- Email: [email protected]
Tribute to the Joint Honorary Chairman B.W. Pickett, PhD Joint Honorary Chairman of
Animal Reproduction Science 121S (2010) S11–S12
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Animal Reproduction Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/anireprosci
Tribute to the Joint Honorary Chairman
B.W. Pickett, PhD Joint Honorary Chairman of the Tenth International Symposium on Equine Reproduction, Lexington, KY, USA, July 2010 G.E. Seidel Jr. Colorado State University, Animal Production and Biotechnology Lab., CO, United States
B.W. Pickett was born in Oklahoma in 1930, nearly four score years ago. He was raised on a diversified farm and attended Oklahoma State University, where he received a B.S. degree in Dairy Cattle Husbandry. This was followed by M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Missouri, working on cryopreservation of bovine sperm. His first academic job was as assistant, then associate professor at the
E-mail address: [email protected]. 0378-4320/$ – see front matter doi:10.1016/j.anireprosci.2010.04.104
University of Connecticut, where in addition to teaching, he researched various aspects of semen from bulls, boars, and stallions. During the decade in Connecticut, he spent half a year in Mexico assisting the Rockefeller Foundation in their effort to improve cattle via artificial insemination. In 1967, he moved to Colorado State University, where he soon became Director of what developed into the Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology Laboratory (ARBL). In Colorado, in addition to the standard professorial activities of teaching, mentoring, and research, Dr. Pickett got involved in two very significant other activities. The first was setting up an entrepreneurial service for collecting and cryopreserving bull semen, which funded many academic activities including considerable academic salaries. Many research projects were integrated into this program, resulting in numerous M.S. and Ph.D. theses. The second activity, one of the main reasons for his being hired by Colorado State University, was setting up a program in equine reproduction that, among other things, was to provide hands-on training for veterinary students. In time, this became one of the largest and best known equine research programs in the world. This also became fairly entrepreneurial, with many services offered to the public, including semen evaluation, correction of sexual behavioral problems of stallions, artificial insemination of mares, pregnancy diagnosis, embryo recovery and transfer, and other assisted reproductive technologies. Of course, the foundation of this program was research from well designed experiments, with an initial concentration on the stallion. Perhaps the most satisfying commentary for Dr. Pickett is that his experiments and those of mentored colleagues have withstood the test of time. There are two additional aspects of the equine program that deserve emphasis. First is the very popular series of short courses organized by personnel in the equine
S12
G.E. Seidel Jr. / Animal Reproduction Science 121S (2010) S11–S12
program. Most of these are 3–4 days in length with some as short as 1 day. Approximately eight are given annually during the non-breeding season; some are for veterinarians, some for managers of horse farms, and others for the lay public. Many thousands have attended these, and many come back every few years to refresh themselves with the latest information. The proceedings of these courses and related bulletins are immense sources of information on the various aspects of equine reproduction. The second item is people. The equine program that Dr. Pickett set up has served tens of thousands directly and many more indirectly. At the top of the chain are faculty, usually four or five tenured position directly concerned with the program, and an equal number of close collaborators, specializing in areas such as endocrinology and embryology. Then there are the graduate and postdoctoral students, veterinary residents, and the like. Of course, there are the approximately 140 new veterinary students each year. While not directly associated, the interrelated undergraduate Equine Sciences major at the University has developed to have many more students than those associated with all other species of farm animals combined. Finally, each year the equine program attracts more than a dozen visiting scientists who spend a month to a year or more on research projects. A legendary aspect of Dr. Pickett’s persona is his ability to raise funding from private donors – tens of millions of
dollars. These funds have been used to build facilities, fund endowed scholarship programs for graduate students, and fund specific research projects. While these efforts have focused mainly on horses, cattle programs also have benefited immensely from this skill. Of course, Dr. Pickett has received numerous honors and awards. A sample includes: American Society of Animal Science Physiology and Endocrinology Award, National Association of Animal Breeders Research Award, Distinguished Service Award from the Equine Nutrition and Physiology Society, Evelyn Williams Scholar at the University of Sydney, and Colorado Horseman of the Year from the Colorado Horseman’s Council. One of the largest buildings at the University is named after him: the B.W. Pickett Equine Center. By integrating teaching, research, and service activities such that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, the programs that B.W. Pickett developed have had an enormous effect on the field of equine reproduction. Dr. Pickett also has clearly contributed much to ISER. He was a founding member; he and associates contributed 11 papers to the first ISER meeting held in Cambridge. He chaired the second ISER meeting at the University of California in Davis. He was on the ISER board for some 20 years, and presented the plenary lecture on the stallion at the ISER meeting in South Africa. Thus, it is very appropriate for him to be Joint Honorary Chairman for the 2010 ISER meeting.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Animal Reproduction Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/anireprosci
