Bruce Calnek was born in 1932 in upstate New York. He earned DVM (1955) and MS (1956) degrees at Cornell University. He is a  diplomate of the ACPV and the ACVM and was elected to the WVPA Hall of Honour.

 

From 1957 to 1961, at the University of Massachusetts, his work centered on the pathogenesis and epizootiology of avian encephalomyelitis (AE) and he developed the oral AE vaccine that has been used worldwide to this day.

 

In 1961, he returned to Cornell where he worked on viral neoplasms of chickens, leading a team of colleagues and graduate students in studies that dissected various features of Marek’s disease (MD) which ultimately led to a widely accepted description of the pathogenesis of the disease. He identified the feather follicle epithelium as the source of enveloped MD herpesvirus involved in transmission. With his colleague, Ton Schat, he helped develop and test the SB1 MD vaccine. He also worked on a variety of other infectious agents including lymphoid leukosis virus, mycoplasmas, reovirus, adenovirus, infectious laryngotracheitis virus, reticuloendotheliosis virus, Rous sarcoma virus and chicken anemia virus.

 

Dr Calnek has received numerous honors, and he served as a Department Chairman for nearly 20 years until his retirement 1995. He was an author and editor for Diseases of Poultry for 30 years serving as Editor-in-Chief for two editions. He published numerous book chapters and over 150 scientific papers, and he has presented invited lectures in a variety of international settings.

 

Following retirement, he expanded his interest and commitment to woodworking. As a member of Handwork, a craft cooperative in Ithaca, he sells a large variety of clocks. He and Mary Jeanne, his wife of 62years, have 2 sons, 6 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild. They live in a continuing-care retirement community in Ithaca, NY.