There is a Latin phrase - “concilio et laboreby” - which in simple terms mean that you obtain something or arrive at a point through wisdom and effort. This is specifically relevant when your efforts lead to being nominated for a top award and then receiving it.

On 26 November 2021, Prof Emma Hooijberg, veterinarian and South African and European Specialist in Veterinary Clinical Pathology in the Faculty was honoured with the South African Veterinary Association’s (SAVA) Research Award during the organisation’s annual gala dinner which took place at the Pretoria Country Club.

This prestigious accolade is awarded to any veterinarian or veterinarians for the best scientific article or series of articles recently published in any scientific journal and the recipient may be eligible for nomination for new original research.

Prof Hooijberg was nominated originally in 2020 by the South African Veterinary Foundation (SAVF), which funded some of her research. Nomination for this award is a quite comprehensive process and include, among other things, submitting a list of relevant publications, research profile and motivation letter.

Prof Hooijberg has an established record as a veterinary clinician, educator and researcher within both the South African and global context. Her research focus, leadership and publication outputs have increasingly shifted to supporting critical conservation of Africa’s endangered mammals. According to the motivational document to SAVA “this focus seeks to fill the critical knowledge gap in laboratory support of capture and translocation efforts and the clinical management of compromised wildlife patients. She has made important contributions in our understanding of the normal laboratory parameters and the associated physiological and pathological haematological and protein chemistry responses in the white and black rhinoceros, African elephant, cheetah and pangolins.”

Her most recent publications and research leadership reflect this with a total of 24 peer-reviewed publications over the last 5 years between 2017 and 2021. In total, she has produced 36 peer-reviewed publications. Reference to these outputs has a real potential to contribute significantly to the efforts of veterinarians and others in the field as they seek to improve outcomes in monitoring, diagnosing and treating of increasingly vulnerable African wildlife.

Prof Hooijberg graduated from the Faculty with a BVSc in 2001 and spent 6 years in small practice in the UK. She completed a residency in Veterinary Clinical Pathology in Vienna, Austria, and became a Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Clinical Pathology in 2012. She then worked in academia and commercial diagnostic lab in Vienna for a further two years and afterwards joined the Faculty’s Department of Companion Animal Clinical Studies (CACS) at the end of 2014.

In 2017 she completed her PhD investigating various aspects of clinical pathology in the white rhinoceros. She is currently Associate Professor and Head of the Section of Clinical Pathology at the Faculty. She is also Section Editor for the Veterinary Clinical Pathology journal, reviewer for several other international journals and a contributor of book chapters and cases for clinical pathology textbooks. Areas of special interest to her include diagnostic cytology, inflammatory markers and acute phase proteins, clinical pathology of wildlife, reference intervals and laboratory quality assurance.

Prof Emma Hooijberg (middle) receives her SAVA Research Award from Dr Leon de Bruyn, Immediate Past-President of the SAVA (right) and Dr David Gerber (left) from V-Tech. V-Tech is sponsoring the trophy.