Tribute to the Joint Honorary Chairman
B.W. Pickett, PhD Joint Honorary Chairman of the Tenth International Symposium on Equine Reproduction, Lexington, KY, USA, July 2010 G.E. Seidel Jr. Colorado State University, Animal Production and Biotechnology Lab., CO, United States
B.W. Pickett was born in Oklahoma in 1930, nearly four score years ago. He was raised on a diversified farm and attended Oklahoma State University, where he received a B.S. degree in Dairy Cattle Husbandry. This was followed by M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Missouri, working on cryopreservation of bovine sperm. His first academic job was as assistant, then associate professor at the
E-mail address: [email protected]. 0378-4320/$ – see front matter doi:10.1016/j.anireprosci.2010.04.104
University of Connecticut, where in addition to teaching, he researched various aspects of semen from bulls, boars, and stallions. During the decade in Connecticut, he spent half a year in Mexico assisting the Rockefeller Foundation in their effort to improve cattle via artificial insemination. In 1967, he moved to Colorado State University, where he soon became Director of what developed into the Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology Laboratory (ARBL). In Colorado, in addition to the standard professorial activities of teaching, mentoring, and research, Dr. Pickett got involved in two very significant other activities. The first was setting up an entrepreneurial service for collecting and cryopreserving bull semen, which funded many academic activities including considerable academic salaries. Many research projects were integrated into this program, resulting in numerous M.S. and Ph.D. theses. The second activity, one of the main reasons for his being hired by Colorado State University, was setting up a program in equine reproduction that, among other things, was to provide hands-on training for veterinary students. In time, this became one of the largest and best known equine research programs in the world. This also became fairly entrepreneurial, with many services offered to the public, including semen evaluation, correction of sexual behavioral problems of stallions, artificial insemination of mares, pregnancy diagnosis, embryo recovery and transfer, and other assisted reproductive technologies. Of course, the foundation of this program was research from well designed experiments, with an initial concentration on the stallion. Perhaps the most satisfying commentary for Dr. Pickett is that his experiments and those of mentored colleagues have withstood the test of time. There are two additional aspects of the equine program that deserve emphasis. First is the very popular series of short courses organized by personnel in the equine
S12
G.E. Seidel Jr. / Animal Reproduction Science 121S (2010) S11–S12
program. Most of these are 3–4 days in length with some as short as 1 day. Approximately eight are given annually during the non-breeding season; some are for veterinarians, some for managers of horse farms, and others for the lay public. Many thousands have attended these, and many come back every few years to refresh themselves with the latest information. The proceedings of these courses and related bulletins are immense sources of information on the various aspects of equine reproduction. The second item is people. The equine program that Dr. Pickett set up has served tens of thousands directly and many more indirectly. At the top of the chain are faculty, usually four or five tenured position directly concerned with the program, and an equal number of close collaborators, specializing in areas such as endocrinology and embryology. Then there are the graduate and postdoctoral students, veterinary residents, and the like. Of course, there are the approximately 140 new veterinary students each year. While not directly associated, the interrelated undergraduate Equine Sciences major at the University has developed to have many more students than those associated with all other species of farm animals combined. Finally, each year the equine program attracts more than a dozen visiting scientists who spend a month to a year or more on research projects. A legendary aspect of Dr. Pickett’s persona is his ability to raise funding from private donors – tens of millions of
dollars. These funds have been used to build facilities, fund endowed scholarship programs for graduate students, and fund specific research projects. While these efforts have focused mainly on horses, cattle programs also have benefited immensely from this skill. Of course, Dr. Pickett has received numerous honors and awards. A sample includes: American Society of Animal Science Physiology and Endocrinology Award, National Association of Animal Breeders Research Award, Distinguished Service Award from the Equine Nutrition and Physiology Society, Evelyn Williams Scholar at the University of Sydney, and Colorado Horseman of the Year from the Colorado Horseman’s Council. One of the largest buildings at the University is named after him: the B.W. Pickett Equine Center. By integrating teaching, research, and service activities such that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, the programs that B.W. Pickett developed have had an enormous effect on the field of equine reproduction. Dr. Pickett also has clearly contributed much to ISER. He was a founding member; he and associates contributed 11 papers to the first ISER meeting held in Cambridge. He chaired the second ISER meeting at the University of California in Davis. He was on the ISER board for some 20 years, and presented the plenary lecture on the stallion at the ISER meeting in South Africa. Thus, it is very appropriate for him to be Joint Honorary Chairman for the 2010 ISER meeting.