Dean Elder D.V.M.

Presidential Award of Excellence, 2012

Animal Resources Office, Research

Dean is director of the Animal Resources Office.  In this position, he is responsible for the animal care and use program at UNH and for UNH’s controlled substance program, as well as being UNH’s attending veterinarian. He also serves as the Agricultural Station veterinarian for the College of Life Sciences and Agriculture.

Dean has eagerly assisted researchers in their endeavors involving the use of animals in research and teaching. He attends to the daily care of all vertebrate animals on campus: from laboratory species, to the cows and horses at the farms that form part of instructional programs such as CREAM (Cooperative Real Education in Agricultural Management) and the Equine Program. Each year, some 400 animal handlers take an occupational health and safety course offered through his office.

Those who work with Dean express awe at the breadth of his expertise, which extends from organic care for cows, to aquarium backup systems, to neurosurgery on small birds and mammals. And yet, as caring and knowledgeable as Dean is in his handling of animals, Dean earns equally high praise for the way he handles humans – the scores of students, researchers, industry partners, hawk-eyed federal inspectors, and others whose interests he appears to balance effortlessly, day after day.  

Dean holds a unique position at this land-grant University of ours. In fact, he does more than hold it – he defines it through his energy and talent.