Ian graduated from Bristol University in 1998. Following time working in mixed and small animal practice he returned to Bristol in 2001 to undertake a four-year residency in Small Animal Internal Medicine. Ian was awarded the RCVS and European Diplomas in Small Animal Internal Medicine and European Specialist status in 2005. Ian was awarded RCVS Specialist status in 2007.
Since then Ian has undertaken a number of different roles including RCVS certificate examiner and the CPD editor for the BSAVA companion magazine, and has recently joined the BSAVA Education committee. Ian has also been a member of the Small Animal Medicine Society (SAMSoc) committee since 2007 and took over as Chair of the society in 2011. Ian led the group which developed the “Are you PROTECTing your antibacterials?” poster, a combined SAMSoc and BSAVA project.
 

 
Growing up in Southern Rhodesia, with that marvellous freedom to roam at will, hunt and ride, Sheelagh was naturally led to veterinary medicine and later parasitology, and then inspired by great parasitology teachers. Sheelagh graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1969 and gained her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in 1975. After teaching at the University of Pennsylvania she came to Cambridge with Professor, Lord Soulsby in 1978, initially as Research Associate, then Lecturer and Senior Lecturer. Although Sheelagh retired in 2012, she continues to teach biology of parasites and veterinary parasitology and remains active as a referee and examiner in Cambridge and elsewhere. Her research topics have varied from parasites of dogs, through horses and cattle to game birds and experimental models and have resulted in over 30 chapters in books and 100 papers with participation from various areas of the world. Sheelagh has also made a major contribution to helminths, arthropods and protozoa.

 Geoff Skerritt attended the Liverpool Vet School. After a brief time in small animal practice he returned to Liverpool as Lecturer in Veterinary Anatomy where an interest in neuroanatomy led him to clinical neurology; he established a referral facility at Liverpool for the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disease in animals. Geoff was awarded the FRCVS and later gained the European Diploma of Veterinary Neurology. In 1993, he left the University to establish with his wife Judy a small animal practice and neurology referral service in Cheshire. Fifteen years later the practice comprised four premises and employed 60 staff.
In 1997 Geoff persuaded Lister Health Care to put a few animal patients into a unit that was being withdrawn from human duties.  Geoff went on to introduce the veterinary profession to ‘available’ MRI – the mobile scanner visiting practices around the UK and Northern Ireland. In 1997 Geoff co-founded VetMRI, a veterinary dedicated mobile MRI scanning service of which he was Clinical Director. 
Geoff is a pioneer in the promotion of veterinary neurology. He re-established the BSAVA Neurology Study Group and is a founder member of the European Society (and College) of Veterinary Neurology of which he is a Past-President. Both an RCVS Specialist and European Specialist,  Geoff has supervised several  European Residents and PhD students, has over forty publications and is a frequent speaker at scientific meetings.
 

 Alex studied at King’s College London with the original intention of embarking on a medical career. However, upon graduating in 1988 he started work as a specialist in poisons information at the Poisons Unit at Guy’s Hospital. Within a year he had started to develop an interest in comparative toxicology and particularly in the reasons why animals responded so differently to various drugs and chemicals.   At the same time there was increasing awareness that veterinarians were calling the human poisons centres in the UK for advice on management of animal cases. Realising veterinary toxicology data were scarce Alex, with the support of the Poisons Unit, started to follow up its veterinary enquiries and to collate the data returned and refine the advice provided using species and breed specific data wherever possible. From this activity grew the Veterinary Poisons Information Service, which was launched as a fee paying service in 1992. In the first year some 300 practices subscribed. The service has expanded enormously over the subsequent two decades with the invaluable support of the BSAVA and BVA and the veterinary profession as a whole.  Alex headed the VPIS from the start, but left recently to pursue other roles in the international toxicology sphere, in which he has been active since 2000 as a member of the Board of the European Association of Poisons Centres and Clinical Toxicologists (EAPCCT). He is now its President-elect.
Alex introduced the first EAPCCT veterinary toxicology symposium at the EAPCCT’s annual congress in 2008. Although currently more involved in human toxicology in his new role as Manager of the National Poisons Information Service and with his EAPCCT role, he remains passionate about comparative toxicology, veterinary toxicology and the VPIS, and is committed to encouraging the development of services similar to the VPIS throughout Europe.

