The Outstanding Public Service Award is presented to a faculty or staff member to honor the recipient's extensive local and/or national public service. Awardees receive $5,000.

Rita Colwell - Alumna Summa Laude Dignata

Rita Colwell

Rita Colwell the director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), is this year's Alumna Summa Laude Dignata, an award designated for an outstanding alumnus, distinguished for service and achievement over a period of years since graduation from the UW. Given not for recent work but for a lifetime record, this is the highest honor the UW can bestow on a graduate. Colwell is the first woman ever to head the NSF. Her UW doctorate is in marine microbiology, and she is renowned for her work in environmental control of epidemic diseases. In fact, she is one of the world's leading researchers into the epidemiology of cholera. Colwell held high-level positions at Canada's National Research Council and at Georgetown University before becoming president of the University of Maryland's biotechnology institute. She has also served as the president of the American Society of Microbiology and as the chair for the Board of Governors of the American Academy of Microbiology.