Selection boards in the Miller Center of Public Affairs, Law and Architecture schools recently selected the recipients of the University’s Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals, the highest honors conferred by the school. The recipients will receive their awards April 14.
According to a University press release, the awards are given to accomplished individuals in the fields valued most by University founder Thomas Jefferson: architecture, civic leadership and law.
Separate selection committees for each field awarded Warren M. Christopher, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, and Robert Irwin with the civic leadership, law and architecture awards, respectively.
Christopher, a former Secretary of State under President Clinton, was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Foundation award for law in 1982. He is being honored this year with the civic leadership medal for his public service, specifically for his work on the National War Powers Commission, said Lisa Porter, assistant director of communications at the Miller Center.
“Secretary Christopher’s expertise and knowledge of American government and diplomacy has been critical to the work of the National War Powers Commission,” she said. “We’re so pleased to be able to learn from his experience and his leadership,”
Law School Dean Paul Mahoney along with a committee consisting of selected faculty members and alumni awarded Scheck and Neufield the law medal, noting that the two recipients were selected largely because of their efforts to free the wrongly convicted. Scheck and Neufeld co-founded the Innocence Project in 1992, which advocates for post-conviction DNA testing.
“I am delighted that Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld will receive the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Law,” Mahoney said. “They have undertaken a lawyer’s most fundamental obligation — to assure the fair and accurate functioning of our justice system.”
Architecture Dean Karen Van Lengen, along with a five-member panel including a representative from the American Institute of Architecture, selected artist Robert Irwin for the architecture medal.
“He’s one of the most influential artists of the light and space movement,” she said, adding that the American artist “has also been deeply influential to the disciplines of architecture and landscape architecture.”
She said while she solicited nominations from teachers and faculty, the nominees do not have to be affiliated with the University, but should be someone who is “honored for their lifetime work.”
The recipients will formally receive their Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals during an exclusive lunch in the Rotunda on Founder’s Day, April 14.
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