Colin Parrish, Ph.D., a professor of virology at Cornell University and the director of the Baker Institute for Animal Health and the Cornell Feline Health, recently was selected for an award from the Fulbright Scholar Program. The international education exchange program “aims to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries,” placing scholars, students and professionals in educational institutions in 155 countries around the world. The program is run by the U.S. State Department. As a graduate student at the Baker Institute for Animal Health in the early 1980s, Dr. Parrish helped develop the first vaccines for canine parvovirus. Parrish currently investigates the viruses behind global pandemics and the ways in which diseases spread between different animals and to humans. The win will give Parrish the opportunity to share his expertise in animal virology abroad as a visiting professor at the University of Glasgow. Starting in September 2016, Parrish will spend six months at the Center for Virus Research at the University of Glasgow, collaborating with several other scientists on projects ranging from surveys of viruses in wild animals from Asia and Africa to studies of ancient parvoviruses who persist as genetic fossils in the genomes of modern animals. “Sharing our faculty with other prestigious institutions around the world pays dividends in improved relationships with these universities and enhanced research and training programs here at home,” said Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Lorin Warnick, DVM, Ph.D. Parrish will step down as director of the Baker Institute for Animal Health and the Cornell Feline Health Center this summer. The new director, Luis Schang, Ph.D., of the University of Alberta in Canada, will take on these roles on Aug. 1.
