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OCTOBER 2005 NEWS

CAAT Presents Four Awards at World Congress

In award ceremonies held at the Fifth World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences, the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT) honored four leaders in the alternatives field: Drs. Bernard Rollin, Julia Fentem, Georgia Mason, and Bert van Zutphen. The World Congress convened August 21-25 in Berlin, Germany.�

Henry Spira Award � Bernard Rollin, PhD
Dr. Rollin, a Colorado State University Distinguished Professor of philosophy and professor of animal sciences and biomedical sciences, received the prestigious Henry Spira Award. CAAT established this award in 1999 in memory of Henry Spira, a pioneer in the animal rights� movement whose campaign for the use of alternative methods led to the founding of CAAT. It was created to honor those in the animal welfare, protection, or rights� movements who work to achieve progress through dialogue and collaboration.�

Like Henry Spira, Dr. Rollin has used an approach marked by reasonableness and achievable goals. Described by colleagues as �the father of veterinary medical ethics in the US,� he was selected for this award for a 30-year career dedicated to �benefiting animals through credible action, constructive dialogue, and �win-win� solutions.�For additional information about Dr. Rollin, please see this link on the CAAT site. The CAAT site also provides the selection criteria for the award.

CAAT Recognition Award � Julia H. Fentem, PhD
The CAAT Recognition Award, presented at each World Congress, honors an individual (or organization) who has made an outstanding contribution to the field of the 3Rs, the development of alternative methods, or the field of in vitro science.��

Dr. Fentem, executive member of the Safety and Environmental Assurance Centre (SEAC) and internal expert on alternatives at Unilever, was chosen from a strong field of international nominees for her �outstanding contributions to the advancement of replacement alternatives.� �

Prior to joining Unilever, Dr. Fentem served a scientific officer and as expert toxicologist at the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments (FRAME) and at the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM). With an extraordinary ability to translate her experiences in academic and regulatory settings into corporate policy, she has had a profound impact on how the corporate sector thinks about alternatives.�

Charles River Laboratories� Excellence in Refinement Award
Georgia Mason, a professor in the department of animal and poultry science at the University of Guelph, Canada, and Bert van Zutphen, professor emeritus in laboratory animal science at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, were the inaugural winners of the Excellence in Refinement Award.

Sponsored by Charles River Laboratories, in cooperation with CAAT, this award honors an individual or individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the development, promotion, and/or implementation of refinement alternatives. The award includes $5,000 to further the recipients� scientific endeavors.�

Dr. Mason was selected for �a body of research that increases our understanding of stress biology and offers practical insights into improving animal welfare.�

Dr. van Zutphen was honored for his �lasting and profound impact on animal welfare through training scientists and students in the principles of humane science.��

For more information about CAAT awards, please visit the awards page of the CAAT site.

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