Dr. Gordon Theilen Honored with AAPM Distinguished Emeritus Award for Excellence in Veterinary Oncology

We are pleased to congratulate Dr. Gordon H. Theilen, emeritus professor at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, as the winner of the Distinguished Emeritus Award for Excellence in Veterinary Oncology. Theilen was honored for his career contributions by the American Association for Precision Medicine at a conference in San Francisco this past fall. 

Theilen obtained his DVM degree from UC Davis in 1955 and completed several fellowships, including one at the National Cancer Institute (1964-65) and the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Fellowship, Justus Liebig University, Germany (1979-80). He also served as a visiting scientist in Indonesia. Theilen pioneered specialty veterinary cancer medicine and co-authored initial textbooks on the subject, in English and Japanese. 

He and his colleagues isolated retroviruses causing sarcomas: Reticuloendotheliosis Snyder – Thelian Feline and Simian Sarcoma Virus. Leukemogenesis has been his main research focus throughout his career. Theilen is the founding member of the Veterinary Cancer Society and author of the book “One Medicine War on Cancer.”