Dr. Craig Altier and Colin Parrish, Ph.D. ’84, both of the College of Veterinary Medicine, have been elected to the American Academy of Microbiology, the honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology.

Altier and Parrish are among 65 members of the class of 2025, which brings the total number of academy fellows to more than 2,600. Fellows, who must be nominated by a current fellow, represent all subspecialties of the microbial sciences and are involved in basic and applied research, teaching, public health, industry and government service.

This year’s academy class hails from nine countries, including Australia, Denmark, Mexico, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K. and the U.S.

Altier, professor in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, focuses his studies on defining fundamental molecular mediators of microbial pathogenesis of the human and animal pathogen, Salmonella Typhimurium, with the goal of developing novel interventions with population-level impact.

Nominated by Dr. Kyu Rhee ’91, professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, Altier also studies how salmonella can survive and thrive in and on produce plants; these agricultural products present a threat for the transfer of this pathogens to people.

A former chair of the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Altier co-leads the Cornell Center for Antimicrobial Resistance Research and Education, an academic center focused on developing new transdisciplinary collaborations to facilitate innovative One Health solutions.

He received his bachelor’s degree in biology in 1981 from Hiram College, his D.V.M. in 1985 from the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, and his Ph.D. in molecular biology and microbiology in 1996 from Case Western Reserve University.

Parrish, the John Olin Professor of Virology at the Baker Institute for Animal Health (CVM), researches the emergence of viruses in new hosts, the processes of initial spillover and host-switching, and the post-transfer evolution in new hosts. His work examines the fundamental bases of the viral diseases, their pathogenesis, evolution and the connections to virus capsid structures, host ligands, and cell and animal infection processes.

Nominated by virologists Mary K. Estes (Baylor University), Linda Saif (Ohio State University) and the late Diane Griffin (Johns Hopkins University), Parrish’s laboratory made a recent discovery related to canine parvovirus that shed new light on fundamental interactions between viruses and their hosts, and opens new doors for improving current vaccines.

A former president of the American Society for Virology (2022-23), Parrish was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2023. He served as a visiting professor at the University of Glasgow in 2016-17 on a Senior Fulbright Fellowship.

He received his bachelor of science degree at Massey University in New Zealand in 1979, before earning his doctorate at Cornell in veterinary virology in 1984.

The American Society for Microbiology is one of the largest professional societies dedicated to the life sciences and is composed of 30,000 scientists and health practitioners.