Dr. Mark E. Peterson was awarded a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree with High Distinction from the University of Minnesota in 1976. After moving to New York City, Mark first completed an internship and medical residency at The Animal Medical Center (the largest animal hospital in the world). He then finished a post-doctoral fellowship in endocrinology and nuclear medicine at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center (this fellowship was awarded and funded by the National Institutes of Health). It was during this period of his training that Dr. Peterson first documented hyperthyroidism as a disease in cats. He obtained board certification from the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in 1982.

Dr. Peterson has served as head of endocrinology and nuclear medicine at The Animal Medical Center for over 26 years. Currently, he is also the Chairman of the Center's Institute for Postgraduate Education, and serves as Associate Director of the Caspary Research Institute at the Center. In addition, Dr. Peterson has held faculty appointments as Professor of Medicine at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (1996-2000), Associate Professor of Radiology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University (1983-2005), and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University (1982-1988).

Dr. Peterson was the first veterinarian to successfully treat hyperthyroid cats with radioiodine (Peterson ME et al, Scientific Proceedings of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, p 124, 1980). In 2000, Mark founded Hypurrcat, which now has Radioiodine Treatment Centers for hyperthyroid cats located in New York City and Westchester County, New York. In 2005, he moved the Westchester Hypurrcat Treatment Center up the street to the newly opened Animal Wellness Center. The Animal Wellness Center currently also has facilities for the Animal Endocrine Clinic (www.endopet.com), as well as the Catnap Country Inn (www.catnapcountryinn.com).

Over the last 30 years, most of Dr. Peterson's research efforts have been directed toward advancing our understanding of naturally-occurring endocrine disorders of the dog and cat, especially hyperthyroidism and diabetes mellitus in cats, and hypothyroidism, diabetes mellitus, Cushing's and Addison's disease in dogs. In addition to hyperthyroidism, Mark was the first person to document a number of "new" diseases in cats, including acromegaly, hypoparathyroidism, insulinoma, and Addison's disease.

He has received several awards in recognition of his clinical research efforts and discoveries, including the Beecham Award for Research Excellence (1985), the Ralston Purina Small Animal Research Award (1987), the Carnation Award for outstanding contributions to feline medicine (1988), the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) Bougelat Award for outstanding contributions to small animal practice (1993), The Daniels Award for excellence in the advancement of knowledge concerning small animal endocrinology (1991-1997, 1999, and 2001), The Excellence in Feline Research Award, presented by the American Veterinary Medical Foundation and sponsored by The Winn Feline Foundation (1997), the Alumni of the Year Award, The Animal Medical Center (1998), and an Award for Outstanding Humanitarian Service from the Bide-A-Wee Association, for more than a quarter century of dedicated research in naturally-occurring endocrine disorders of dogs and cats (2002).

Dr. Peterson has published more than 450 journal articles, book chapters, and research abstracts. With more than 200 teaching presentations to his credit, Dr. Peterson is a frequent speaker at veterinary and medical seminars both in both the United States and abroad.

Dr. Peterson is definitely a cat lover, with three cats of his own. These include "Mike E," "Bob E," and "Matt E," all male American Shorthairs. (All three of his cats share Dr. Peterson's middle initial).He also has an older, semi-retired Quarter horse named "Dusty" that Dr. Peterson does ride occasionally.