After receiving his undergraduate degree from Florida State University and competing for five years as a professional water skier, Jimi completed his DVM in 1994 and PhD in 1998, both at Mizzou. In 1999, he founded the Comparative Orthopaedic Laboratory. He has over 120 publications, over $20 million in research funding, received numerous awards including America's Best Veterinarian (2007), holds 14 U.S. patents and has seen three biomedical devices through FDA approval to human clinical trials. After 18 years as a veterinary orthopaedic surgeon in the College of Veterinary Medicine, he came to the MOI to head our growing Division of Research as the William and Kathryn Allen Distinguished Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery. Jimi has been married to his wife, Cristi, also a veterinarian, for 19 years and they have two dogs and three cats, do puppy raising for New Horizons Service Dogs, and run Be The Change Volunteers, ­a NGO dedicated to building schools in developing villages whose teams have built 22 educational facilities in 14 countries, providing educational opportunities to more than 4,000 students.