Timothy Miller and Anjan Thakor have been chosen by their academic peers to receive WashU’s 2026 faculty achievement awards. The faculty members were among several people recognized during the university’s annual Founders Day celebration.
The event was held Oct. 24 to honor the achievements of distinguished faculty, alumni and supporters. WashU began celebrating Founders Day in 1953 to commemorate the centennial of the university’s founding.
Faculty Achievement Awards
The Arthur Holly Compton Faculty Achievement Award is given to a distinguished member of the faculty from one of the eight Danforth Campus schools. The Carl and Gerty Cori Faculty Achievement Award goes to a faculty member from WashU Medicine. All full-time, active WashU faculty members are eligible to receive the Faculty Achievement Award. Thakor received the Compton award, while Miller received the Cori award.
“Faculty awards are an annual opportunity to recognize colleagues who have made a meaningful difference at WashU and far beyond,” Chancellor Andrew D. Martin said. “Timothy Miller is a global leader in the study of neurodegenerative diseases, and his research has produced unprecedented advances in the treatment of ALS. And Anjan Thakor’s scholarship in finance has helped reshape corporate culture by showing why businesses should pursue a higher purpose. We’re grateful to both of them for strengthening WashU’s impact on the world.”
Anjan Thakor
Anjan Thakor, an internationally recognized leader in financial economics research, is the John E. Simon Professor of Finance and director of the Wells Fargo Advisors Center for Finance and Accounting Research at WashU Olin Business.
Thakor is best known for his work in banking and corporate finance. His current banking research focuses on how banks create money, the role of bank capital, how this interacts with fiat money created by the government, and how central bank monetary policy affects bank credit policies and risk. Through his research, executive education and consulting work, Thakor has helped change corporate culture, growth strategy and governance practices at organizations across the finance industry and around the world.
In recent years, he also has researched organizational higher purpose, a concept he first developed with his colleague Robert Quinn at the University of Michigan. His innovative research finds that employees of companies that have an authentic higher purpose report higher levels of employee satisfaction and engagement, and that these companies also enjoy higher levels of customer satisfaction and improved forward-looking measures of performance, such as stock price.
Thakor, who joined Olin Business in 2003, was senior associate dean of Olin from 2005 to 2010 and interim dean of the school from July 2022 to September 2023. He also led Olin’s doctoral program from 2010 to 2022 and is academic director of the executive MBA program in Mumbai.
Thakor earned his doctorate from Northwestern University in 1979 and received an honorary degree from the University of Gothenburg’s School of Business, Economics, and Law in 2024.
Timothy Miller
Timothy Miller, MD, PhD, the David Clayson Professor of Neurology and vice chair of research in the WashU Medicine Department of Neurology, is a global leader in applying antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) to treat neurodegenerative diseases. ASOs can target specific genes and change the production or behavior of certain proteins.
Miller’s team used ASOs to target mutations in the SOD1 gene, which can cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease. He led international clinical trials that resulted in the 2023 FDA approval of the drug tofersen. Continuing studies have shown that some SOD1 ALS patients taking tofersen experience improved strength and mobility, an unprecedented outcome.
As co-director of the WashU Medicine ALS Center, Miller has built a comprehensive clinical care program offering diagnostics, clinical trial access, individualized treatment plans and education for ALS patients and their families.
Miller’s contributions extend to other neurodegenerative diseases as well. Collaborative research conducted at WashU Medicine led to clinical trials in early Alzheimer’s disease, where a tau-targeting ASO was shown to lower tau protein levels and reverse the aggregation of tau tangles, which are responsible for the cognitive decline experienced by Alzheimer’s patients.
Miller earned his MD and PhD at WashU Medicine, trained as a neurology resident and neuromuscular fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, and completed postdoctoral work at the University of California, San Diego, before joining the WashU Medicine faculty in 2007. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Association of American Physicians.
Distinguished Faculty Awards
The Distinguished Faculty Award recognizes outstanding commitment to the intellectual and personal development of students.
This year’s recipients are Joseph A. O’Sullivan, professor and dean of the UMSL/WashU Joint Undergraduate Engineering Program and the Samuel C. Sachs Professor of Electrical Engineering at the WashU McKelvey School of Engineering, and Paul J. Scheel Jr., MD, vice chancellor for clinical affairs at WashU Medicine.
Distinguished Alumni Awards
The Distinguished Alumni Awards recognize outstanding professional achievement, public service, exceptional service to WashU or all three.
This year’s recipients are:
- Nellie Anderson-Hutt, AB ’75, JD ’78, former federal administrative appeals judge, Office of Hearings and Appeals, Social Security Administration
- Jared Della Valle, MArch ’96, MS ’96, CEO and co-founder, Alloy Development
- Louis G. Hutt Jr., BSBA ’76, CEO and managing member, The Hutt Company
- Sanjai Kohli, MS ’81, founder and chief technology officer, CspeedIO Inc.
- James A. Schlie, MSW ’67, U.S. Army colonel, former nonprofit consultant
Robert S. Brookings Award
Presented by the Board of Trustees, the Robert S. Brookings Award honors individuals for their extraordinary dedication and generosity to WashU.
This year’s honorees are Jacqueline and W. Randolph Baker, St. Louis civic leaders who have invested in clinical practice and medical discovery at WashU Medicine, and Distinguished Trustee Andrew Bursky, AB ’78, BS ’78, MS ’78; and Jane Bursky, AB ’78, longtime supporters of WashU who recently made the largest gift in university history with a pledge through the Bursky Family Foundation that named the Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky School of Public Health.
Read bios of all of the honorees, and watch a video of the event, on the Founders Day website.
