Since 1999, the Alumni Association has presented the Outstanding Alumni Award to accomplished Mudders who have made significant contributions to humanity and society in the areas of community service, global awareness, and science and technology. The Alumni Association Board of Governors (AABOG) takes nominations year round from the HMC community. A subset of AABOG—the Selections Committee headed by Jerome Jackson ’76—then reviews the nominations and presents the nominees for the AABOG vote. Once voted on and approved, winners are notified and are honored during Alumni Weekend—this year, Friday, April 30, to Sunday, May 2—with a customized plaque.

View the list of past recipients.

There will be two events highlighting the winners during Alumni Weekend. Jack Cuzick and Phil Szuromi will present their current work and host a Q & A on Saturday, May 1 at 10 a.m. Scott Pace will join them to participate in the awards ceremony Saturday afternoon.

Jack Cuzick, Ph.D. ’70

John Snow Professor of Epidemiology, Head of Department, Cancer Research, UK Centre for Epidemiology, Mathematics and Statistics, Queen Mary University of London, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine

Jack runs the internationally renowned Centre for Epidemiology, Mathematics and Statistics at the Wolfson Institute in London. The department carries out a huge range of research on many different cancer types, and is concerned with cancer prevention and screening, especially for breast, cervical and bowel cancers.

Over the past three decades, he has become a leading epidemiologist working on screening and prevention of cancer. He is internationally recognized for having played a major role in developing the field of chemoprevention of breast cancer. In 1985, he made the seminal observation that, in addition to reducing the recurrence rate of breast cancer in women being treated for breast cancer, tamoxifen can also prevent the occurrence of new contralateral tumors.

Jack has also made valuable contributions to assessing the risk of developing breast cancer and cancer screening, notably in cervical cancer. His published paper on the requirements for an effective screening program in 1986 changed United Kingdom screening processes leading to dramatic drops in mortality rates. He is the world leader in advocating HPV testing for primary screening.

Jack received his B.S. degree in mathematics from Harvey Mudd College, a master’s degree from the University of London, and a Ph.D. degree from the Claremont Graduate School in 1974.

Scott Pace, Ph.D. ’80

Director of the Space Policy Institute and Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at the George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs

Scott received the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal in 2008, the U.S. Department of State’s Group Superior Honor Award, GPS Interagency Team, in 2005, and the NASA Group Achievement Award, Columbia Accident Rapid Reaction Team, in 2004. Scott is a member of the board of trustees, Universities Space Research Association, and a corresponding member of the International Academy of Astronautics.

Prior to joining the White House team, he worked for the RAND Corporation’s Science and Technology Policy Institute from 1993 to 2001. He also was a key member of a successful international effort to preserve the radio navigation satellite spectrum, which occurred during the 1997 World Radio Communication Conference. He also was a member of Department of Defense Senior Review Group on Commercial Remote Sensing and the National Research Council's Committee on Earth Sciences.

He received a bachelor of science degree in physics from Harvey Mudd College in 1980; master's degrees in aeronautics and astronautics and technology and policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982; and a doctorate in policy analysis from the RAND Graduate School in 1989.

Phillip D. Szuromi, Ph.D. ’80

Senior Editor, Science; Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Phil received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Harvey Mudd College in 1980 and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Caltech in 1985. His research at Caltech with Henry Weinberg focused on catalytic reactions of hydrocarbon molecules. He then had a postdoctoral position with Ted Madey at NIST in Gaithersburg, Md., exploring Fischer-Tropsch reactions. Hired by Science magazine in 1986 as part of a team to attract more physical sciences to the research journal section of the magazine, he has helped to increase the representation of these fields to its current level of 40 percent.

He currently handles papers in chemistry, physics and materials science, but over the years he has also covered atmospheric science, biochemistry and structural biology. He also works in the Commentary section of the magazine, where he solicits and edits "Perspectives" pieces that highlight papers in Science or present short overviews of recent research. He was elected as an AAAS Fellow in Chemistry in 2004.

Review the Alumni Weekend Schedule of Events.