Dr. Michael Festing Wins Top Laboratory Animal Welfare Prize

Member of Editorial Board Wins Top Laboratory Animal Welfare Prize

Dr. Michael Festing has won the UK's premier laboratory animal welfare prize. The annual SmithKline Beecham Laboratory Animal Welfare Prize us awarded by the Research Defence Society for significant contributions to laboratory animal welfare. The 1996 prize was presented by the RDS President, Lord Perry of Walton, at a ceremony at the Royal Institution, London, on 23rd May.

Lord Perry said the prize this year recognised "contributions to laboratory animal welfare made by a scientist who has always advocated the inextricable link between laboratory animal science and laboratory animal welfare. Good laboratory animal welfare and good laboratory animal science cannot be separated. This is very much the spirit of the SmithKline Beecham Laboratory Animal Welfare Prize itself."

In the citation for the Prize, Professor Sir Colin Berry, Chairman of the RDS, said that it is widely regarded as "the premier award of its type in the United Kingdom" and is "only awarded to those who have made a really significant contribution to laboratory animal welfare" Dr Festing, he said, "fully deserves that description"

Michael has been a member of our editorial board for many years, and has also been a regular contibutor of scientific articles. His work illustrating how inbred strains can be used to reduce the number of animals used in experiments has been of major importance. He has also made major contributions to improving experimental design, and to the proper application of statistical methods to research. He has consistently, but constuctively, criticised poor statistical design of experiments which can lead to the use of too many laboratory animals. An example of this aspect of his work can be found in Laboratory Animals,(1994), 28, 212-221.

Previous recipients of the award include Professor David Morton and Professor Paul Flecknell, who are also members of our editorial board.