Marion Dorset, a physician and chemist born in Tennessee, is inducted for his outstanding work against livestock diseases.

Dr. Dorset graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1893 at a time when hog cholera was destroying herds on thousands of farms throughout the country.

In 1894, at the age of 22, Dorset hired on as a chemist with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). He was assigned to help test swine cholera serums. The scientific line of thinking at the time was that hog cholera was caused by a bacterium. Young Dorset became convinced that this theory was incorrect and instead proceeded to demonstrate that a virus was the cause. Pursuing his convictions, he developed a serum to treat hog cholera. Later, he perfected a crystal violet-glycerol vaccine and methods to immunize healthy swine against the disease, thereby eradicating hog cholera from farms everywhere.

Dr. Dorset’s medical discoveries include tuberculin for the treatment of bovine tuberculosis and methods to control pullorum disease in poultry.

Dorset studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and earned his M.D. degree from George Washington University in 1896, attending night school while working at the USDA. Dr. Dorset became Chief of the USDA Biochemic Division in 1904 and held that post in Washington D.C. until his death in 1935.