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With unfailing energy and laser-sharp focus on institutional improvement, Michael Schill, Northwestern’s 17th president, plans to continue the University’s “rapid and steep” ascent to become one of the nation’s top universities. And now, in addition to maintaining the University’s high academic standards, he has a clear goal: building Northwestern’s athletic department into a national model for integrity and student well-being.

Get to know Northwestern’s 17th president

President Schill sits in a chair with his legs crossed, glancing to the left and smiling.
The 2023 Northwestern Alumni Medal recipients — Roberta Buffett Elliott ‘54, Chris Galvin ’73, ’77 MBA and Charles S. Modlin Jr. ’83, ’87 MD — are leaders in philanthropy, business and health care.

Meet the medalists

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Fourth-year doctoral candidate Tabor Whitney ’22 MA spends several months each year in Los Tuxtlas, Mexico, collecting feces samples from mantled howler monkeys. The feces may contain clues about the monkeys’ physical condition and could aid Whitney in developing a “health index welfare assessment,” a tool that provides metrics that conservationists can use to make decisions about the endangered creatures.

Learn more about Whitney’s research

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Joanna Bush ’99 is a top concept artist and film illustrator in Hollywood who has helped bring to life Oscar-winning films like Life of Pi and La La Land. She has collaborated with filmmakers like Steven Soderbergh, Ang Lee, Jordan Peele, Zach Braff ’97, Tyler Perry, and more, while crediting the Northwestern student group Section 22 for giving her a start in film.

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We’re all generating an exponential amount of data all the time, and the ability to connect the dots between those bits of data is cause for concern. Northwestern alumni who work in privacy protection agree that comprehensive federal legislation is needed to set reasonable expectations for individual data protection rights and to harmonize the growing patchwork of state rules that protect only a subset of the population.

Learn five tips to protect your privacy

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As President Michael Schill wrapped up his first few months in office, Northwestern Magazine talked with him about higher education’s role in creating a compassionate community, his favorite books and what he values most in his human — and canine — companions.

Meet President Schill

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Humanity has made a mess of our precious planet. These researchers are developing amazing new ways to help restore it.

Explore the feature

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Lizards can regrow their tails and crabs their severed claws. Now, after decades of research, scientists including Samuel Stupp ’77 PhD are closer than ever to unlocking the human body’s healing powers.

Learn more about regenerative medicine

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Meet the 2022 recipients of the NAA’s highest honor, the Northwestern Alumni Medal: ‘Sex and the City’ writer Cindy Chupack ’87, broadcasting veteran David Louie ’72 and Inclusive Capital Partners founder Jeff Ubben ’87 MBA.

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ESPN legends Mike Greenberg and Michael Wilbon are part of a loud and proud network of Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications alumni in sports journalism. We talked with several prominent and up-and-coming sports media stars about how serendipitous timing put them in the right place to do groundbreaking reporting — and how sports reporting helps us understand broader societal issues.

Step inside the press box

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