Veteran Prof. Dr. Mahendra Pal honored with Outstanding Veterinarian Award
It is with great pleasure that veteran Prof. Dr. Mahendra Pal, a universally renowned academician and scientist, was bestowed with a highly coveted national “Outstanding Veterinarian Award” by the honourable Union Minister of Animal Husbandry and Dairy Shri Parshottam Rupla Ji on the eve of “World Veterinary Day” on April 29, 2023, at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. His selection for this prestigious award was based on his last 52 years of continuous work in veterinary science, especially in the field of zoonoses and mycoses. Prof. Pal has acted as an advisor to many students at the DVM, MSc, MVSc, and Ph.D. levels in India and Ethiopia and has published over 725 papers, authored nine books, and written four book chapters. His work is globally recognized as evidenced by the over 675 citations in one of his papers. Likewise, his article was read by more than 35,000 academicians from 175 nations. Prof. Pal obtained his B.V.Sc. and A.H., M.V.P.H., Ph.D., and D.Sc. in 1969, 1975, 1981, and 1988, respectively. He worked as a Professor and Head, Department of Veterinary Public Health, Anand Agricultural University, Gujarat, India, and also as a Full Professor of Veterinary Public Health (UNDP), Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. He had the opportunity to work as a visiting scientist at Massey University, New Zealand, in 1984, and at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. Prof. Pal delivered several guest lectures at veterinary and medical institutes in India and abroad. He is the first Indian veterinarian to have worked as a JSPS Visiting Scientist at Tokyo University, Japan, during 1989–1990. Prof. Pal was conferred the “Fellow Award” by the Korean Society of Veterinary Clinical Medicine, Seoul, South Korea, and also by the National Academy of Veterinary Science, New Delhi, India, for his pioneering and commendable work in veterinary science. He has collaborated with the scientists of many nations, including Greece, Japan, Hungary, New Zealand, Brazil, South Korea, Germany, Poland, Georgia, the USA, Spain, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and the Netherlands. Recently, Prof. Pal launched “Narayan Consultancy” on Veterinary Public Health and Microbiology to give free technical advice to students, teachers, scientists, and academicians, particularly those belonging to poor resource countries around the world. In addition, he has been doing charitable work for the poor and needy in various ways with his personal money since 1970. Prof. Pal is a highly spiritual, kind, and generous person who leads a simple life. Pashudhan Praharee wishes him a healthy and happy long life so that he may contribute more with his knowledge to the scientific community of the world.
