Louise Martin: 2023 Ippen Award Winner

Congratulations to Louise Martin for winning the 2023 Rudolf Ippen Young Scientist award honouring a young scientist whose scientific output, particularly the papers published in the past 12 months, document the beginning of a promising career in wildlife veterinary science, conservation medicine or  zoo animal medicine.

Note from the Jurors:

With nine excellent candidates, the Rudolph Ippen Young Scientist Award was highly competitive this year. Three of these were outstanding, which did not make the decision easier, but the opinion of the Jury was straightforward. Out of these three colleagues Louise had far the most published papers, including first author, co-author and even last author publications! Louise’s contribution to the zoo and wildlife medicine field are diverse, important and in many aspects practical too. Furthermore, the jury highlighted Louise’s engagement in outreach to the zoo and wildlife community. Moreover, considering her current position as an ECZM resident at the Copenhagen Zoo there is a good chance that her achievements will serve as an excellent example for other young and enthusiastic veterinarians, who want to help wildlife! Congratulations Louise! 

This year's Jurors were: Endre Sos, Fabia Wyss, Martine van Zijll Langhout, Christiane Riedel and Catarina Jota Baptista.

Click here for more information on The Rudolf Ippen Young Scientist Award

Below follows an article from Louise on her career to date and we hope it will inspire other young scientists in their work and that they will also apply for this award.

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Fascinated by physiology and pathophysiology, I chose human medicine when enrolling at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. It did not take long for me to realise that while the “medicine” aspect was exactly what I hoped for, the “human” was not. The change over to veterinary medicine came very naturally to me. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring all aspects of veterinary medicine during my studies by helping to take care of experimental animals, as a tutor to educate researchers working with laboratory animals, and slowly developing a passion for all things exotic. Attending courses outside the mandatory curriculum that focused on topics like the one health concept in Africa, emergency bat medicine, reptiles as exotic patients, and zoo health management and becoming a member of the EAZWV in 2015 ignited my passion for zoological medicine.

Volunteering as a student assistant at the Clinic for Zoo Animals, Exotic Pets and Wildlife was the key to getting recruited by Professor Marcus Clauss for my PhD project, which several grant institutions financed (among them the Swiss National Fond and the Candoc grant for young veterinarians starting in research). My thesis topic was experimental dental wear in rabbits as a model species for herbivorous animals with ever-growing dentition. While I enjoyed working on the core project, the experience of collaborating with specialities other than veterinarians (such as biologists, palaeontologists, statisticians and more), expanding the topic to other species like quail, bearded dragon and tapirs, and later mentoring master and doctoral students has fundamentally shaped my professional development.

Switching over to a more clinical position as an ECZM/ACZM resident at Copenhagen Zoo, I am delighted to have still the time and the funds (thanks to the Alfred Benzon Foundation) to add knowledge to the field of zoological medicine by branching into new research topics with the support of my current supervisors. So, while I took some detours to get there, the Rudolf Ippen Young Scientist Award represents a huge milestone in my career. I am grateful to the award committee and my mentors who recommended me. I want to pay it forward and inspire future young researchers to follow their dreams.

Louise Martin 2nd July 2023