Colwell Leaving NSF

National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Rita Colwell has announced her retirement from the foundation, effective Feb. 21, 2004. Dr. Colwell took office at NSF in August of 1998. With five-and-a-half years as NSF's leader, Dr. Colwell is the third longest-serving director in the Foundation's 54-year history.

Dr. Colwell will assume the position of Chairman of Canon U.S. Life Sciences, Inc., a newly created, Washington-based subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc. that serves to identify and develop life science solutions with potential applications in diagnostics and medical instrumentation.

A microbiologist and internationally recognized expert on cholera and other infectious diseases, Dr. Colwell also will serve as Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, and on the faculty of The John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. At Johns Hopkins, she will help develop a new international center for the study of infectious diseases, water and health in conjunction with scientific colleagues from Sweden, Norway, Japan and Bangladesh.

The White House has announced Arden Bement, director of the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) since 2001, would become NSF's acting director.

The National Journal's Technology Daily wrote on Tuesday, "Bement has high respect from scientists and technologists who know him but has a low profile in Washington and nationally... Bement came to NIST in December 2001 from Purdue University, where he joined the faculty in 1992 after a 39-year career in industry, government and academia. He previously held senior positions at the Defense Department."