This award recognizes a CSU graduate from the past 10 years for accomplishments made in the areas of career, service, and/or volunteer efforts that have brought honor to the individual and the University.
Edward (Eddie) Kendall (B.S., microbiology, ’18, and honors discipline scholar)
As a Fort Collins native, Edward Kendall participated in the University’s youth summer science programs and attended games at Hughes Stadium, both of which influenced his decision to attend CSU.
Impressed with the strong microbiology program and the faculty in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Kendall chose to major in microbiology and minor in political science to help him better navigate the intersection of science and society.
While at CSU, he also served in various roles within student government and was instrumental in getting the Old Main Bell restored, which is now located in the bell tower outside the Iris and Michael Smith Alumni Center at Canvas Stadium.
After graduating, he accepted an appointment as a research associate in CSU’s Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, where he worked under Dr. Diane Ordway on infectious respiratory pathogens with an emphasis on drug development issues.
Pursuing his interest in political science, he joined the U.S. Peace Corps where he was stationed in the Republic of Moldova, a small country that borders Ukraine in Eastern Europe. There, he worked as a community development specialist on youth science projects, one of which was establishing a nationwide orbital radio call between urban and rural youth in Moldova to astronauts on board the International Space Station. He also served as a volunteer security manager in the capital city of Chisinau and the Dubasari district bordering the internationally unrecognized territory of Transnistria.
Kendall returned to the U.S. at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and became a postgraduate research fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Food and Drug Administration Office of Vaccine Research and Review, which supports policymakers by conducting research in the field of pharmaceuticals development and drug resistance.
He currently serves as a graduate research assistant working on issues related to weapons of mass destruction at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, while pursuing dual master’s degrees from Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey in California and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in Russia. In addition to English, he speaks some Romanian and is now learning Russian with the hope of working internationally to combat the biological risks posed by crises as diverse as global pandemics and the nonproliferation of bioweapons.
For more information about this year’s recipients, and to register for the 2022 Distinguished Alumni Awards in October, visit alumni.colostate.edu/distinguished-alumni-awards.
