PULLMAN, Wash. – Guy Palmer, Regents professor and director of the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health at Washington State University, was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Bern, Switzerland, on Dec. 3.The Honorary Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree was bestowed for Palmer’s contributions to basic biomedical research in the area of infectious diseases and immunology.
Also receiving honorary doctorates were: Professor Hannah Cotton of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for work in classic literature; Professor Thomas Sargent of New York University for achievements in economics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 2011; and George Steinmann of Bern for visual and performing arts.
Palmer is recognized internationally for his work in the basis of antigenic variation, which allows diseases to become chronic, and his work in vaccine development.
Palmer holds the WSU Creighton Chair of Global Animal Health, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine and serves on the institute’s Board on Global Health.
His honorary degree was presented at the 177th Dies Academicus, an annual event commemorating the founding of the University of Bern in 1834.