Andrea graduated from the University of Bristol in 2000. After one and a half years in small animal practice, she realised her passion for feline medicine and returned to Bristol Vet School to undertake a residency in feline medicine. She gained the RCVS Diploma and became a Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, and was recognised as a RCVS Specialist in Feline Medicine. Andrea remained at Bristol Vet School as FAB Clinical Fellow in Feline Medicine. She has since continued to work closely with FAB and ISFM in various initiatives, particularly with the Cat Friendly Practice Accreditation scheme. In 2012 she moved to Australia and works at the Small Animal Specialist Hospital, Sydney. She lectures widely, has written numerous articles and chapters and is co-editor of the BSAVA Manual of Feline Practice.

 Maggie qualified at the University of Edinburgh and has spent most of her career in private practice in Portsmouth, where she developed an interest in feline medicine. She has also worked in Malawi and Australia and was appointed the first Cats Protection Veterinary Officer in 1997. After two years she became a partner at the Harbour Veterinary Group, Portsmouth. Her interest in feline welfare brought her back to Cats Protection as Head of Veterinary Services in 2006 and she was made Director of Veterinary Services in 2008. Her professional interests are shelter medicine and feline population control and she is a founder member of the Association of Charity Vets.

The 2012 winning paper is Use of porcine small intestinal submucosa for corneal reconstruction in dogs and cats: 106 cases. After graduating from the Veterinary School of Toulouse in 1990, Dr Frédéric Goulle began as a general practitioner and developed a strong inclination for ophthalmology. He obtained his CES (Certificat d’enseignement supérieur en ophtalmologie Vétérinaire) in 2000 and has been practising exclusively in ophthalmology since 2006. He further graduated in microsurgery from the University of Bordeaux in 2007 and subsequently obtained the Inter-Universities Diploma of Vitreoretinal Surgery in 2008. In 2009, Dr Goulle received his official certification for diagnosing hereditary ocular canine diseases. He joined a veterinary referral centre in Bordeaux in 2010. He obtained his DESV (Diplôme d’études spécialisées vétérinaires en ophtalmologie) in 2011. His special interests include corneal surgery and cataract surgery. 

The winning paper is Lack of associations between ultrasonographic appearance of parenchymal lesions of the canine liver and histological diagnosis, written by Christopher Warren-Smith and colleagues. Chris graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 2005 and now works at Langford Veterinary Services as a clinician in diagnostic imaging and is an honorary lecturer at the University of Bristol

 Awarded by the BSAVA for the best medical Clinical Research Abstract presented at BSAVA Congress 2012 and takes the form of a cheque for continuing education.

The winning medical Clinical Research Abstract was Use of basal serum cortisol concentration in the diagnosis of hypoadrenocorticism in dogs: 824 dogs including 21 dogs with hypoadrenocorticism (2005–2011).
 

Awarded by the BSAVA for the best surgical Clinical Research Abstract presented at BSAVA Congress 2012 and takes the form of a cheque for continuing education.

The winning surgical Clinical Research Abstract was Woven reusable drapes and non-woven disposable drapes provide similar barriers to bacterial contamination in a pilot cohort of clean canine surgical wounds.
 

Awarded by the BSAVA for the best Clinical Research Abstract presented by a practitioner at BSAVA Congress 2012 and takes the form of a cheque for continuing education.

The winning Clinical Research Abstract presented by a practitioner was Coagulation factor content of canine plasma produced from whole blood stored for 24 hours at ambient temperature.
 

 
 Awarded by the BSAVA for the best Clinical Research Abstract presented by an intern/graduate at BSAVA Congress 2012 and takes the form of a cheque for continuing education.

The winning Clinical Research Abstract presented by an intern/graduate was All tied up in knots? A study comparing clinical students’ ability to learn one-handed and two-handed techniques for surgical knot-tying.
 

Awarded by the BSAVA for the best Clinical Research Abstract poster presented at BSAVA Congress 2012 and takes the form of funding for continuing education.

The winning Clinical Research Abstract poster was Optical coherence tomography (OCT) of
canine anterior segment: normal and pathological features.