Herbert J Van Kruiningen, DVM, PhD, MD

                Dr. Van Kruiningen received his DVM from Cornell University in 1960. After two years in the Ambulatory Clinic of the Department of Medicine and Obstetrics, he joined Pathology and pursued a PhD, awarded in 1966. In 1965 he published the first description of Granulomatous Colitis of Boxer Dogs, his thesis subject. He was board-certified by the American College of Veterinary Pathologists in 1968. After joining the faculty at the University of Connecticut, in what was then the Department of Animal Diseases, he specialized in diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, at first in canines, then later in other species. He reproduced winter dysentery of dairy cattle, and recognized the corona virus responsible. When the new School of Veterinary Medicine opened at Tufts University he served as adjunct professor and taught Pathobiology of the Gastrointestinal System, from 1980 to 1985. At the University of Connecticut he led a study into Johne’s disease, suggesting at the time that Mycobacterium paratuberculosis might be responsible for Crohn’s disease, an idea he later refuted when additional data would not support such a contention. The involvement in inflammatory bowel disease of humans caused a life-long commitment to understanding Crohn’s disease, to the extent that he sought, and acquired a medical degree from Brown University in 1989. In 2000, 2001, he served as associate professor on the Faculty of Medicine, University of Lille, in France, during which he interviewed 21 Belgian families with multiple cases of Crohn’s disease, in an effort to understand causation.

                At UCONN he taught Principles of Pathobiology, an undergraduate course, for 15 years, following in the footsteps of S W Nielsen. He served as Director of the Northeastern Research Center for Wildlife Diseases from 1992 to 2007. In 1999 he was one of a team of five to recognize West Nile encephalitis in North America. He became Department Head of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science and Director of the Connecticut Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory in 2001, directing the pathology residency program and ushering the Department through its initial accreditation. He retired in 2010, but continues an active research program, focusing, of late, on the lymphangitis of Crohn’s disease. During his career at UCONN he advised and mentored many pre-vet and pre-med undergraduate students, as well as seven PhDs.