Prof. Dr. Urs Giger received his veterinary degree from the University of Zürich, Switzerland, where he also pursued his initial clinical and research training. In 1981, he moved as a postdoctoral fellow to the United States, where he subsequently completed a residency in small animal medicine at the University of Florida. He then joined the faculty of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He is now the Charlotte Newton Sheppard Professor of Medicine and Chief of Medical Genetics and has a secondary appointment at the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania and at the Veterinary School of the University of Zurich. He is a diplomate of the American and European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and is heading the Pediatrics and Genetics Clinic, the Josephine Deubler Genetic Disease Testing Laboratory and the Transfusion Medicine Program at the University of Pennsylvania. His clinical and research expertise and interests are in hereditary and hematologic disorders of small animals and transfusion medicine and has been the recipient of the WSAVA Scientific Achievement Award.