Veterinary Virology Conference

A Festschrift to recognise the lifetime achievements of Professor Michael Studdert

27th to 29th September 2006

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     Professor Michael Justin Studdert

Professor Michael Studdert has spent 41 years as a teacher and researcher in the Faculty of Veterinary Science at The University of Melbourne. He has made a major contribution to undergraduate teaching and postgraduate research training in veterinary virology, and has established an international reputation as a major figure in this field.

Michael Studdert was born in 1935 in Maitland, N.S.W. He received his primary education at the Marist Brothers School, Maitland, completed his secondary education at St Gregory’s Agricultural College, Campbelltown, N.S.W., and entered Veterinary Science at The University of Sydney in 1953, graduating in 1957. After graduation he worked as a House Surgeon for 18 months at the Rural Veterinary Centre, of The University of Sydney at Camden.

In his first published contact with a viral disease, he and others described the first recorded occurrence of winter dysentery in Australia. After completion of his term as an intern, he decided to pursue postgraduate research study at Ontario Veterinary College, Guelph, initially intending to work on male reproduction. However, his observations on an outbreak of infectious vulvovaginitis in cattle in the reproduction unit led to a change in direction that influenced his career from then on. He completed a Master of Veterinary Science describing aspects of this herpesviral disease of cattle.

Michael Studdert then moved to The University of California, Davis, where he enrolled as a PhD student and investigated chlamydial abortion in cattle and sheep. He also conducted seminal studies on viral structure, establishing that bluetongue virus was a distinctly different class of arboviruses, using a technique that was novel at the time, electron microscopy.

Michael Studdert returned to Australia in 1965 to take up the first academic position in veterinary virology in an Australian veterinary school and remained in this position for his academic career.  He established a research program across a broad range of viral diseases, focussing particularly on equine herpesviruses, but also investigated respiratory viruses of cats, infectious hepatitis in dogs and feline panleukopaenia.

His later research characterised severe combined immunedeficiency in Arabian foals and the fatal adenoviral pneumonia they develop, equine rhinoviruses and canine parvovirus.

Michael Studdert’s contributions to research in veterinary virology have been immense. He led studies that established that equine herpesvirus 1 and 4 were distinct viruses, that their virulence and epidemiological behaviour differed significantly and that these differences needed to be addressed in vaccine design. He has also led studies that discovered a number of novel equine viruses. His contributions to equine virology have been recognised by the presentation of the RIRDC – Vetsearch Equine Research Award in 1996 and by the Dubai Equine Award in 1998. He was editor of the reference text on viral diseases of horses, has published over 160 scientific papers in refereed journals and 45 chapters in books.

Professor Studdert has supervised 21 PhD students, 7 MVSc students and 3 MSc students to completion. These former postgraduate students have, in their subsequent careers, filled positions in academia, medical research, the pharmaceutical industry and government service.

As the person who established and taught the course in veterinary virology at The University of Melbourne for the last 37 years Michael Studdert has been the face of veterinary virology for 2 generations of veterinarians. In addition for the last 15 years he has been one of the authors of Veterinary Virology, acknowledged internationally as the leading textbook of veterinary virology, and now in its third edition.

Professor Studdert has been a member of the advisory committee and of the Board of Management of the CSIRO Australian Animal Health Committee and has been a member of the committee of the Australian Society for Microbiology.

He is a member of several international viral nomenclature and taxonomy committees and is a member of editorial boards for four international journals.

In 1993 Professor Studdert became the inaugural Director of the Centre for Equine Virology and has led this major equine viral disease research and diagnostic facility in Australia until his retirement.  In his retirement, Michael Studdert has continued to contribute to the academic life of the Centre that he founded, as a Professorial Fellow and Principal Research Consultant, and has continued to provide supervision and encouragement to postgraduate research students.