About Speaker

Dr. Daniel Smeak graduated with his DVM degree from Michigan State University in 1979. One year later, he completed a rotating Small Animal Internship at Colorado State University and then a three-year Surgical Residency at The Ohio State University. Immediately after his residency he accepted a professorship at The Ohio State University, and became a Diplomat in the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. After serving as Section Chief of Surgery in Ohio for his last 10 years at that institution, Dr. Smeak retired and joined the faculty at Colorado State University in 2007. During his tenure at OSU, one of Dr. Smeak's primary academic interests was in the realm of surgical instructional methods. He has written numerous articles and has been an invited keynote presenter about new teaching technologies and animal-sparing surgical training methods in veterinary schools. For this effort he was awarded over 24 college-wide and national teaching awards including the Norden Distinguished Teaching Award, Merch AgVet Innovative Teaching Award, Clinical Teaching Excellence Award, US Fulbright Academy Teaching and Research Award, and an honorary Doctoral degree at the University of Helsinki. He has produced over 27 award winning teaching tutorials and he has developed 6 surgical simulators for teaching core surgical skills, some of which are used worldwide. As an accomplished and active soft tissue surgeon, Dr. Smeak has been an editor of several textbooks, and he has written over 30 chapters, and over 100 peer-reviewed articles. Currently, Dr. Smeak is Professor and Chief of Surgery at Colorado State University. He remains active in his soft tissue surgery specialty practice at this institution, and he has continued to push for curricular changes, including using state-of-the-art teaching technologies to help improve surgical training of veterinary students.