Pioneer award 2023 - Burkhard Meinecke and Sabine Meinecke-Tillman Joint AETE Medalists

 

Burkhard Meinecke and Sabine Meinecke-Tillman

 

Burkhard Meinecke took his doctoral degree of Veterinary Medicine in 1976 from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (JLU) and received his graduation as Dr. habil. from the same Faculty in 1983. He had been appointed Professor of Physiology and Pathology of Reproduction (extracurricular) at the JLU in 1989 and received and accepted an appointment to the chair of the Institute for Reproductive Medicine (later retitled as Institute for Reproductive Biology) at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover in 1992. He declained a further appointment from the JLU in 1998 and stayed in Hannover until his retirement in 2016 where he devoted his energy to teaching and training reproductive biology and medicine. He became president of the AETE in 1995 and was accepted as Founding Diplomate of the European College of Animal Reproduction in 2002. Besides his clinical work, his research activities, mainly performed in cooperation with his wife, focused on oocyte maturation, embryo transfer and associated technologies in sheep and goats.

 

Sabine Meinecke-Tillmann graduated as veterinarian at the Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (JLU), Germany. She finished her doctoral thesis (Dr. med. vet.) with a focus on embryo transfer in sheep in 1977, and became a veterinary specialist for reproducIve medicine two years later. She worked as research fellow (German Research Foundation, DFG) from 1977 to 1984 and thereafter, until 1993, as C1-professor and research fellow at the InsItute for Animal Breeding and GeneIcs of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, NutriIonal Sciences and Environmental Management of the JLU. In 1994, Sabine completed her habilitaIon thesis focusing on the developmental capacity of early embryos in sheep and goats, and received the Venia legendi in reproductive biology. This was followed by the appointment as private lecturer in 1994. From 2002 to 2015 she was professor (extracurricular) at the agricultural faculty of the JLU, and from 1993 to 2015 associate professor and research fellow at the InsItute for ReproductIve Medicine (later retitled as InsItute for Reproductive Biology) of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. Teaching focused on topics of reproductIve medicine and reproductIve biology, whereas her scientific projects, mainly performed in co-operation with her husband Burkhard Meinecke, concentrated on sheep and goats but also other species with e.g. embryo transfer and associated technologies (alternative techniques, esp.), interactions between mother and conceptus or ultrasonography. During 2006 and 2007 Sabine Meinecke-Tillmann was 1st Speaker of the AET-d.