Maricarmen Garcia
Hall of Honor

Maricarmen García was born in Havana, Cuba. Her family immigrated to Puerto Rico in the mid 1960, where she was raised. She earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico and continued her specialization in Medical Technology at the Medical School of Puerto Rico. To further expand her knowledge of Microbiology, she attended the University of Georgia and, in 1988, earned a master’s degree in medical microbiology from the College of Veterinary Medicine under the mentorship of Dr. Emmett B. Shotts. During her MS. degree work, Maricarmen was first exposed to poultry medicine, working on the identification and characterization of Carnobacterium, a gram-positive fish gut bacterium that induced septicemia in turkeys by ingestion of contaminated feed.

Upon finishing and defending her MS, she returned to Puerto Rico, but her destiny to continue working on avian diseases was meant to be, and in 1990, she started her PhD at the Department of Medical Microbiology, but this time at the Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center (PDRC) under the mentoring of Dr. Stanley Kleven, working with avian mycoplasmas. Her PhD work with Mycoplasma gallisepticum enabled her to recognize the relevance of poultry medicine and the vital role of poultry production in developed and underdeveloped countries. In 1994, she began as a Postdoctoral Associate at the Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory (SEPRL) in Athens, GA, working on avian influenza under the mentorship of Dr. Michael L. Perdue.

In 1997, Maricarmen returned to the University of Georgia and began her tenure as an Assistant Professor in the then Department of Avian Medicine and PDRC, currently the Department of Population Health. From 1997 to 2026 she rose through the academic ranks. Her research expanded from avian mycoplasmas and avian retroviruses to Marek’s disease virus and infectious laryngotracheitis virus. She has authored and coauthored approximately 83 peer-reviewed publications together with collaborators and graduate students.

Maricarmen is the recipient of the 2018 Phibro Animal Health Award for Excellence in Research, the 2019 P.P. Levine Award for Best Paper on Avian Diseases, the 2023 Calnek Award for Applied Poultry Research Achievements all from the American Association of Avian Diseases (AAAP), and the 2020 Charles Beard Award for Excellence in Research from the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association.

Upon her retirement this coming August, she will be looking forward to return to her dear Puerto Rico by the end of 2026.