Outstanding Public Service Award
Larry D. Bowers, PhD
Throughout his distinguished career, Larry D. Bowers, PhD, has made numerous outstanding contributions to the fight against abuse of performance-enhancing anabolic steroids and other hormones in sport.
Dr. Bowers served as the laboratory director for the then International Olympic Committee-accredited laboratory at Indiana University from 1992 to 2000. During this time, Dr. Bowers researched new methods of detection and contributed to the understanding of metabolism of hormones such as anabolic steroids and growth hormone derivatives. His work contributed to the implementation of intra-individual reference range monitoring for detecting testosterone abuse. Since joining the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in 2000, he has continued to advocate for scientific excellence by his leadership in the Partnership for Clean Competition research funding agency and his organization of the USADA Annual Symposium on Anti-Doping Science. The latter brings together experts from fields like endocrinology and anti-doping to focus on future scientific challenges for anti-doping.
Dr. Bowers has served on numerous scientific, professional, and sport federation committees and boards and has provided expertise to a various governmental agencies and Congress. He was the primary author of the initial World Anti-Doping Agency International Standard for Laboratories, which serves to harmonize anti-doping laboratory performance globally.
Bowers has been involved in many of the advances in anti-doping since joining USADA, including the identification and characterization of the first designer steroid, tetrahydrogestrinone; cooperation with law enforcement in investigations like BALCO; non-analytical positives; and adjudication of complex scientific cases involving allogeneic blood transfusions and isotope ratio mass spectrometry to identify exogenous testosterone use.
In recent years, Bowers has worked to incorporate the principles of perceptual deterrence into USADA’s policies to make testing and educational resources more effective. It is Dr. Bowers’ demonstrated dedication to protect clean athletes and the value of sport that makes him a worthy Outstanding Public Service Laureate Award recipient.
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