UC San Diego Alumni Association
Announces Annual Award Recipients

Five distinguished honorees to be recognized at annual Awards for Excellence event

January 27, 2009

By Becky Biegelsen

The chief executive officer for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center; a renowned molecular biologist; a beloved UC San Diego mathematics professor; a trailblazing biomedical entrepreneur; and a celebrated university leader have all been named by the UC San Diego Alumni Association as top recipients in its 31st Annual Awards for Excellence.  The prestigious awards honoring outstanding UC San Diego alumni will be presented during Alumni Weekend on Saturday, June 6. Funds generated from the event will benefit the UC San Diego Alumni Association’s endowed scholarship programs.
UC San Diego Alumni Association Award winners include:

Donald W. Murphy, ’75,
Outstanding Alumnus of the Year, chief executive officer for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center and former deputy director of the National Park Service;

Abbie Celniker, ’80,
Professional Achievement, a pioneer in late-stage discovery and development of protein therapeutics and building biologics-focused businesses;

Jeffrey Rabin, Ph.D.,
Distinguished Teaching; UC San Diego professor of mathematics and former co-director of the Algebraic Thinking Institute;

Gary Curtis, ’69,
Distinguished Service, entrepreneur and biomedical pioneer, scholarship supporter and Trustee of the UC San Diego Foundation; and

Wayne Kennedy,
Honorary Alumnus, former vice chancellor of administration at UC San Diego and former senior vice president of business and finance at the University of California Office of the President.

These accomplished individuals will join the distinguished company of such previous award recipients as Khaled Hosseini, M.D. ’93, physician and best-selling author of “The Kite Runner”; world-renowned genomic scientist J. Craig Venter, ’72, oceanographer and “father” of UC San Diego Roger Revelle, ’36, engineering professor and Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs, and Nobel Prize in Medicine recipient Susumu Tonegawa, ’69—all international figures who have brought distinction and prestige to UC San Diego and promoted the university’s local impact, national influence and global reach.

For more information about the 2009 Alumni Association Awards for Excellence recipients, please click here .

The cocktail-attire event is open to alumni and the general public. Tickets are $150 per person or $1,500 for a table of 10 and can be purchased here, or call (858) 534-3900 for more information.

Media Contact: Becky Biegelsen, 858-822-3353