Alexander Hamilton Medal
The Alexander Hamilton Medal is presented each year by the Columbia College Alumni Association to an alumnus/a or faculty member for distinguished service and accomplishment in any field of endeavor. The Alexander Hamilton Medal, first presented in 1947 to Nicholas Murray Butler, is the highest tribute awarded to a member of the Columbia College community. Among alumni, Hamilton Medal recipients are rarer and tend to be more impressive on average than the winners of the John Jay Award alone, and is often a sort of next step up from that prize.
Recently, Herman Wouk's was sold on eBay as a paperweight.
Past Winners
- 1947 - University President Nicholas Murray Butler CC 1882
- 1948 - Frank Diehl Fackenthal CC 1906
- 1948 - Vi Kyuin Wellington Koo CC 1909
- 1950 - William Joseph Donovan CC 1905
- 1951 - Harry James Carman (namesake of Carman Hall)
- 1952 - Carlton Hayes CC 1904
- 1953 - Arthur Hays Sulzberger CC 1913
- 1954 - Frank Smithwick Hogan CC 1924
- 1955 - Frederick Coykendall CC 1895
- 1955 - Marcellus Hartley Dodge CC 1903
- 1956 - Richard Rodgers CC 1923 and Oscar Hammerstein II CC 1916
- 1957 - University President Grayson Kirk
- 1958 - Edmund Prentis Mines 1906
- 1959 - Mark Van Doren PhD 1920
- 1960 - Ward Melville CC 1909
- 1961 - The College honored its Nobel Laureates: Edward Calvin Kendall (CC 1908), Polykarp Kusch, Willis Eugene Lamb, Jr., Joshua Lederberg (CC 1944), Herman Joseph Miller (CC 1910), John Howard Northrop (CC 1912), Isidor Isaac Rabi, Harold Clayton Urey
- 1975 - Meyer Schapiro CC '24
- 1979 - University President William McGill
- 1980 - Herman Wouk CC '34
- 1983 - Franklin Thomas
- 1986 - Joseph Mankiewicz
- 1989 - Robert Pollack CC '61
- 1991 - John Kluge CC '37
- 1994 - Core Curriculum Faculty: Honoring the 75th Anniversary of the Core Curriculum by awarding the 75 tenured faculty teaching Core Classes. Accepted on their behalf by Jacques Barzun CC '27
- 1995 - Columbia Science Nobel Prize Winners since 1961: Leon N. Cooper `51 (Physics 1972), Roald Hoffmann `58 (Chemistry 1981), Norman F. Ramsey, Jr. `35 (Physics 1989), Melvin Schwartz `53 (Physics 1988) Julian S. Schwinger `36 (posthumously) (Physics 1965)
- 1997 - Alfred Lerner CC '55
- 1998 - Roone Arledge CC '52
- 1999 - Columbia Professors: William Theodore de Bary, CC'41, James Shenton, CC'49, Richard Axel, CC'67
- 2000 - William Campbell, CC '62
- 2003 - Emanuel Ax CC '70
- 2004 - Robert Kraft CC '63
- 2005 - Richard Witten CC '75
- 2006 - Bob Berne CC '60 BUS '60
- 2007 - Mark E. Kingdon CC '71
- 2008 - Columbia College Dean Austin Quigley
- 2009 - Conrad H. Lung CC '72
- 2010 - Michael Rothfeld CC '69 J'71 SIPA '71 Business '71
- 2011 - Gerry Lenfest Law '58
- 2012 - Jonathan Schiller '69, '73LAW
- 2013 - Joel Klein CC '67
- 2014 - Phillip M. Satow CC '63
- 2015 - Eric Holder CC '73, LAW '76
- 2016 - Columbia Professors Eric Foner CC '63, GSAS '69, Ronald Breslow, Kenneth Jackson
- 2017 - Jonathan S. Lavine CC '88
- 2018 - Lisa L. Carnoy CC '89
- 2019 - Dr. George D. Yancopoulos CC '80, GSAS '86, PS '87
- 2021 - Columbia College Dean James Valentini
- 2022 - Claire Shipman CC '86 SIPA '94
Previous winners also include Columbia President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
