Locke Karriker, associate professor of veterinary diagnostic and production animal medicine, is to receive a College Alumni of the Year award from Mississippi State University.

The award “recognizes alumni who have made a significant contribution to human or institutional progress in which a situation, institution or movement has been materially changed for the better because of their participation” according to the website for the Mississippi State University Alumni Association.

The ISU College of Veterinary Medicine hired Karriker in 2003, and since then he has been influential in the start of the Intensive Swine Lab in 2005 and the Swine Medicine Education Center, which became available to students this last fall.

Approved back in December 2010, the new center has received international interest and is working with veterinarians from 17 different countries and 48 students from seven different veterinarian colleges, Karriker said.

Karriker said he feels “very passionate” about the new Swine Medicine Education Center.

For Karriker, being a veterinarian had always been the plan.

Raised on a small family farm in North Carolina, Karriker had always been surrounded by animals.

Karriker went on to attend the University of North Carolina where he was a Moorhead Scholar and received a bachelor’s degree in science and biology.

From there, he went on to attend the college of veterinary medicine at Mississippi State University.

He said his fondest memories from Mississippi State are the close relationships he had with his classmates. He graduated in a class of only 49, and explained that everyone knew each other very well and there were many late hours spent studying.

Karriker described the receiving of the College Alumni of the Year award as a “bit mind-blowing” because he had such “incredible” classmates.