Duffy Named Distinguished Alumnus

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Lieutenant Colonel Mark R. Duffy, DVM, MPH, of Cibolo, Texas, was recently named a 2016 Distinguished Alumnus of Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. Duffy earned his DVM degree from OSU in 1994. He worked as a large animal veterinarian partnering in a rural western Montana practice before accepting an Air Force commission in 1999. In 2003, he was awarded a Master’s Degree in Public Health. He is an active diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine.

Duffy currently serves as the Air Force Education and Training Command Public Health Officer stationed at Fort Randolph, Texas. Among his many successes, Duffy developed a week long course in humanitarian disaster response and led teams presenting the training in both military and civilian groups in The Gambia, Iraq, Afghanistan, The Republic of Congo, and Macedonia. He has led multiple infectious disease outbreak responses around the world including an outbreak of plague in northern Uganda and characterized Japanese encephalitis epidemiology in Vietnam.

In 2007, Duffy led a team of scientists in identifying and studying the first known Zika virus outbreak, which occurred on Yap Island in Micronesia. He subsequently published in the New England Journal of Medicine a first author paper documenting the outbreak. His published literature on Zika virus and other outbreaks has been cited by more than 1,000 peer reviewed papers.

In 2015, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture presented the Dr. Daniel E. Salmon Award to Duffy for exemplary achievement in Federal Veterinary Medicine. Major military awards and decorations he has earned include the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal to name a few.

Duffy will be honored at a luncheon on Friday, Oct. 14, at 11:30 a.m. in the Wes Watkins Center located on the OSU Stillwater campus. Tickets may be purchased on the veterinary center’s Fall Conference website under the menu selection for Alumni Events Only. The luncheon is open to anyone who wishes to celebrate Lt. Col. Duffy’s success.