Dr. Rita Colwell named first Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholar

The Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (YIBS) Director Derek Briggs is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Rita Colwell, currently the Chair at Canon US Life Sciences, Incorporated and Distinguished University Professor both at the University of Maryland at College Park and at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, as the first Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholar. Dr. Colwell will be in residence at Yale from January 21, 2005 through April 30, 2005.

Dr. Colwell served as eleventh director of the National Science Foundation, 1998-2004, and in that capacity served as Co-chair of the Committee on Science of the National Science and Technology Council.  Her major interests include K-12 science and mathematics education, graduate science and engineering education and the increased participation of women and minorities in science and engineering.  She is also interested in global infectious diseases, water and health, and is currently developing an international network to address emerging infectious diseases and water issues, including safe drinking water for both the developed and developing world.

Dr. Colwell bridges the disciplines of environmental science and medical epidemiology, establishing this special role through her landmark discovery of the role of marine plankton as natural reservoirs of Vibrio cholerae, the agent of epidemic cholera.   She has tracked the global distribution of cholera and associated outbreaks with climatic events that influence sea surface temperature and plankton blooms, and coupled fieldwork with the power of remote sensing.  Her investigations were among the first to demonstrate the application of remote sensing technologies to epidemiology.  This rapidly developing field of study is being pursued at Yale through the YIBS Center for Earth Observation.

The announcement of Dr Colwell’s visit to Yale as a Bass Distinguished Scholar has generated great interest among faculty and students in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, the School of Engineering, the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, and the Department of Geology & Geophysics, who are familiar with her work as a landmark in interdisciplinary research.  Her visit will also assist the effort to further interdisciplinary ties between medical epidemiology and environmental science at Yale.  During her time here, Dr. Colwell will give seminars, interact with students and research groups, and participate in the life of several academic departments. For information on contacting Dr. Colwell, please call the YIBS office at (203) 432-9857.

Edward P. Bass Distinguished Visiting Environmental Scholars Program