Zweig Assistant Professors

Michelle Delco - Harry M. Zweig Assistant Research Professor in Equine Health 2022-2025

In recognition of her dedication to extending the healthy lifespan of horses and improving their quality of life, Michelle Delco ’98, D.V.M. ’02, Ph.D. ’16, has been named the next Harry M. Zweig Assistant Research Professor in Equine Health. This is a three-year, endowed position for a junior faculty member at the College of Veterinary Medicine who shows great promise for advancing equine research. Delco is a board-certified large animal surgeon and assistant research professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences whose time spent in clinical practice treating equine athletes for sports injuries has motivated her to discover new ways to treat and prevent osteoarthritis.

Dr. Michelle Delco - Faculty Page

Heidi Reesink - Harry M. Zweig Assistant Professor in Equine Health 2019-2021

Dr. Heidi Reesink - Faculty Page

Heidi Reesink has been named the Harry M. Zweig Assistant Professor in Equine Health in honor of her ambitious research program to detect horses at risk for catastrophic injuries and to develop new treatments for arthritis.

The professorship is a three-year, endowed position for a junior faculty member who shows great promise for advancing equine research. It can be instrumental in helping junior faculty secure funding and develop high-level publications necessary for long-term success. Reesink has received grants previously from the Zweig Memorial Fund to support individual research projects. She has also received support from the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation, the Cornell Center for Advanced Technology, the Cornell Center for Materials Research and the National Institutes of Health through a Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award, a highly competitive grant to advance the careers of promising researchers.

Read the full article in Zweig News Capsule #67 (August 2019).


Gerlinde Van de Walle - Harry M. Zweig Assistant Professor in Equine Health 2017-2018

Dr. Gerlinde Van de Walle - Faculty Page

In recognition of her success in research related to the health of horses, Dr. Gerlinde Van de Walle has been named the Harry M. Zweig Assistant Professor in Equine Health. The three-year term endowed position recognizes a junior faculty member who shows promise and productivity in the field of equine research.

Van de Walle’s equine research program focuses on infectious diseases and wound healing, work that has been funded by the Zweig Memorial Fund, Boehringer Ingelheim, the National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Cornell Stem Cell Program, and the American Quarter Horse Foundation. The results promise to not only help improve the health and wellbeing of horses, but of humans and other animal species as well.

Read the full article in Zweig News Capsule #63 (June 2017).


Jonathan Cheetham  - Harry M. Zweig Research Scientist 2012-2013 

Dr. Jon Cheetham - Faculty Page

The Harry M. Zweig Memorial Fund committee has selected equine surgeon Dr. Jon Cheetham as the first Zweig Research Scientist, a new position for junior faculty at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine who show promise and productivity in equine research.

Awarded in December 2012, the yearlong position will fund Cheetham’s research into diagnosing and treating recurrent laryngeal paralysis, commonly known as roaring. Horses with this condition have developed weakened airway nerves and muscles and cannot breathe fully during exercise. Unfound and untreated, it can quickly end a horse’s career.

Read the full article in Zweig News Capsule #55 (June 2013).


Bettina Wagner - Harry M. Zweig Assistant Professor in Equine Health 2009-2011

Dr. Bettina Wagner - Faculty Page

Dr. Bettina Wagner, assistant professor of immunology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, has been named the Harry M. Zweig Assistant Professor in Equine Health. The three-year term endowed position recognizes a junior faculty member who shows promise and productivity in the field of equine research.

Dr. Wagner’s research focuses on equine immunology. She studies the regulation of the immune system and the relationship between the innate and adaptive immune responses. The innate immune system is the horse’s first line of defense against invading organisms while the adaptive immune system acts as a second line of defense as well as protecting the horse from re-infection from harmful pathogens. Funded with grants from the USDA and the Zweig Fund for Equine Research, Dr. Wagner’s lab is credited with developing several reagents that are available to the global research community. Reagents are used in immunological procedures to detect, measure, or examine the innate immune response in health and disease. The new tools are used in the lab to study the immune response to Equine herpesvirus type I and the mechanisms leading to immunity and protection from disease in foals.

Read the full article in Zweig News Capsule #47 (May 2009).


Julia (Flaminio) Felippe  - Harry M. Zweig Assistant Professor in Equine Health 2006-2008

Dr. Julia (Flaminio) Felippe - Faculty Page

Although most of a horse’s immune system develops during fetal life, foals are very susceptible to infection in their first five months. Assistant Professor of Medicine Julia Flaminio, DVM, MS, PhD, DACVIM, seeks to identify the mature and immature elements of the immune system of the foal, and hopefully the means to reduce their susceptibility to specific pathogens. She has been named the first Harry M. Zweig Assistant Professor in Equine Health.

“Julia is a wonderful human being,” says Associate Dean Robert Gilbert, BVSc, MMed Vet, MRCVS. “Her education, expertise, and understanding of equine medicine and the equine industry, as well as her research accomplishments and potential, contribute to her being the ideal candidate for the Harry M. Zweig Assistant Professorship.”

Read the full article in Zweig News Capsule #41 (June 2006).