Professor John Hannan, who died on May 23rd aged 70, was one of the most influential veterinarians and academics of his generation. As Professor of Clinical Veterinary Practices at the University of Dublin, Trinity College (TCD), and later, as Professor of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and Food Hygiene at University College Dublin, he expanded the role of the profession in food safety and preventive medicine.
He gained international acclaim for his contribution to public health and played a leading role in the development of the Food Safety Advisory Board and later the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.
Born in Dublin on April 26th, 1931, to a family with strong connections with Co Clare, John Hannan was reared on a farm in The Ward, Co Dublin. He studied at St Mary's College, Dundalk, and qualified as a veterinary surgeon at UCD in 1954.
He began his professional career in a veterinary practice in Northern Ireland and later took up an appointment in Cork as a veterinary inspector with the Department of Agriculture.
In 1957 he joined the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, UCD, and, in the following year, was awarded a W. K. Kellogg Fellowship which he held at Iowa State University. In 1958 he was conferred with an M.Sc for his thesis on animal nutrition.
Following his return to Dublin he was appointed Statutory Lecturer in Veterinary Preventive Medicine and Food Hygiene by the National University of Ireland. He undertook the development of this subject with great enthusiasm and, in 1965, he was awarded a Council of Europe fellowship which he held at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, where he conducted further studies in food hygiene. Meanwhile he continued his nutritional research and was awarded a doctorate for his thesis on the anaemia of iron deficiency in piglets in 1968.
In the following year John Hannan took up an appointment as Professor of Clinical Veterinary Practices in the School of Veterinary Medicine of TCD. This was at a time when the future of veterinary education was very much in the public eye. John Hannan brought to the area an appreciation and an understanding of the difficulties then facing staff and students in both the UCD and TCD schools.
He organised and presented a wide-ranging course in veterinary clinical studies which earned the acclaim of the Visitors from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons to the school in 1973.
Throughout this period he maintained his research interests in veterinary public health and food hygiene, specialising in the prevention and control of cysticercosis in cattle.
He was appointed a Fellow of TCD in 1974 and in the following year he was appointed to the board of the college. Meanwhile he developed academic contacts with Iran and assisted with the development of the new veterinary school at Pahlavi University. He was also involved in the establishment of an animal production unit at the University of Khartoum in the Sudan.
Following the merger of the two veterinary schools in Dublin in 1977, John Hannan was appointed to the Chair of Veterinary Preventive Medicine and Food Hygiene at UCD.
Under his leadership these disciplines gained a prominent place in the veterinary curriculum, as evidenced today by the heightened awareness, among producers and consumers, of the importance of sound on-farm practices in providing a safe food supply.
He was a founder member, and first chairman, of the Irish branch of the Institute of Food Science and Technology, and vice-president of the World Association of Veterinary Food Hygienists. He was appointed to the Food Safety Advisory Board in 1995. He also served as chairman of the Food Microbiology Committee.
Throughout his career he was consulted by the World Health Organisation and other bodies on food safety and related matters.
In 1990 he organised and chaired an international workshop in Dublin, the findings of which contributed to the formulation of a scientific basis for harmonising trade in red meat that was later adopted by the World Trade Organisation.
In 1984 John Hannan was elected Dean of the veterinary faculty at UCD for two terms until 1990. During this time major initiatives were taken to address the physical inadequacies of the Ballsbridge site for modern veterinary education. These efforts culminated in the Government's decision to locate the new veterinary school on the Belfield campus.
This became a reality last November, with the laying of the foundation stone of the new school. The ceremony was attended by members of the family of Sir Christopher Nixon, chairman of the Board of Governors, who had overseen the foundation of the present veterinary college in Ballsbridge at the turn of the last century.
This sense of history was not lost on John Hannan, whose interest in matters antiquarian was well known. He was also a member of the Governing Body and the finance committee of UCD during the 1980s.
He had an exceptional talent for woodwork and this, along with his abiding interest in mechanical equipment, gave him endless pleasure.
Prof Hannan is survived by his wife, Moyna, sons Bob and Mark, daughters Oisine and Moyna, and by his brothers and sisters.
Professor John Hannan: born 1931, died May 2001