The University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory director, Dr. Craig Carter, recently received the inaugural Allen W. Hahn Lifetime Achievement Award in Veterinary Informatics. The award honors individuals who have dedicated their careers to being a leader, educator and innovator in veterinary informatics. The Association for Veterinary Informatics presented the award to Carter at the 2019 Talbot Symposium at Fetch DVM360 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Carter earned his bachelor’s, master’s, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and a Ph.D. from Texas A&M University.  After veterinary school, he operated a large animal ambulatory practice in Texas for five years. Later, he joined the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory as a clinical associate, where he created a Department of Epidemiology and Informatics to advance animal disease monitoring and epidemiology services for the laboratory and its clients.

In 2005, UK recruited Carter to serve as professor of epidemiology, and in 2007, UK appointed him director of the UK VDL.

His research interests include infectious disease epidemiology, anti-microbial resistance, electronic animal health monitoring, computer-based clinical decision support and laboratory information systems.  He has worked as a consultant in more than 30 countries. Carter’s military career in the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army spanned four decades. He commanded the first Army Reserve Veterinary unit into Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks and retired as a colonel in 2009. He received the 2016 American Veterinary Medical Association International Veterinary Congress Prize and the 2018 E.P. Pope award from the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians. Carter is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and a distinguished scholar of the National Academies of Practice.

The Allen W. Hahn Lifetime Achievement Award in Veterinary Informatics is the only informatics award dedicated to those who have chosen to apply their knowledge to the veterinary field.  The award is named after pioneer Dr. Allen W. Hahn, who represented these ideals and served as an inspiration to many.

More information on the Allen W. Hahn Lifetime Achievement Award in Veterinary Informatics can be found at https://avinformatics.org/AllenHahnAward.

The mission of the UKVDL is to develop and apply state-of-the-art diagnostic methodology to improve animal health and marketability, to protect the public health and to assist in the preservation of the human-animal bond through the principles of One Health. The UKVDL is fully accredited by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians.