The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools recognize and honor one graduate each year with the Distinguished Alumnus/Alumna Award. The Award is the highest honor the Laboratory Schools bestow upon an outstanding alumna or alumnus, and it celebrates the accomplishments of exceptional alumni whose professional achievements, personal lives, public or civic service, philanthropic or volunteer endeavors reflect on society through dedication and meritorious accomplishments.

The 2013 Distinguished Alumna Award Winner: 

Andrea Ghez, '83 

Andrea Ghez is a 2012 winner of the Crafoord Prize for her research on Sagittarius A*, and a 2008 MacArthur Genuis Award recipient for her work in surmounting the limitations of earthbound telescopes. Early in her career, she developed a technique known as speckle imaging, which combined many short exposures from a telescope into one much-crisper image. Lately she's been using adaptive optics to further sharpen our view from here--and compile evidence of young stars at the center of the universe. Ms. Ghez holds the Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine Chair in Astrophysics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where she is also a professor of physics and astronomy.

Past winners of the award are:

 

Bill Blakemore, ’61
Veteran ABC News correspondent and journalist; lead correspondent during the 27-year papacy of Pope John Paul II and ABC Rome Bureau Chief for seven years. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2008. 

Walter J. Blum, ’35
Prominent tax lawyer and corporate finance specialist who held the Edward Levi Distinguished Service Professorship at the University of Chicago. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1994.

Barbara Flynn Currie, ’58
Illinois state senator for the 25th District; she was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1979.  Recipient of the Distinguished Alumna  Award in 1997 

Arne Duncan, ’82
US Secretary of Education and former chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools system. He is a noted civic leader and proponent for children. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2007. 

Ben Heineman, Jr., ’61
Distinguished senior fellow at Harvard Law School's Program on the Legal Profession and a senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He was GE's senior vice president-general counsel from 1987 to 2003 and then senior VP for law and public affairs until his retirement at the end of 2005. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2011. 

Hal Higdon '47
Contributor to Runner's World for longer than any other writer, an article by him having appeared in that publications second issue in 1966. Author of 36 books, including a novel, Marathon, and the best-selling Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide, now in its 4th edition, Higdon also has written books on many subjects and for different age groups. His children's book, The Horse That Played Center Field, was made into an animated feature by ABC-TV. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2012.

Denise Jefferson, ’61
Director of the Alvin Ailey School of Dance and a leader in educating a new generation of dancers. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumna Award in 2009.

Peter Kovler '69  
Journalist, chairman of the board of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, the Center for National Policy and the Kovler Foundations. In his late twenties, Mr. Kovler improbably became the organizer and national Chairman of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Centennial Committee. Decades later, his work and effort led to the creation of the physical FDR Memorial of which the Kovler Foundation is the major private underwriter. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2012.

Sherry Lansing, ’62
Former chief executive officer of Paramount Pictures, who was the first woman to head a major Hollywood movie studio. Films under her supervision include, Titanic and Forrest Gump; she was honored for her charitable work by the Academy of Arts and Sciences with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumna Award in 1993. 

Edward Levi, ’28
American academic leader, scholar, and statesman. Levi was appointed the 71st Attorney General of the United States by President Gerald Ford and previously served as president of the University of Chicago from 1968 to 1975. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1990. 

Jess Levine, ’62
Longtime educator and consultant, as well as an outstanding volunteer to the Laboratory Schools. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1997. 

Lynn Margulis,  '54
Biologist and professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Massachusetts. Ms. Margulis was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1983, honored with the National Medal of Science in 1999, and awarded Sigma Xi's Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement the same year. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumna Award in 2010.

Paul Nitze, ’23
Former Secretary of the Navy from 1963 to 1967 and special adviser to President Ronald Reagan.  He served as Secretary of State on Arms Control and was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Reagan in 1985. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1991 

John W. Rogers, Jr., ’76
Founder and chief executive officer of Ariel Capital Investments, which is the largest black-owned investment firm in the United States. John Rogers is also a noted civic leader and Chair of the Laboratory Schools Board of Directors. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1994. 

Ned Rorem, ’40
Noted American composer and diarist. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his suite Air Music and is also a Grammy Award winner and recipient of Fulbright and Guggenheim Fellowships. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1999. 

Janet Rowley, ’42
Clinical medical researcher who was the first to identify a chromosomal translocation as a cause of leukemia and other cancers; she was a recipient of the National Medal of Science in 1999 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumna Award in 1999. 

John Paul Stevens, ’37
United States Supreme Court Justice. Currently the longest serving member of the Court, he was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Gerald Ford in 1975. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2002. 

Garrick Utley, ’56
Television journalist and former NBC Nightly News anchor. He also worked for ABC and CNN and was a moderator of Meet the Press. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1992.