Top Marine Veterinary Professors

A professor of aquatic animal medicine at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Paul Bowser in April 2013 received the Christensen Award for Excellence in Fish Health from the International Association of Aquatic Animal Medicine. The award is given to someone who has contributed significantly to the fish health and medicine field through research and education, and Dr. Bowser was only the fourth person to receive the award since its establishment in 1988. His research interests include, among others, retroviral-caused tumors in fish including the Atlantic salmon and the walleye. He has also been involved in research that has been published in the Journal of Aquatic Animal Health and Journal of Fish Diseases.

An associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University, Dr. Craig Harms obtained his doctor of veterinary medicine from Iowa State University and also has a PhD in immunology. His area of expertise is in zoological medicine with an emphasis on aquatics. He's been published in many academic journals such as the Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine, and the Journal of Aquatic Animal Health for research that he has undertaken with colleagues.  He has studied illness, disease or other aspects of health in animals that include free-ranging and aquarium-maintained green sea turtles, juvenile alligators, blue crabs, coastal juvenile green turtles, loggerhead sea turtles, leatherback sea turtles, river frogs, stingrays, tilapia, and others.

An assistant professor in aquatic animal health at Oregon State University's Department of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Tim Miller-Morgan focuses his research on the health of ornamental fish, and the health management and husbandry of captive aquatic animals. This includes developing best health practices for U.S. importers and dealer in koi. He directs the animal aquatic health program at OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center. Additionally, Dr. Miller-Morgan has instructed and provided consultant services primarily regarding the health of ornamental fish in countries as diverse as Australia, Indonesia, Japan, India and several others. He also helped found the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association, previously acting as its director-at-large.

Dr. Brad Krohn received his doctor of veterinary medicine from Mississippi State University, and serves as a professor at Portland Community College. His special interests aquatic based, and he lectures on aquaculture and fish medicine as well as teaches on other subjects for the school's vet tech program. He is an alumnus of the AquaVet program, held at the National Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts and sponsored through the veterinary departments of Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania, along with three marine science institutions. As well, he runs his own business, Aquatic Veterinary Services of Oregon, primarily catering to the care and treatment of fish.

Dr. Roxana Smolowitz is a visiting professor of biology with expertise in aquatic veterinary science at Rogers Williams University in Rhode Island. In addition to teaching at RWU, she also has taught invertebrate anatomy and medicine for Aquavet, an aquatic veterinary medicine program hosted through two universities and three marine science institutions, as well as taught fish anatomy and physiology at Tufts University. She obtained her doctor of veterinary medicine from Purdue University and has worked as the director of animal health at the New England Aquarium. In 2009, she became the director of the Aquatic Diagnostic Laboratory at RWU. She has also spent time in the past researching the effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill on the tissues of fish, particularly salmon, at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Dr. Samantha Shields is assistant dean of student affairs and assistant professor of clinical sciences at St. Matthew's University in the Grand Cayman British West Indies. She received her doctor of veterinary medicine from St. George's University in Grenada. Her interests include, among others, marine mammal medicine, and she helps to coordinate the school's Cayman marine veterinary medicine program, known as MARVET. She also serves as a faculty advisor to the school's Coral Reef Research Club, which was formed through the School of Veterinary Medicine and is dedicated to studying and protecting coral species in and around the Cayman Islands.

Dr. Tuula Hollmen is an associate research professor at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and acts as science director of its Alaska SeaLife Center. She has worked with seaducks and other types of marine birds for more than 20 years.  Much of this research has looked at the breeding ecology, disease, and toxicology of eiders, which are large seaducks, as well as among other types of marine birds. She oversees the eider research program at the SeaLife Center and is a member of the recovery team for Steller's and spectacled eiders. She earned both her doctor of veterinary medicine and her PhD in physiological ecology from the University of Helsinki.

Dr. Sylvain De Guise is a professor at the University of Connecticut and the director of the Connecticut SeaGrant College Program, which partners with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to meet the scientific research and outreach needs in the area. He received his doctor of veterinary medicine from the University of Montreal and his PhD in immunotoxicology from the University of Quebec. His particular research interests include the immunology, immunotoxicology and pathology of aquatic animals, specifically marine mammals and oysters. Research that has been published with colleagues has looked at disease and toxicology within marine mammals such as the bottlenose dolphin, California sea lion, and harbour and grey seals.

Dr. Thomas B. Waltzek is an assistant professor at the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine. He received both his doctor of veterinary medicine and a PhD in comparative pathology from the University of California, Davis, and is co-director of the school's aquatic animal health program. His research interests include, among others, aquatic animal zoonoses, which are diseases that can spread from animals to humans. He's provided numerous aquatic animal training workshops, most often as related to fish, and has received several grants including an assistance grant in 2012 for $100,00 that looked in part at viral diseases in stranded marine animals. He is also a member of the International Association for Aquatic Animal Medicine.

As a senior veterinary pathologist at the University of New Hampshire, Dr. Michelle Fleetwood focuses on care and treatment of marine mammals, as while as wildlife species and small animals. She received her doctor of veterinary medicine from Kansas State University and is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists. As a member of the Joint Working Group on Unusual Marine Mammal Mortality Events, she investigated the stranding of marine mammals over a period of four years. She's had shared research published in the Journal of Zoo and Wildlife.