Rita Rossi Colwell (born November 23, 1934) is an American environmental microbiologist and scientific administrator.

Colwell's findings of correlations between these phenomena showed that the infection rate of cholera is connected to water temperatures.

These inexpensive and readily available materials yielded a 48% reduction in cholera, when compared with the control: absence of any type of filter.

While at Georgetown, Colwell and her research team were the first to learn that the causative agent of cholera was found naturally in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.

She remains a professor at the University of Maryland at College Park and at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Colwell founded the company CosmosID in 2008, and she currently serves as global science officer and chairman of the board.

[9] CosmosID is a bioinformatics company that develops various types of equipment to identify microbial activity in a variety of ecosystems.

In this 26-minute film, the microbiology department at the University of Maryland, College Park demonstrates what types of methodology are required of marine microbiologists when studying microorganisms in the ocean.

Colwell recognized the increase in published Geohealth research due to the advancement in our understanding of how Earth and space science provides deeper insight into health and disease in both people and ecosystems.

Colwell's memoir "A Lab of One's Own: One Woman's Personal Journey Through Sexism in Science",[16] written with Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, was released in August 2020.

Colwell is a co-author of a letter published in The Lancet titled "Statement in support of the scientists, public health professionals, and medical professionals of China combatting COVID-19" in which the authors declared, "We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.