meant for the industry’s most outstanding member or supporter who has made major contributions to the poultry industry. The award “is an inspiration for all to admire.”

Professor Emeritus Frank Verstraete has set the benchmark for innovation and best practice in veterinary science, establishing standards that are now applied worldwide. An alumnus of the University of Pretoria (UP), he is recognized as a scholar whose research, clinical work and teaching laid the foundations for procedures that continue to guide the treatment of animals across species.

For this, the University of Pretoria conferred him with an honorary doctorate in Veterinary Science during the Faculty of Veterinary Science graduation ceremony on September 5, 2025.

Two professors in the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Population Health & Reproduction recently won awards recognizing outstanding achievements in their work with avian diseases. The recipients received their awards at the 2025 American Association of Avian Pathologists (AAAP) Annual Meeting, held this summer in Portland.

The UC Davis William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH) recently acknowledged the dedication and hard work of its staff members with the annual VMTH Staff Excellence Awards.

The VMTH Staff Excellence Awards are divided into these categories:

• Leadership/Staff Excellence
• Small Animal Hospital
• Large Animal Hospital
• Laboratory/Pathology/Pharmacy/Central Services/Diagnostic Imaging
• Supervisor
• Administrative/Client Services
• Unsung Hero

The 2025 VMTH Staff Excellence Awards winners are:

View the campaign overview PDF.

The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine’s 75th anniversary communications campaign received “Grand Gold”—the highest honor—in the 2025 Circle of Excellence Awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, or CASE. 
 

Five faculty members have been selected for a 2025 Chancellor’s Fellowship recognizing their work to, in the words of the organizers, “foster a learning environment where all students can develop the skills to be successful.”

Among them was Dr. Luis M. Peña-Lévano of the School of Veterinary Medicine. The assistant professor of Cooperative Extension was recognized for his outstanding expertise in the field of agricultural economics.