Chancellor-Elect Patrick D. Gallagher Receives Public Service Award

Issue Date: 
March 3, 2014

University of Pittsburgh Chancellor-Elect Patrick D. Gallagher has been honored for his dedication to United States cybersecurity.

GallagherPatrick D. Gallagher, who is currently director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology and acting deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, received the Excellence in the Field of Public Policy award during the Feb. 24-28 RSA Conference, an annual cryptography and information security-related conference held in San Francisco. The event attracts about 15,000 attendees, many of whom are global leaders in the information-technology security industry.

Michael Daniel, special assistant to President Obama and the White House’s cybersecurity coordinator, presented the award to Gallagher, and described him as a “public servant who has been an active leader in our nation’s cybersecurity efforts for both his agency and within the United States federal government’s executive branch.”

“For the past six years, Dr. Gallagher has been an integral leader in the policy, strategy, and execution of significant cybersecurity efforts across the public and private sectors,” Daniel said.

Gallagher has held his position at the national institute since 2009. The agency promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology. Among the agency’s areas of priority are manufacturing, information technology and cybersecurity, energy, health care, the environment and consumer safety, and physical infrastructure.

Gallagher, 50, has been named to succeed Mark A. Nordenberg, who will step down as Pitt’s chancellor on Aug. 1 after leading the University for 19 years.