Mark Gold, AB ’71 and Walter Massey, MA ’66, PhD ’66, Hon. DSc. ’90, received the 2026 Dean’s Medal as part of the Arts & Sciences Distinguished Alumni Awards at a ceremony March 26. The awards honor alumni for their achievements, service and commitment to the liberal arts.
Gold is a pioneer in addiction research whose groundbreaking translational work has shaped the understanding, treatment and societal perception of addiction. His extensive career, spanning more than five decades, has produced seminal contributions that bridged neuroscience, psychiatry, public health and policy — culminating in profound, lasting impacts on how substance use disorders are studied and managed.
Massey is a physicist, educator and author who is currently chair of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization, chair of the City Colleges of Chicago Trustees, president emeritus of Morehouse College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and senior adviser to the president and emeritus trustee of the University of Chicago. Massey is a former director of the National Science Foundation and a strong advocate for educational access for underrepresented students, especially in STEM fields.
At the ceremony, Hu also presented the school’s early career achievement and distinguished alumni awards, which recognize the honorees’ commitment to the ideals of a liberal arts education through their life, work and service.
The early career achievement award was given to Marcus Jecklin, AB ’12 and Michael Weiss, AB ’12, BSBA ’12, classmates who co-founded Ai4, one of North America’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) industry conferences. Jecklin is an AI and real estate entrepreneur and Weiss is an entrepreneur recognized for building professional communities around AI and accelerating enterprise adoption of AI across industries.
The distinguished alumni awards went to Mary Bruce, AB ’05, the chief White House correspondent for ABC News based in Washington, D.C.; and Suzanne Mizera, AB ’74, MA ’76 and James Risch, AB ’74, MSW, ’76, who co-founded the independent consulting firm TorchFish, a brand strategy firm for small and medium-sized businesses.
Read more about the recipients and watch the videos on the Arts & Sciences website.
