USP Volunteers direct our work to improve global public health through public standards and related programs that help to ensure the quality of medicines and foods. Each year, a volunteer selection committee issues recognition to volunteers whose contributions exemplify our mission. Meet our 2023 honorees.
Honoring leadership and collaboration: The USP Jacob Bigelow Award
The USP Jacob Bigelow Award acknowledges the outstanding contribution by an individual volunteer. It is presented in recognition of exceptional dedication and important contributions to the achievement of USP standards-setting and impact or improvement of USP’s standards-setting processes. The award is named after botanist, botanical illustrator, and physician Jacob Bigelow (1787–1879), who developed the materia medica list and nomenclature in the first USP.
Tieraona Low Dog, Chair of the Dietary Supplements Admission, Evaluation & Labeling Expert Committee
Currently serving as Chair of the Dietary Supplements Admission, Evaluation & Labeling Expert Committee, Tieraona's outstanding service as a scientific expert with USP has spanned 25 years. In her decades of service, Low Dog provided leadership and expertise to several Expert Panels and she has contributed to 115 Monographs being published in the USP Dietary Supplements Compendium. Detailed versions of many of these Dietary Supplements safety evaluations have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, demonstrating the high quality and impact of the scientific evaluations completed under her leadership.
Brenda Jensen, Chair, Compounding Expert Committee
As the Chair of the Compounding Expert Committee, Brenda led the group that was instrumental in the revisions of <795> and <797> becoming official. Brenda has remained a pillar of ethics and character for over a decade. Brenda’s style of leadership is rare — firm in her stance when the science is clear, she is also generous and inclusive. Quick to admit when others’ expertise is required, she values and appreciates the unique expertise that every Expert Committee member brings to the table.
Anthony Bevilacqua
Anthony has served for over 23 years as a USP volunteer in all capacities, including as a member, chair and on the Council of Experts. Throughout that time, he has shown natural leadership, a desire for collaboration, transparency, and respect for peers. His openness to new technologies and opportunities were instrumental for USP leadership in innovative approaches in Quality of Pharmaceutical Waters like the TOC and Water Conductivity approach, replacing wet-chemistry, now adopted by other major pharmacopeias. Anthony contributed to other chapters outside of Pharmaceutical waters including modernization of <191> Identification Test-General, update and alignment of <791> pH with the European Pharmacopeia, updates of <921> Water Determination and new GC on <922> Water Activity.
The USP Awards for Outstanding Contribution to the Standards
The USP Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Standards recognizes the remarkable contributions of our volunteer bodies that work to improve global health through public standards and related programs that help ensure the quality, safety, and benefit of medicines and foods. Candidacy for this award is open to all volunteer bodies operating anywhere in the world that are affiliated with USP.
This year, awards have been presented to the Cannabis Expert Panel, the Complex Excipients Expert Committee, and the Drug Classification Subcommittee, each of which exemplifies the spirit of voluntarism that defines USP’s commitment to address public health challenges. USP will send certificates to all members and Government Liaisons of these volunteer bodies. USP will send awards to all members.