Faculty member receives honorary doctorate

Dr. Ilaria Capua receives an honorary Ph.D.

Dr. Ilaria Capua received an honorary Ph.D. from her alma mater, the University of Perugia, in Perugia, Italy, in February.

Dr. Ilaria Capua, a professor and director of UF’s One Health Center of Excellence for Research and Training, recently received an honorary Ph.D. from her alma mater, the University of Perugia, in Perugia, Italy.

Her degree is considered a Research Doctorate in Health and Experimental Veterinary Sciences. The award was bestowed on Feb. 11, in the Sala dei Notari in Perugia, in celebration of International U.N. Day of Women and Girls in Science.

In Capua’s speech, she addressed the value of diversity in general, and with reference to science in particular, and called for greater internalization and gender balance as goals for the future.

Capua has recently dedicated herself to bringing about an interdisciplinary effort in maintaining and enhancing the One Health concept at UF, according to the One Health Center of Excellence website.

After focusing much of her academic and professional careers to animal health and research into zoonotic diseases, Capua led efforts to quell the 1999–2000 avian influenza outbreak by coming up with novel strategies that would then eventually become official legislation in the EU. Her research has led her to advocate for the increased openness in the sharing of virus sequences, so that many would have a better understanding of animal and human infections.

The fundamental aspect of Capua’s research has been to develop strategies to protect the health in both mankind and animal-kind.

She was hired at UF in 2016 through UF’s preeminence initiative and has appointments in UF/IFAS and in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s department of comparative, diagnostic and population medicine.