(From a University of Pennsylvania Release)

On April 29, Dr. Bernard Vallat, director general of the World Organization for Animal Health (Office International des Epizooties, or OIE), will be the first recipient of the Penn Vet World Award at the Penn Vet Student Inspiration Awards. The awards ceremony will be held in Irvine Auditorium on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania.

The award is given annually to a veterinarian who has dramatically changed the practice and image of the profession and substantially influenced the lives and careers of others, and provides $100,000 in unrestricted funding to the recipient.

In addition to the Penn Vet World Award, Rachel Toaff-Rosenstein and Warren Waybright, both third-year students at the School of Veterinary Medicine, have been selected as the first winners of the Penn Vet Student Inspiration Award. They will each receive $100,000 in unrestricted funding in recognition of their plans to significantly advance the frontiers of veterinary medicine.

Toaff-Rosenstein, of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., plans to use her award to pursue post graduate studies in animal welfare. Waybright, of Gettysburg, Pa., will use his award to develop a veterinary outreach program to Bolivia and other South American countries