38 veterinary surgeons welcomed as RCVS Fellows ahead of this autumn’s Fellowship Week

Some 38 veterinary surgeons were informed this week that their applications to join the RCVS Fellowship were successful and will formally be welcomed to the learned society later this year.

Of those who were successful, 20 joined the Fellowship for Meritorious Contributions to Clinical Practice, eight for Meritorious Contributions to Knowledge, and 10 for Meritorious Contributions to the Profession. Particularly significant was the fact that more than half of the successful applicants were women.

Professor John Innes (pictured), Chair of the Fellowship Board which governs the learned society, commented: “It was a great pleasure to personally write to all of my wonderful colleagues whose applications for the Fellowship have been successful. They should be very proud that they have successfully made it through our rigorous but fair application process, and how they’ve contributed to our profession in various different fields of endeavour.

“At the outset of my time as Chair I said I wanted to broaden the make-up of the Fellowship, particularly in regards to gender as I was acutely aware that the fact we are now a majority-female profession, and that has not been quite reflected by the Fellowship. So, I am delighted that, for the first time, this year we saw a majority of the successful applicants were women and I hope that this trend towards a more diverse range of applicants will continue as we go forward.

“I look forward to welcoming and celebrating the achievement of all our successful applicants in the upcoming Fellowship Week, which promises to be an exciting occasion with talks and presentations on interesting topics and veterinary research from people at all stages of their veterinary careers.”

The RCVS Fellowship Week is taking place between 30 September - 7 October 2021 and will include a variety of free to attend online activities across the week, such as the Fellows of the Future student competition, and culminating with the virtual Fellowship Evening at 7.30pm on Thursday 7 October, where the 38 new Fellows will be formally welcomed by Professor Innes.

For further information about the Fellowship Week contact Ceri Chick, Senior Leadership Officer, on [email protected]

The full list of new Fellows has been published.