WSU College of Veterinary Medicine announces recipients of 2017 alumni awards

Congratulations to our 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award winners.

  • Dr. John Middleton (’90 BS, ’93 DVM, ’01 PhD) – Excellence in Teaching and Research
  • Dr. Rodney A. Miller (’79 PhD) – Distinguished Graduate Alumni
  • Dr. Steven Weisbroth (’64 DVM) – Excellence in Teaching and Research

Dr. John Middleton (’90 BS, ’93 DVM, ’01 PhD)

Excellence in Teaching and Research

Middleton is a professor and assistant director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Missouri College of Veterinary Medicine, where he has clinical, teaching, research, administrative, and service responsibilities. His research is primarily focused on the epidemiology, control, and treatment of bovine mastitis, as well as other infectious diseases important to veterinary and public health. As an educator, he combines teaching and hands-on learning for students in the classroom and the clinic. In 2015, Dr. Middleton received the National Mastitis Council Distinguished Service Award for Presidential Performance and the Zoetis Award for Veterinary Research Excellence, and he was recognized as a University of Missouri top faculty achiever in 2017. He and his wife, Lisa, and children, Benjamin and Jennifer, live on a small farm outside of Columbia, Missouri, where they raise sheep and hay. In his free time, he enjoys off-road driving and restoring old cars.


Dr. Rodney A. Miller (’79 PhD)

Distinguished Graduate Alumni

Miller is recently retired from Experimental Pathology Laboratories, Inc. in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, where he served as a senior pathologist, manager of pathology, co-principal investigator, and then principal investigator for a quality assessment contract with the National Toxicology Program. At EPL, he analyzed toxicology study data and made recommendations to clients and regulators that affected the public and environmental health. Before EPL, Miller worked at Battelle Toxicology Northwest, where he was a pathologist and then group director focusing on inhalation toxicology. Now retired, Miller plans to spend more time traveling and pursuing his hobbies, including collecting petrified wood and Wyoming jade.


Dr. Steven Weisbroth (’64 DVM)

Excellence in Teaching and Research

Weisbroth is retired but is a consultant in laboratory animal medicine with several institutions. Earlier, he served as director of animal care facilities for several major universities where he also pursued a research career in diseases of laboratory animals. He left academia in 1978 to become the president of Anmed Biosafe, a diagnostic lab, until retiring in 2001. At Anmed Biosafe he pioneered in developing diagnostic profiles for periodically evaluating the health status of laboratory rodents and lagomorphs, a process now practiced globally by all commercial lab animal producers and most institutional users. Weisbroth initiated the series of texts sponsored by the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine, of which the first was “The Biology of the Laboratory Rabbit,” widely recognized as an authoritative text on the subject, and he served as editor or contributor to several others in the series. He received the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) Griffin Award in 1990 and the AALAS Research Award in 1972. Weisbroth is married with three children and five grandchildren. He loves classical music, spending time with his family, and playing tennis.