Pomeroy Chair

NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release
 
Contact: Brian Graves, College of Veterinary Medicine, 612-624-6228 or grave237@umn.edu

Carol Cardona appointed to Ben Pomeroy Chair in Avian Medicine

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (January 20, 2010) - Carol Cardona, D.V.M., Ph.D., an expert in avian influenza, will be joining the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine on March 1 as the Ben Pomeroy Chair in Avian Medicine.

One of the few endowed poultry chairs in the United States, the Ben Pomeroy Chair in Avian Medicine was established in 1985 in honor of Professor Emeritus Benjamin Pomeroy. A veterinarian and scientist who received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1944, Pomeroy spent 47 years at the University as a professor and later chair of the Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Public Health. He also served as acting dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine from 1979-1980. Pomeroy’s research is credited with reducing the poultry mortality rate from 25 percent in the 1930s to 8 percent in 1988. After his death in 2004, the Minnesota legislature granted funds to renovate an historic dairy barn on the St. Paul Campus, which the University named the Pomeroy Student-Alumni Learning Center.

Cardona will succeed Professor Jagdev Sharma, a leading authority on avian disease who co-invented an in ovo (in the egg) vaccination that is widely used to protect chickens from destructive disease.

The University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine will benefit from having Cardona join its faculty as it continues to be a world leader in veterinary medicine and research while supporting animal agriculture and public health throughout the state and the nation, says Trevor Ames, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine.

“We are honored that Dr. Cardona will the joining the College as the Ben Pomeroy Chair in Avian Medicine,” says Ames. “She has exhibited exceptional service to the poultry industry and has a reputation for outstanding scholarship and research. We are excited to have such a highly regarded expert at the College.”

Cardona’s research focuses on viral diseases of poultry. Currently a veterinarian and extension specialist with the Department of Population Health and Reproduction and Veterinary Medicine Extension at the University of California, Davis, she has received numerous awards from the poultry industry and is a member of the advisory board for Avian Diseases Journal. She has an active interest in zoonosis and the role poultry play in human health and economic well-being, especially in developing countries. She received her doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Purdue University and her Ph.D. from Michigan State University.

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