Professor Stuart Reid CBE receives prestigious Calvin W. Schwabe Award

Published: 25 Feb 2026 | Last Updated: 25 Feb 2026 11:50:09

Professor Stuart Reid CBE, President & Principal of the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), was presented with the 2026 Calvin W. Schwabe Award in recognition of his lifetime achievements in veterinary epidemiology and celebrated his application of science to real-world challenges in animal health, public health and population medicine.

Bestowed at this year's Schwabe Symposium, held during the 106^th meeting of the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases in Chicago, USA, the theme, selected and curated by Reid, was "Science's Social Contract: Epidemiology in the Real World.

This award was established in 2003 in honour of scientist and philosopher Calvin W. Schwabe who is widely recognised as the founder of modern veterinary epidemiology, thanks to his scholarly contributions and, in particular, establishing the concepts of One Medicine, or One Health as it is now widely promoted. Schwabe established the first department and graduate program in veterinary epidemiology and was professor in both the medical and veterinary schools at the University of California.

Owned by the Association for Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine in the USA, the recipient of the "Schwabe" is selected from an international slate of nominees and is based upon demonstration of a long-term commitment to scientific excellence and leadership in the discipline.

As part of the award, and in addition to his own talk, Professor Reid invited a panel of experts to co-present at the event, each speaking to the theme from their areas of expertise within epidemiology. The panel included RVC colleague, Dr Dan O'Neill, Professor of Companion Animal Epidemiology; Dr H. Morgan Scott, recently retired Professor in the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology at Texas A&M University; and Dr Natalia Cernicchiaro, Professor of Epidemiology and Director, Center for Outcomes Research and Epidemiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas State University.

Besides the Calvin W. Schwabe Award, Professor Reid is recognised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) as a specialist in veterinary epidemiology and in veterinary public health by the European Board of Veterinary Specialists. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in the USA in 2019 and holds Fellowships at the Royal Society of Biology; the Royal Society of Edinburgh; the Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases in the USA, and the RCVS.

His work has also been recognised with a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2018 and the RCVS Queen's Medal in 2024. His research interests remain focused on zoonotic disease and antimicrobial resistance in a One Health context.

Reflecting on his award, Professor Stuart Reid CBE, said:

"It is a rare honour to be able to curate a session at an international conference where the focus and invitees are one's own personal choice. Colleagues and friends alike, over 30 years, it has been a privilege and a pleasure to work with so many amazing people in such a committed and supportive scientific community. For it to be the Schwabe Symposium made it a career highlight for me, a day that, I hope, highlighted the importance of One Health and our discipline to society, and a tribute to the legacy of Calvin W Schwabe."

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About the RVC

• The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) is the UK's largest and longest established independent veterinary school and is a Member Institution of the University of London.
• It is one of the few veterinary schools in the world that hold accreditations from the RCVS in the UK (with associated recognition from the AVBC for Australasia, the VCI for Ireland and the SAVC for South Africa), the EAEVE in the EU, and AVMA in the USA and Canada.
• The RVC is ranked as the top veterinary school in the world in the QS World University Rankings by subject, 2025.
• The RVC offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in veterinary medicine, veterinary nursing and biological sciences.
• The RVC is a research-led institution, with 88% of its research rated as internationally excellent or world class in the Research Excellence Framework 2021.
• The RVC provides animal owners and the veterinary profession with access to expert veterinary care and advice through its teaching hospitals and first opinion practices in London and Hertfordshire.