Caltech Celebrates Its 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients

The Distinguished Alumni Award (DAA) is Caltech’s highest honor for alumni. This year, the awards—which were first announced at Caltech’s 87th Annual Seminar Day on May 18—went to four alumni who, because of both personal commitment and professional contributions, have made remarkable impacts in a field, on the community, or in society more broadly.

The 2024 class of DAAs are: David Brin (BS ’73), Louise Chow (PhD ’73), Bill Coughran (BS, MS ’75), and Timothy M. Swager (PhD ’88).

“The year’s recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award showcase the extraordinary possibilities that emerge when talented students make the most of their Caltech education,” says Caltech President Thomas F. Rosenbaum, the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. “From RNA splicing to molecular electronics, from science fiction to entrepreneurship, our alumni are able to shape the fields they pursue.”

David Brin is recognized for his enduring excellence in storytelling, examining how change, science, and technology affect the human condition in his New York Times-bestselling science fiction novels, and for his support of revolutionary ideas in space science and engineering through NASA’s Innovative and Advanced Concepts Program.

Brin’s novels explore science’s potential impact on society with a mixture of hope and dread. His books have been honored with Hugo and Nebula awards, the most prestigious awards for science fiction and fantasy writing, and have been translated into more than 20 languages. One of his novels, The Postman, was the inspiration for the 1997 movie of the same name, which starred Kevin Costner. His 1998 nonfiction book, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Make Us Choose Between Freedom and Privacy? received the Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award from the American Library Association.

Brin serves on several advisory committees and sits on the external council for the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program, which explores high-risk, high-reward ideas that are capable of “changing the possible.”

Louise Chow, who is a retired faculty member at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is recognized for her pioneering methods in electron microscopy, which led to the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of split genes, one of the most important breakthroughs in molecular biology, as well as for research that has opened doors to improved diagnosis and treatment of human papillomaviruses.

Chow, an accomplished microbiologist, played a pivotal yet underrecognized role in the discovery of messenger RNA splicing. By inventing new methods in electron microscopy, Chow illuminated how DNA of the adenovirus genome contained long sequences that were “spliced out” in the mRNAS; in 1977, she was first author on the paper that announced this finding. Sixteen years later, her collaborator, Richard Roberts, was named a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of mRNA splicing.

At the University of Alabama, Chow’s research focused on the human papillomavirus (HPV). Today, her methods are used extensively in diagnosing precancerous lesions. Additionally, Chow has produced infectious clones of HPV-18, a strain of HPV known to cause cervical cancer, enabling the scientific community to more easily study how HPV causes cancer and assisting in the development of new HPV vaccines and treatments.

Chow was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2012.

Bill Coughran, investor at Sequoia Capital, is recognized for his influential role as a Silicon Valley executive, mentor, and investor, helping ambitious startups grow into transformative companies, and for overseeing the development and continual improvement of iconic products at Google, including Chrome, Maps, and Google search.

Coughran spent 20 years at Bell Laboratories, where he engaged in a wide range of computer science research, including algorithms research, fiber-optic modeling, and protocol analysis. During his tenure as senior vice president of engineering at Google, the company’s engineering organization grew from a couple hundred staff to more than 10,000 across North America, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. At Sequoia Capital, he coaches founders on how to build effective engineering-centric organizations.

Timothy M. Swager, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry at MIT and a prolific inventor, is recognized for his groundbreaking advancements in molecular electronics and chemical sensing, which created a new generation of devices with unparalleled levels of chemical sensitivity, and for translating these discoveries to benefit humanity, such as keeping troops safe from explosives.

Swager uses molecular electronics to create low-cost chemical sensors with unprecedented capabilities and societal impact. For instance, battery-operated handheld sensors based on his technology can detect femtograms of TNT, a value that is 1,000 times more sensitive than much more expensive airport security systems. His technology also power Fido sensors that can detect buried landmines and vapor from explosives. In addition, he has developed methods to create electronic-nose sensor arrays that are capable of categorizing a wide range of chemicals. In the area of food security, Swager’s group recently reported the selective detection of biogenic amines in spoiled meat.

Swager has been honored with the Carl S. Marvel Award for Creative Polymer Chemistry from the American Chemical Society, the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation Homeland Security Award, and the Lemelson–MIT Award for Invention and Innovation.

The 2024 DAAs were selected by the Distinguished Alumni Award Selection Committee—which comprises Caltech alumni, faculty, and administrative leaders—from nominations submitted by Caltech alumni and the campus community. You can submit a nomination for the 2025 awards here.