Hans Coetzee
Lorraine J. Hoffman Graduate Alumni Award
PhD ’05
Manhattan, Kansas
Dr. Hans Coetzee is internationally recognized for his work with animal welfare.
He has worked relentlessly to validate pain assessment tools for use in farm animals and to develop drug protocols to alleviate pain in livestock. This work has led to over 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers.
That research and work has led him to be recognized as the recipient of both the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Animal Welfare Award and the World Veterinary Association’s Global Animal Welfare Award.
Coetzee says his interest in animal welfare was influenced by three distinct experiences, including his time as a PhD student in Iowa State’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
It was during his childhood in South Africa that he first started to wonder about the welfare of farm animals. Although he lived in town, his family owned and operated a livestock farm. Coetzee belonged to the South African equivalent of 4-H, raising a heifer at age 11.
“This not only started my interest in veterinary medicine but in the welfare of the animals we were raising,” he recalled. “We had a veterinarian who would come out to the farm every couple of weeks, and he turned me onto veterinary medicine as a potential profession.
“I spent a lot of time thinking about the care and nutrition of our animals and started to question why there was little or no focus on the overall wellbeing of animals.”
That questioning continued when Coetzee worked in a mixed animal practice in Northern Ireland.
“I would dispense antibiotics to companion animals in this practice but not to food animals and again I wondered why,” he said. “I always thought I would be a practitioner for my entire career, but I wanted to answer the animal welfare questions that I and many other practitioners had.”
He began to answer those questions while a PhD student at Iowa State. He served as a field services veterinarian then, interacting with clients, veterinarians and students.
But it was while serving on Iowa State’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee that it all came together for him.
“That experience crystalized my research approaches to animal welfare questions although we still have struggles,” he said.
That may be the only thing Coetzee struggles with. After leaving Iowa State for Kansas State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine his career path has been on an upward trajectory.
During his time at K-State, he has received more than $21 million in research funding. In 2022 he became one of the youngest faculty members ever to achieve the title of University Distinguished Professor.
He became a department chair, was quickly named an associate dean for research and graduate programs, and this past year moved up further when he was named K-State’s vice president for research.
When he moved into these roles he used his time as a graduate student and faculty member at Iowa State to develop his leadership style.
“When I was a graduate student there was a bowling league that met every Monday,” Coetzee said. “It was an opportunity to talk and engage with faculty on a different level and I really appreciated that.
“My approach at Kansas State working with graduate students has been derived from my Iowa State experience.”
These days, Coetzee spends a vast majority of his time as an administrator and not as a researcher. He admits that it is difficult to maintain a research program in his new role.
Instead he is taking a different approach.
“My role now is to work with our researchers to get their programs established,” he said. “I do miss aspects of my research program but the skills and experience I have as a researcher has transformed very well into my new role.
“The questions about the welfare of animals are still there but those are questions others are answering.”
October 2025