Becoming a veterinarian can take you to places you've only dreamed of, to solve problems that affect the lives of thousands of people.

Dr. Donald L. Noah's career as a veterinarian and foreign animal disease diagnostician has taken him around the world, from Ohio and Colorado to Japan and even central Africa. He is an international expert on protecting animals and humans against biological terrorism, and he regularly speaks on this topic to other veterinarians, students, business people, and government and military officials. Dr. Noah also stresses to his audiences the important role veterinarians must play in protecting the nation's food supply and public health against terrorists.

 

Dr. Noah received a bachelor's degree in agricultural engineering and a veterinary medical degree from The Ohio State University in the mid-1980s. He is currently commissioned in the U.S. Air Force as a lieutenant colonel. Dr. Noah's educational and military background has given him the opportunity to be involved in activities most of us only get to read about in newspaper headlines. Currently, he is special assistant for biological warfare defense at the Pentagon. From 2001 to 2002, he served as the chief of the Epidemiology and Public Health Department at the U.S. Army's Medical Research Institute in Fort Detrick, Maryland. Before that, Dr. Noah worked as a liaison officer between the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Air Force Surgeon General's office, and as an infectious disease analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency. Dr. Noah has also taught at major universities, practiced large animal veterinary medicine with his father in Ohio, and worked as a hospital administrator.

Like most veterinarians and scientists, Dr. Noah continues to study and attend seminars to keep up with the latest developments in his field. For example, in 1994 he graduated with a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Minnesota. From 1994 to 1996 he was the first Air Force public health officer to receive disease outbreak training at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Epidemic Intelligence Service.

All of this hard work has prompted numerous organizations to honor Dr. Noah. In 1995, Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo) recognized Dr. Noah for all that he accomplished during an Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreak in that country. The next year, Dr. Noah was named the Dr. Daniel E. Salmon Federal Veterinarian of the Year and received the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Award for Distinguished Service. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry have recognized the excellence of his research.