Iowa State University has chosen a new dean for its college of veterinary medicine. Doctor John Thompson comes from a similar post at Mississippi State, but he’s no stranger to ISU.Thomson graduated from the ISU vet med school in 1967, then worked on the faculty in the production animal medicine section briefly from 1997 to 99, before taking the deanship at Mississippi State University. Also within that time, he’d served on the front lines as a farm-animal vet in a family practice. Thompson spent 20 years practicing in Clearfield, Iowa, with his father, also an ISU grad from 1938 before beginning his academic career at South Dakota State University. At SDSU, Thomson headed the vet medicine department and was head of the veterinary diagnostic laboratory in that state. The veteran veterinarian says he’ll face a daunting challenge taking over the reins at the school.Thompson says there’s probably never been a time in history when people demanded so much, in the way of safety of the food supply, medical care for “companion animals” — pets — and all the research going on now. He has served as an advisor to the World Health Organization on brucellosis in humans and animals. Thomson was Veterinarian of the Year for South Dakota in 1993 and Mississippi in 2003.
