AFBI Alumni awarded Honorary Membership of NIVA

The North of Ireland Veterinary Association (NIVA) past-president Dr David Bryson, and recently-retired AFBI CEO, Professor Seamus Kennedy, were awarded Honorary Membership of NIVA at a recent meeting.

Dr Bryson and Professor Kennedy both served as director of Veterinary Sciences Division of AFBI, with Professor Kennedy then going on to become Chief Executive. Dr Bryson retired in 2012 and Prof Kennedy in 2016.

Prof Seamus Kennedy

Seamus is a graduate of University College Dublin (UCD) and completed his PhD at Queen’s University Belfast. He has specialised in veterinary pathology, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and a diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Pathologists.

He was President of the European Society of Veterinary Pathology from 2006 to 2009 and Council Member from 2009 to 2011. Seamus is author of over 130 refereed papers on animal disease and has been listed as the fifth most highly cited author in veterinary medicine on a world-wide basis (Science Watch, Thomson Scientific, 2005). He has been a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Comparative Pathology and the Irish Veterinary Journal.

He has made numerous invited presentations at national and international scientific conferences and is author of several book chapters. He is a winner of the CL Davis Foundation of Veterinary Pathology annual prize for the best paper in the journal Veterinary Pathology, and was a visiting Professor of Veterinary Pathology at Purdue University, Indiana, USA in 1987.

Seamus was Deputy Chief Executive Officer of AFBI and Head of VSD from 2006 until 2009, when he became acting CEO. He was appointed as AFBI’s CEO in January 2011 and remained in that role until his retirement in May 2016.

Throughout his career, Seamus has acted as a superb ambassador for the veterinary and animal health community in Northern Ireland, at a global level, and is another worthy recipient of honorary membership of NIVA.

Dr David Bryson

David is from a small farm in Portadown. He obtained his veterinary degree with commendation from University of Glasgow in 1973 and joined the Department of Agriculture’s Veterinary Sciences Division (VSD) later that year. He gained a PhD degree from Queen’s University Belfast in 1980 and is internationally renowned for his research interests in bovine respiratory disease, particularly calf pneumonia. He has gone on to supervise many PhD candidates and has been an external examiner for many other PhD candidates throughout the UK, in the disciplines of veterinary pathology, virology and immunology.

He was appointed head of the Pathology Department at VSD in 1990 and Deputy Director of the Division in 2002. Before his retirement in May 2012, David served as Director of Veterinary Sciences Division and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute (AFBI).

He was elected President of the Association of Veterinary Teachers and Research Work (AVTRW) in 2002 and President of the North of Ireland Veterinary Association in 2006.

David has been a stalwart of NIVA, AVTRW and BVA activity throughout his career and is a worthy recipient of honorary membership of the association which he served so well in several capacities.

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