Avi Leibovici, senior counselor at the Staff/Faculty Consultation Center, will retire on December 11 after 33 years of service to the Institute. During his tenure, he has helped hundreds of Caltech employees and their families, providing counseling in several languages he speaks fluently.

Caltech’s annual Distinguished Alumni Awards—the highest honor the Institute bestows upon its graduates—recognize “a particular achievement of noteworthy value, a series of such achievements, or a career of noteworthy accomplishment.” The 2024 luminaries include a lauded best-selling science-fiction author and futurist; a chemist whose electron microscopy analysis revolutionized our understanding of genes and messenger RNA; a leading tech industry executive, venture capitalist, and mentor; and a chemical-sensing innovator whose research has led to life-saving discoveries.

Engineer Mory Gharib (PhD ’83) delves into the mechanics of the body’s most critical biological pump to reveal its secrets and develop lifesaving medical devices.