David Morrison, a highly successful researcher and policy analyst, who is currently a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State, will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology at a ceremony on Thursday, October 21, 2021 in Ames, Iowa. The award recognizes outstanding alumni from the Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State.

Prior to joining the State Department, Morrison worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agriculture Service in Washington, D.C., and Shanghai, where he served as liaison between Chinese importers and United States exporters. Morrison consulted for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) at the U.S. Department of Defense. In this role he evaluated data and provided source research and analysis in support of countering weapons of mass destruction. He also analyzed medical and infrastructure assets in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to help craft the U.S. Ebola response.   

More recently, Morrison served as a diplomat at the U.S. embassies in Beijing and Baghdad. He has also worked at the U.S. Consulates in Shanghai and Erbil, Iraq. 

Morrison, who speaks fluent Mandarin and Arabic, currently serves as the economic and environment, science, technology and health officer on the Canada Desk at the State Department. In this role, he is the liaison between the White House and various U.S. government agencies, as well as the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa and the Canadian government. During the past year, Morrison’s work has focused on the pandemic response, in particular, its impact on the border between the United States and Canada, as well as vaccine coordination, shared boundary water, climate issues and economic topics, such as trade and tariffs.  

After Morrison earned bachelor’s degrees in genetics, international studies and political science at Iowa State, he earned his master’s degree in German and European Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.