1997 Alumni Fellow

Dr. John Phillips Gibson, DVM 1959

Dr. John Phillips Gibson earned a bachelor's degree in agriculture from K-State in 1953. After serving two years as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army artillery in Korea, he earned a master's degree and a doctor of veterinary medicine degree in 1959, both from K-State. In 1964 he earned a Ph.D. in veterinary pathology from The Ohio State University. He is also certified as a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists and of the American Board of Toxicology.

After completing his studies Gibson accepted a position as toxicology section head and supervisor of the Laboratory Animal Facilities, and later as department head of Pathology and Toxicology for the Merrell Dow Research Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1990 he became senior director of Drug Safety Assessment and Distinguished Scientist for Marion Merrell Dow Inc. During most of this period he also held positions as adjunct associate professor of Laboratory Animal Medicine and adjunct assistant professor of pathology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. After retiring from Marion Merrell Dow in 1994 he has been consulting in drug safety assessment.

Gibson has served on the executive board of the Society of Toxicologic Pathologists, and was elected president of this international society of pathologists in 1992. He served on the editorial board of "Toxicologic Pathology" from 1984-95, and "Fundamental and Applied Toxicology" from 1982-84. He has also served on several committees of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists and the Society of Toxicology and has been an active member of the Teratology Society, American Association for Laboratory Animal Science and the American Veterinary Medical Association.

During his career in veterinary pathology he has written or co-written 70 publications in toxicology, teratology, pathology and laboratory animal medicine. He was responsible for the pre-clinical safety testing of human pharmaceuticals and for reporting and presenting these findings to regulatory agencies around the world, including the FDA. His present consulting activities consist of bridging the gap between animal toxicology findings and human clinical drug problems. He is also serving on an institutional review board which approves protocols for human clinical trials to assure safety and full disclosure to patients, and is on the advisory board of the Cincinnati Regional Drug and Poison Information Center. He received a Distinguished Alumni Award from The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1995.