awards and honors

Celebrated painter Laylah Ali (MFA ’94) will receive the Dean’s Medal for outstanding contributions to the field of art from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. In all, seven outstanding alumni will be recognized during the school’s annual Awards for Distinction dinner April 6 for demonstrating creativity, innovation, leadership and vision in their respective fields.

Filmmaker Ericka Beckman (BFA ’74) and visual artist Ian Weaver (MFA ’08) are recipients of the inaugural Stone & DeGuire Contemporary Art Award.

David M. Holtzman, a leading expert in researching the underlying mechanisms that lead to Alzheimer’s disease, and Paul Michael Lützeler, an authority on 18th, 19th and 20th century German literature, will receive Washington University in St. Louis’ 2015 faculty achievement awards, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced.