The Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (Texas A&M) recognized Dr. N. Sydney Moise, M.S. '85, professor of cardiology, as one of the six 2019 Outstanding Alumni Award winners.

“We are honored and privileged to recognize our former students and the impact of their work on our college, our state, our nation, and the world,” said Dr. Eleanor M. Green, the Carl B. King dean of veterinary medicine at Texas A&M. “These alumni are ambassadors for the CVM, and we are proud of their commitment to service, education, and leadership.”

Moise has poured her heart into canine cardiology.

An internationally recognized scholar and educator who earned her bachelor’s and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degrees from Texas A&M, Moise has devoted her career to cardiac rhythms and cardiovascular defects in dogs.

For more than 30 years, she has served at Cornell University, now as a professor of medicine in its College of Veterinary Medicine and an affiliated bioengineering faculty member in its bioengineering program.

She has received more than a million dollars in funding to study canine ventricular arrhythmias, sinus node dysfunction, the mechanisms of degeneration of the mitral valve, and the patterning and beat-to- beat heart rate variability of normal and abnormal rhythms.

“Dr. Moise’s accomplishments, since joining the Cornell faculty in the mid- 1980s, deserve special acknowledgement. She is talented in all aspects of clinical cardiology and is responsible for the development of interventional cardiology and echocardiography at the Cornell University CVM over the past 30 years,” one nominator said. “She is world-renowned for her expertise in electrocardiology and is one of the few veterinary cardiologists who have championed the utility of electrophysiology in clinical practice.

“In fact, Dr. Moise is one of the few veterinarians to have contributed meaningfully to discovering mechanisms of naturally occurring, lethal arrhythmias affecting dogs, the molecular basis of rhythm disturbances, and development of clinical applications for arrhythmia management,” the nominator continued.

“She learns continuously from each clinical case and uses that knowledge to improve compassionate care for each pet,” one nominator said. “(And) Many of her research studies are directly relevant to electrophysiologic characteristics of the same arrhythmias in humans.”

As a scholar, Moise has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, has served as an editor-in-chief and associate editor for the international Journal of Veterinary Cardiology, and has given presentations around the world, including in the United Arab Republic, Europe, Thailand, Brazil, China, and Russia, among many others.

For her work, she has been awarded the American Veterinary Medical Association research award for arrhythmia studies and the Bourgelat Award for international contribution to the clinical practice of veterinary medicine.

In addition, Moise is a beloved mentor and educator, having received the Norden Teaching Award, presented by the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges for distinguished teaching.

“Sydney possesses a highly scientific mind that allows her to analyze in detail the complex natural phenomena concretizing them with diagnostic methods for all the levels of knowledge,” another nominator said. “She is a fantastic human being, full of initiative and able to motivate people to human and professional growth.”

Read the complete story of Texas A&M's 2019 outstanding alumni here.