Michael Kotlikoff, the Austin O. Hooey Dean of Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine, has received the Alumni Achievement Award, the highest honor bestowed by the University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Kotlikoff, also a professor of biomedical sciences at Cornell, received the award at the UC-Davis school's commencement ceremony June 13 in recognition of his outstanding personal and professional contributions to cardiovascular research and leadership in academic veterinary medicine.

He has made important contributions to understanding the molecular processes underlying cardiac and smooth muscle function, muscle excitability and the regulation of intracellular calcium release. Recently his laboratory pioneered the use of genetically encoded protein sensors to understand cellular signaling in vivo. He also has promoted and facilitated universitywide mammalian genetics and genomics research at Cornell.

Kotlikoff earned his V.M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 1981 and Ph.D. in physiology at UC-Davis in 1984. Prior to joining Cornell's faculty, he served at the University of Pennsylvania as professor and chair of the Department of Animal Biology in the School of Veterinary Medicine, on the faculty in the Cardiovascular-Pulmonary Division in the School of Medicine and as director of the Center for Animal Transgenesis and Germ Cell Research.