Mulcahy Receives Dolensek Award

The news is a bit old, but no less important, Dr. Dan Mulcahy, a long time professor in practice for the NCSU CVM’s EMC faculty was awarded the 2014 AAZV Emil Dolensek Award for his exceptional contributions to conservation, care, and understanding of zoo and free-ranging wildlife.

loomis awards Dolenesek to Mulcahy at AAZV ACZM_Newsletter_2015 croppedThis prestigious award is named in honor of Dr. Emil Dolensek, an early pioneer in zoological medicine as head veterinarian at the Bronx Zoo.   Fittingly the award was presented by fellow NCSU professor in practice, Dr. Mike Loomis, the chief veterinarian at the NC Zoo during the awards ceremonies of the fall American Association of Zoo Veterinarians annual meeting in Orlando Florida.  Dr. Loomis is a former recipient of the important award, as is EMC faculty member Dr. Michael Stoskopf.

Dan Mulcay pre surgery cropped ACZM newsletter 2015Dr. Mulcahy was one of the earliest adjunct faculty members to join the EMC team at NCSU.  He has provided extremely valuable wildlife experiences for residents in the ACZM residency program from the very earliest inception of the program, helping shape the careers of many residents.   Dan received his BS in zoology from Cal State College Long Beach in 1970 and completed a PhD in microbiology from Oregon State University in 1977 after which he became a very productive researcher investigating fish viral diseases.  He decided to pursue veterinary medicine and earned his DVM from the University of Wisconsin in 1992, entering practice briefly before coming to the Alaska Biological Science Center in 1995 as a Veterinary

Dan Mulcahy rests between field duck transmitter surgeries

Medical Officer of the US Geological Survey.  He is well known for his advocacy of proper use of analgesics and sterile surgical techniques in wildlife field research. Earlier this year he was awarded the Al Franzman AWard from the American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians.  He has published nearly 100 papers in the peer reviewed literature and books and one of his quotes that fits right into the NCSU EMC supported residency and graduate programs is “The product of science is publications, not data. If you don’t publish your data, you are not a scientist. You’re just someone with an interesting hobby.”

In her recent book “Zoobiquity”, Dr. Barbara Natterson accurately describes Dr. Mulcahy as ” part MacGyver, part Davy Crockett…….   He occupies that rare and desirable zone on the Venn diagram where superhero and supernerd overlap.”   We are all very proud to have Dan Mulcahy on our team here at NCSU.