2003 Walter Barnard Hill Awards for Distinguished Achievement in University Public Service & Outreach

John R. Glisson

Since beginning his career at the University of Georgia in 1985, Dr. John R. Glisson has been responsible for significant improvements in the quality of services provided in poultry medicine. Perhaps the most significant of his accomplishments includes the development of two vaccines. His fowl cholera vaccine in the most widely used product for chickens in the nation, and his VGGA vaccine for Newcastle disease is used n broiler production throughout the world. Glisson was a co-recipient of the UGARF Inventors Award in 1999 for the patents on the vaccines.

As clinical services chief in the College of Veterinary Medicine, a position he has held since 1997, Glisson has brought the college an increase in the numbers of submissions as well as in clinical income. Glisson has also gained acclaim for his teaching and research activities. As a professor in the Master of Avian Medicine program, students accompany him daily in necropsy duty, field trips, and case studies. He has also taken leadership role in initiating clinical research on current field problems, including the college’s research program in type J avian leucosis.

Glisson has been recognized nationally an internationally by poultry producers and veterinarians for his expertise and advice. He has received the Upjohn Achievement Award of the American Association for Avian Pathologists (AAAP), and won the AAAP Reed Rumsey Award for his graduate research. He was also the 1999 recipient if the Charles Dobbin Award for Public Service in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

In addition to his work for the university and poultry industry, Glisson is extremely active at the national, state, local and college level. He is chairman of the poultry committee of the Georgia Veterinary Medical Association; past president and board of directors of the Oconee County Little League and serves as a member of the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee for Oconee County and the Oconee County Board of Education.