Donald F. Smith, professor of surgery and associate dean for academic programs, has been named acting dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine while a search is conducted for a successor to Dean Franklin M. Loew. Loew, who has held dean's post since 1995, will leave Jan. 31 to become president and chief executive officer of Medical Foods Inc. in Cambridge, Mass.

Announcing the appointment, University Provost Don M. Randel said Smith "knows the college well from his long and able service in a variety of capacities" and is "ideally suited to carrying on." Smith became associate dean in 1990 and first joined the veterinary faculty at Cornell in 1977.

Smith holds a doctor of veterinary medicine degree (1974) from the University of Guelph. After beginning as assistant professor of surgery at Cornell from 1977 to 1982, he served as a faculty member with teaching, research and service responsibilities as well as chair of the Department of Surgical Sciences (1986) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine.

Smith returned to Cornell in 1987 as professor and chair of the Department of Clinical Services. As associate dean, he provided administrative support to faculty members involved in the development and implementation of the new academic program for the veterinary college.

Smith is an elected member of the National Academy of Practices and a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. He is a general large-animal, soft-tissue surgeon with research interests in metabolic abnormalities associated with gastrointestinal obstruction in cattle. He developed a unique model for representing gastrointestinal obstructions in ruminants.