Mary Jeanne Kreek, MD, is a graduate of Wellesley College and of the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. She is Professor and Head of the Laboratory of the Biology of Addictive Diseases at The Rockefeller University. Dr. Kreek went to The Rockefeller Institute in 1964 to join the late Professor Vincent P. Dole; at that same time, Dr. Dole was joined by the late Dr. Marie Nyswander. The team of three performed the initial studies of the potential use of a long-acting opioid agonist, methadone, in chronic management of heroin addiction. By molecular, cell biological, neurochemical, behavioral and basic clinical research and human genetics studies, she has documented the role of the endogenous opioid system in cocaine, alcohol, and heroin addiction, which has resulted in more than 400 scientific reports. Dr. Kreek received the AMERSA Betty Ford Award (1996), the ASAM R. Brinkley Smithers Distinguished Scientist Award (1999), the CPDD Nathan B. Eddy Memorial Award for Lifetime Excellence in Drug Abuse Research (1999), the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons Alumni Association’s Gold Medal for Lifetime Distinguished Achievements in Academic Medicine (2004), the CPDD Marian W. Fischman Award and Lecture (2005), the International Narcotics Research Conference Founder’s Award (2005), Wellesley College Alumnae Achievement Award (2014) and the Lifetime Science Award by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2014). Dr. Kreek was conferred with honorary doctorates from Uppsala University, Sweden (2000), the University of Tel Aviv (2007), and the University of Bologna (2010).