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# Rita Colwell
- URL: https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/rita-colwell/
- Published: 1999-01-02T23:21:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-01-03T22:39:41.000Z
- Author: Liam Sturgess
- Tags: Profiles, #docs, #individual

**Rita Rossi Colwell** is an American environmental biologist and administrator. She served as the first female director of the National Science Foundation. She is the founder, president and chair of [CosmosID](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/CosmosID)[\[1\]](#fn1) and member of the board of directors of EcoHealth Alliance[\[2\]](#fn2) and the Global Council for Science and the Environment.[\[3\]](#fn3) She holds professorships at University of Maryland, College Park and [Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/Johns-Hopkins-Bloomberg-School-of-Public-Health).[\[1:1\]](#fn1)

## History

In September 1992, Colwell was announced by the [Food and Drug Administration](https://www.whiteroseintelligence.com/Food-and-Drug-Administration) (FDA) as a member of a new advisory committee on food.[\[4\]](#fn4)

Colwell served as director of the National Science Foundation from 1998-2004.[\[1:2\]](#fn1)

Colwell founded CosmosID in 2008.[\[5\]](#fn5)

In November 2012, EcoHealth Alliance announced it had appointed Colwell to its board of directors.[\[6\]](#fn6)

### COVID-19

On February 19, 2020, *The Lancet* published a letter titled "Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19" co-authored by Colwell and numerous colleagues at EcoHealth Alliance, in which they "strongly condemn\[ed\] conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin." Other notable authors included Peter Daszak, Dennis Caroll, Christian Drosten, Jeremy Farrar and William Karesh.[\[7\]](#fn7)

## External links

- [Campfire Wiki](https://www.campfire.wiki/doku.php?id=rita%5Fcolwell)
- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rita%5FR.%5FColwell)

---

1. *Rita R. Colwell, Biography.* National Science Foundation. Retrieved October 24, 2023, from <https://web.archive.org/web/20231024203747/https://www.nsf.gov/news/speeches/colwell/colwell%5Fbio.jsp> [↩︎](#fnref1) [↩︎](#fnref1:1) [↩︎](#fnref1:2)
2. *Board of Directors.* EcoHealth Alliance. Retrieved February 27, 2023, from <http://archive.today/2023.02.27-070834/https://www.ecohealthalliance.org/board-of-directors> [↩︎](#fnref2)
3. *Board of Directors.* Global Council for Science and the Environment. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from <https://web.archive.org/web/20210411074157/https://www.gcseglobal.org/board-directors> [↩︎](#fnref3)
4. Stone, B. (1992, September 10). *FDA Establishes New Advisory Committee for Foods.* Food and Drug Administration. <https://web.archive.org/web/19970506023101/http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS00424.html> [↩︎](#fnref4)
5. *About Us.* CosmosID. Retrieved September 23, 2021, from <https://web.archive.org/web/20210923033322/https://www.cosmosid.com/about-us/> [↩︎](#fnref5)
6. *EcoHealth Alliance Announces Dr. Rita Colwell’s Election to Board of Directors.* (2012, November 27). EcoHealth Alliance. <http://archive.today/2023.07.27-184033/https://www.ecohealthalliance.org/2012/11/ecohealth-alliance-announces-dr-rita-colwells-election-to-board-of-directors> [↩︎](#fnref6)
7. Calisher, C., Carroll, D., Colwell, R., Corley, R. B., Daszak, P., Drosten, C., Enjuanes, L., Farrar, J., Field, H., Golding, J., Gorbalenya, A., Haagmans, B., Hughes, J. M., Karesh, W. B., Keusch, G. T., Lam, S. K., Lubroth, J., Mackenzie, J. S., Madoff, L., & Mazet, J. (2020). Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19\. *The Lancet, 395*(10226), e42–e43\. <https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736%2820%2930418-9> [↩︎](#fnref7)