The 2025 Disinguished Alumnus Award Winner

W. Ian Lipkin ’70

W. Ian Lipkin is John Snow Professor and director of the Center for Infection and Immunity and the Global Alliance for Preventing Pandemics at Columbia University. Widely known as the “Virus Hunter,” Lipkin created many of the tools currently used for infectious disease surveillance and has led responses to outbreaks of hemorrhagic fevers, encephalitis, respiratory, blood, and vector-borne diseases in more than 30 countries. During the pandemic, he developed diagnostic tests and protocols that were critical for New York City, the entertainment industry, Amazon, and the Democratic National Convention, and public service videos encouraging vaccination. Lipkin was scientific advisor for the Soderbergh 2011 movie Contagion, which was recognized for accuracy and prescience. 

His honors include Pew Scholar, Ellison Senior Scholar, Mendel Medal, Drexel Prize, CDC Charles C. Shepard Science Award; fellowships in the NY Academy of Science, American Society for Microbiology, Wildlife Conservation Society, AAAS, Association of American Physicians, Royal Geographic Society, and Council on Foreign Relations; and the Walter Reed, Hsu-Li, Bernard Fields, Oxford University Simonyi, and NIH Kinyoun Lectureships. He received a gold medal from President Xi for contributions to China during SARS in 2003 and the Order of the Polar Star from President Khürelsükh for contributions to Mongolia during the COVID pandemic.

The 2025 Rising Star Professional Achievement Award Winner

Alicia Zhou ’02

Alicia Zhou, PhD, is the chief executive officer of the Cancer Research Institute (CRI), a global nonprofit dedicated to advancing cancer immunotherapy. CRI has invested over $500 million since 1953 in pioneering research to harness the immune system against cancer, significantly transforming patient outcomes and cancer treatment.

Prior to CRI, Alicia served as chief science officer at Color Health, where she spearheaded initiatives that enhanced access to cancer prevention and screening, improving outcomes for diverse patient populations. She also contributed as a Steering Committee member and principal investigator for the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program, a groundbreaking effort in accessible precision medicine.

Zhou’s leadership was recognized in 2021 when she was honored in the San Francisco Business Times' "40 Under 40" and Fierce Healthcare’s "Most Influential Minority Executives." She earned a BS in biology from MIT, a PhD in biological and biomedical sciences from Harvard, and completed her postdoctoral research in cancer biology at UCSF.

The 2025 Alumni Service Award Winner

Harry Bims ’81

Harry Bims, PhD, is a leading authority in wireless communications and regularly testifies as an expert witness in patent infringement litigations throughout the United States and South America involving 5G, LTE, WiFi and Bluetooth technologies. He also has been a voting member of the
Wi-Fi standard for 20 years, and vice-chair, technical editor, and technical expert of WiMAX, the US-based cellular networking standard. Harry is the inventor of 24 US patents related to wireless technology. He was raised on the South Side of Chicago where his mother was a Chicago Public Schools teacher and librarian and his father was editor for Ebony and Jet magazines.