Mark E. Peterson

Dr. Mark E. Peterson was awarded a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree with High Distinction from the University of Minnesota in 1976, where he graduated as class Valedictorian. After moving to New York City, Dr. Peterson 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 both endocrinology and nuclear medicine at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. This fellowship was awarded and funded by the National Institutes of Health. In 1981, he obtained board certification as an Internal Medicine specialist from the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine.

Dr. Peterson served as head of endocrinology and nuclear medicine at The Animal Medical Center for over 30 years. In addition, Dr. Peterson has held positions as Adjunct 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). He currently serves as adjunct Professor of Medicine at the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University (2015 to present).

Over the last 45-plus years, Dr. Peterson has directed most of his research toward advancing the understanding of endocrine disorders in dogs and cats. He is especially interested in hyperthyroidism and diabetes mellitus in cats and hypothyroidism, diabetes mellitus, Cushing’s syndrome, and Addison’s disease in dogs. Dr. Peterson was the first veterinarian to document hyperthyroidism in cats (1979) and the first to treat hyperthyroid cats with radioiodine (1980). In addition to hyperthyroidism, Dr. Peterson was the first person to document a number of “new” diseases in cats, including acromegaly, hypoparathyroidism, insulinoma, and Addison’s disease.