Jane Fountain has been honored with an Outstanding Academic Book award for 2002 by Choice, whose highly prestigious award recognizes "the best of the best in published scholarship." Her pathbreaking study of the global transformation of governance, Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change, was published by the Brookings Institution Press in August 2001. Fountain is Associate Professor of Public Policy; co-chair of the Information, Technology, and Governance Faculty Group; and Director of the National Center for Digital Government at the Kennedy School. Every year in the January issue, Choice magazine publishes a highly selective list of Outstanding Academic Titles. This prestigious list reflects the best in scholarly titles reviewed by Choice. In making the award, the editors apply several criteria including excellence in presentation and scholarship, significance of the contribution to a field, and distinction as an important?often the first?treatment of a subject.