When Professor Juergen Richt decided to become a vet, he envisioned becoming a clinician who treats sick or injured animals. He never dreamt he would be testing cats, cattle, pigs, deer and houseflies to see whether they transmit COVID-19. Nor did he think he would be identifying the first cow in the US with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as mad cow disease, which turned the country’s beef export industry upside down; or genetically modifying pigs to make them less susceptible to virus infections. 

But that’s how it turned out for Prof Richt who, after becoming bored with the daily veterinary services of attending to livestock, studied towards a PhD in virology and immunology, and ended up leaving his home country of Germany to be a researcher in his adopted country, the US.

“Students often say to me, ‘I want to have your career. What should I do to have your career?’ Oh my golly, they think you can plan that,” Prof Richt says. “Life has many avenues it takes you on. And that’s the beauty of my life.”

Now the beauty of his life has seen South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) recognise him as an A-rated, or leading international, researcher. He has the added distinction of being the first academic from the University of Pretoria’s (UP’s) Faculty of Veterinary Science to achieve this rating. 

Prof Richt is based at Kansas State University in the US, where he is the Regents and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Diagnostic Medicine/Pathobiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine. At UP, he is an extraordinary professor in the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases. He was appointed in April 2019, but had been involved with UP for about 10 years previously. 

“I worked very closely with a legend in South Africa – Bob Swanepoel,” Prof Richt says. 

They first became acquainted at an event that Prof Richt had helped organise in Cyprus. Both work in high containment, or what is known as biosafety level (BSL) 3 or 4. Prof Richt deals with viruses such as Spanish flu, Ebola, Rift Valley Fever, African swine fever and avian flu, while Prof Swanepoel worked at the time at the Special Pathogens Unit at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg, which he headed for 24 years and consulted to for a further seven years, before taking up a position with UP’s Zoonoses Research Unit. He is presently at UP’s Faculty of Veterinary Science in the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases. 

“There are few high containment BSL-4 facilities in the world and very few people can work with livestock in these environments,” says Prof Richt, who has had to go to the BSL-4 facility in Winnipeg, Canada or the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, US, to do such research. He describes BSL-4 facilities as places where you work with deadly viruses – 
“all those things for which there is no good vaccine, and you wear spacesuits and the oxygen comes from the ceiling; so if you’re claustrophobic don't even think about it” he says. 

“The more lethal a disease, the more interested I am. When people run to the hills, I go the other way, because it's important to develop mitigation strategies for these diseases, most of which are zoonotic in nature,” he says, referring to diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans, and vice versa.

It is not only the likes of Prof Swanepoel who have reached academic superstar status. Prof Richt, too, is becoming a legend. He has won so many awards that he needs to check his 77-page CV to confirm a particular one. 

Apart from his recent NRF A-rating, which he regards as a major boost to the status of the discipline of veterinary science not only in South Africa but worldwide, another recent accolade he is honoured to have received is the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges Excellence in Research Award in 2021.  

“It’s an incredible recognition,” he says. “There's only one a year in veterinary science. I consider the people who have been previously recognised with this award as mentors. This is an important award in America.  No one else in my college has ever received it.”

Although Prof Richt teaches very little these days, a mere three hours or so a semester, he has very clear ideas on his role in that regard. 

“I believe that teaching is one of the university’s most critical endeavours, and I am committed to teaching excellence. To become a successful veterinarian, a professional student must be able to apply scientific knowledge to real-world problems. We also educate by how we behave as role models, how we interact with others. Therefore, mentoring is a very important part of my professional activities. And you know what’s funny about my teaching? When other professors teach after me, the students are awake. They’re not sleepy.”

When it comes to his main university activity of research, he is driven. Happy to be based in relatively rural Kansas as it is more conducive to livestock research, he also has an office at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in Manhattan, New York. 

“I need inspiration to do what I do; you have to be five to 10 years ahead of your field to get grants,” he says.
 

He has no problem there, having raised more than $67 million (almost R1,3 trillion) in grants for veterinary research. As of September 2023, his active research grants stand at just under $17 million (about R320 million).

The COVID-19 pandemic was both a work boost, with his research leading to more than 40 published peer-reviewed papers so far, but also a shock to his system. 

“The early pandemic period was the first time I had lived without jet lag for two years,” he recalls. 

With so much time on his hands, he did what so many people around the world did – he baked sourdough bread. He also took up golf, an activity he still enjoys.

Prof Richt’s curiosity and love of play are not confined to the lab. He might work hard, but he knows how to enjoy his life too, and reminisces about spending many hours with a UP colleague at a restaurant on Camps Bay beachfront, sampling the delights of Cape Town. And he’s a bit of an expert on its wine estates, able to provide directions to the exact location of his favourites and tips on which are best for food and which for the produce of their vines. 

“I am a wino,” he says, “not a whiner”, with another characteristic grin. “I am also an opera buff.”

He begins most days by listening to recordings of his favourite sopranos such as Kiri Te Kanawa, Maria Callas and Leontyne Price while making breakfast. It is perhaps not coincidental that he is married to an opera singer, who teaches voice at Kansas State University. 

A farm boy at heart – he grew up on a dairy farm – it’s what he intends doing when he eventually hangs up his lab coat. But with his drive, passion and sense of exploration, Prof Richt is likely to keep on exploring the frontiers of veterinary science post-retirement.