Philanthropist, business leader, and three-term New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a member of the Johns Hopkins University Class of 1964, was one of 19 individuals presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden during a ceremony at the White House on Friday afternoon.
Image caption: President Biden presents Michael Bloomberg the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Image credit: White House livestream
The nation's highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom is presented to those who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors, according to a White House news release.
President Biden honored Bloomberg for revolutionizing the financial information industry and for transforming the state of education, the environment, public health, and the arts in New York City as its mayor from January 2002 to December 2013. He joins an esteemed class of honorees this year, including former vice president and U.S. senator and congressman Al Gore, former secretary of state John Kerry, Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, astronaut Ellen Ochoa, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and Academy Award-winning actress Michelle Yeoh.
Bloomberg is the latest of several Hopkins affiliates to receive the honor. The others are:
- Detlev Bronk, sixth president of Johns Hopkins University, awarded by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964
- D.A. Henderson, epidemiologist and former dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health, awarded by George W. Bush in 2002
- Arnall Patz, physician and research professor at the School of Medicine, awarded by George W. Bush in 2004
- Ben Carson, former director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, awarded by George W. Bush in 2008
- Barbara Mikulski, former U.S. senator from Maryland and Homewood Professor of Public Policy, awarded by Barack Obama in 2015
Image credit: White House livestream
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