PVM Celebrates and Reflects on Progress During Landmark Year
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The 2018-2019 academic year is laden with landmark occasions for Purdue University and the College of Veterinary Medicine. 2019 marks the 150th year of Purdue’s existence as Indiana’s land-grant institution, and the 60th Anniversary of the opening of the veterinary college. Purdue is in the midst of a yearlong celebration of its Sesquicentennial featuring a variety of events and activities that reflect on past accomplishments, present advancements, and future goals. Those reflections include highlights of Purdue Veterinary Medicine’s successes.
The campus-wide Sesquicentennial celebration focuses on the concept of “taking giant leaps.” The University is proud of the hard work and accomplishments of students, alumni, faculty, and staff, including the monumental achievement of alumnus Neil Armstrong, who was the first man to walk on the moon and uttered the immortal reference to “One giant leap for mankind.” To celebrate its stellar record of success, Purdue is hosting events and lectures throughout the year and will showcase each college. To help kick-off the celebration, the University released a promotional video in September that includes a scene of the College of Veterinary Medicine’s high-speed equine treadmill, which is part of the Equine Sports Medicine Center.
The centerpiece of the Purdue Sesquicentennial celebration, which kicked-off during this year’s Homecoming Weekend, is the Ideas Festival that connects world-renowned speakers and Purdue expertise in a conversation about the most critical problems and opportunities facing our world. The Ideas Festival focuses on four major themes:
Giant Leaps in Space looks at earth, exploration, and economics, and examines the future of life on earth and the potential economic, social, and scientific rewards of expanding into our solar and stellar neighborhood.
Giant Leaps in Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms & Automation explores the idea of balancing humanity and technology as digitization, machine learning, robotics, and artificial intelligence profoundly reshape every aspect of life.
Giant Leaps Toward a Sustainable Economy & Planet focuses on innovations that are helping maintain the planet and economy as the earth’s population is rapidly growing.
Giant Leaps in Health, Longevity & Quality of Life explores how recent advances in genomics technologies have ushered in a new era of biomedical research to assess, detect, prevent, and treat diseases while optimizing the quality of life over the life course.
Cross-disciplinary discussions and events aligned with the four Giant Leaps themes are planned throughout the yearlong Sesquicentennial celebration.
Coinciding with Purdue’s Sesquicentennial celebration is the College’s 60th Anniversary, which will help generate much excitement about Purdue Veterinary Medicine, according to PVM Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Jim Weisman. Dr. Weisman points out that the 60th Anniversary provides a time when the PVM family can reflect on the College’s achievements and, more importantly, consider what is yet to come. “This is an exciting time for veterinary medicine and PVM is well-suited to advance our profession through our commitment to veterinary education, research, and service,” Dr. Weisman said. He added that the anniversary gives the PVM family an opportunity to look at past accomplishments that will fuel motivation for future endeavors.
Purdue Veterinary Medicine’s 60th celebration will kick-off with an event to be held on March 1 in conjunction with the Indiana Veterinary Medical Association (IVMA) Annual Meeting in Indianapolis. All attendees of the IVMA Annual Meeting, as well as friends of PVM, are welcome to attend the Anniversary Celebration Luncheon, which will feature a keynote address by Dr. Karen Cornell (PU DVM ‘88), associate dean for professional programs at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Cornell’s address is entitled, “The Continuum of Veterinary Medicine: Meeting at the Nexus of Change from Plow Horse to Poodles, from Anthrax to Zika, from Student to CEO.” Following the kick-off, the College will host a variety of additional special events and activities over the course of the subsequent months.
September also will be the College of Veterinary Medicine feature month by the University as part of the Purdue Sesquicentennial celebration. Look for more announcements in the coming months about additional special events and activities.
In the meantime, share your PVM memories! Tag photos of your PVM years on Instagram @PUCVM and include #PVM60 with a short caption, or submit photos via email to vetwebteam@purdue.edu. Take a visual stroll down memory lane on Instagram or online at: vet.purdue.edu/60.
Writer(s): Amanda McCormick, PVM Communications Intern, and Kevin Doerr | pvmnews@purdue.edu
