Nick Muerdter never set out to be a hero. He did what he always does with a warm heart for others. He took a complex problem and delivered a simple solution, which gave older Coloradans one less thing to worry about when trying to find a life-saving vaccination.

That’s why Gov. Jared Polis sees the 35-year-old software developer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden as Colorado’s COVID Hero. He is one of eight state Coloradans who will receive a Governor’s Citizenship Medal in March.

In February 2021, older people were trying to find places to get vaccinated against coronavirus, a laborious task that sent them from website to website, searching for what seemed a needle in Colorado’s haystack of locations and appointment times flung across large regions.

Muerdter saw a better way, much as he does with his work developing websites and software around energy, primarily transportation.

He interfaced pharmacies’ appointment schedules with ZIP codes, driving distances and availability. Voila: the Covid-19 Vaccine Spotter was born.

He started working on the idea on Feb. 9, 2021, and a week later launched a website covering Colorado. 

“I started to get a lot of feedback pretty immediately from people who were like, ‘This is great, but, you know, my parents live in another state. I’m desperately trying find an appointment for them there. Is there anything you could do to help me for that situation?'”

Since he was using national pharmacy chains, he hunkered down more on his labor of goodwill, looping in more than 40,000 pharmacy locations. The site drew 5 million unique users accounting for 54 million page views.

“It just sort of took off by word of mouth,” he said.

He didn’t do it to get famous, get rich or get a medal from the governor, however.

Muerdter took personal time off from work, though he notes NREL was supportive of the distraction, he said. A few people here and there wanted to donate money to the cause, which he was reluctant to take, but again he saw an opportunity to do some good: He donated that money to COVID-19 relief charities.

CNN profiled his selfless ingenuity in April. 

He shut the site down in September, once it had served its purpose and the shots were ubiquitous. 

A native of Asheville, North Carolina, Muerdter interned at NREL in college then joined the staff in 2009. He leads the data analysis team in the Center for Integrated Mobility Sciences’ transportation applications and data analysis group.

Medal recipients each year are chosen by the governor.

“Nick dedicated his spare time to helping Coloradans find vaccine appointments,” Polis told Colorado Politics. “His volunteer effort to help others gain access to the free, lifesaving and effective vaccine played an important role in helping Colorado achieve its early goal of vaccinating our older Coloradans first and then getting 70% of adults vaccinated by July 4, 2021, which was crucial as the deadly delta variant spread across the world.

“Nick played an impactful role in empowering Colorado with timely information on how to get protected from the virus.”

The awards are the work of CiviCO, a nonprofit that identifies and provides training on current affairs to civic-minded leaders with the aim of cultivating long-term guidance for the advancement of the state.

Deemed by organizers as “one of the highest honors bestowed upon citizens and organizations of Colorado for their significant contributions to communities across the state,” the medals were first presented in 2015, under then-Gov. John Hickenlooper, but soon attracted the support of former governors, Democrat and Republican.

Recipients embody Colorado values of service, integrity, teamwork, respect and innovation, CiviCO said.