Phil Bereano '62, MRP '71, is the winner of a lifetime achievement award from the ACLU's Washington state affiliate. The ACLU cited him for "decades of activism and his prescient advocacy on issues of technology and civil liberties" during its presentation of the William O. Douglas Award.

Bereano, who graduated from Cornell with a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and a master's degree in city and regional planning, has served on the ACLU's board since 1994 and chairs its committee on data collection, storage and dissemination. He led the Washington state chapter to pass the ACLU's first policy on DNA collection and dissemination.

A professor emeritus at the University of Washington, Bereano is an expert and activist in the areas of discrimination and equitable access to technology, the protection of privacy for people with HIV/AIDS, public participation in government decisions, genetic engineering, and privacy considerations of DNA identification files and human tissue banks.

He is a founding member of the Council for Responsible Genetics and the Washington Biotechnology Action Council.