Margot Gerritsen to receive 2014 Richard W. Lyman Award

The award recognizes faculty who go above and beyond to engage alumni on campus, regionally and around the world.

Margot Gerritsen, associate professor of energy resources engineering and director of the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, has been named the recipient of the 2014 Richard W. Lyman Award from the Stanford Alumni Association.

Margot Gerritsen

Lyman Award winner Margot Gerritsen shares with alumni not only her professional research in unconventional energy resources but also her personal passion for sailing. (Image credit: L.A. Cicero)

Gerritsen will receive the award this afternoon at a private reception.

The Lyman Award honors faculty who go above and beyond to engage alumni on campus, regionally and around the world and who embrace alumni through volunteer events, aiding the Alumni Association in following its mission to reach, serve and engage. For the last 10 years, Gerritsen, who earned her doctorate from Stanford in 1997, has embraced this mission, bringing her extensive knowledge from campus to alumni worldwide.

An expert in renewable and fossil energy production, Gerritsen focuses on understanding and simulating complicated fluid flow problems. She has led trips for the Stanford Alumni Association’s Travel/Study program in places as far as New Zealand and Tanzania and an online book discussion with the Stanford Book Salon. Most recently, Gerritsen captivated a room of alumni at Stanford+Connects in Seattle in a discussion of unconventional energy resources.

In addition to her professional research, Gerritsen also has a personal interest in sailing and has shared this passion with Stanford alumni during lectures on the design of yachts and the mathematics behind sailing. Whatever the topic, she engages her audiences with her deep knowledge and great wit.

“Stanford’s nearly 220,000 alumni living throughout the world are a tremendously diverse group of people,” said Stanford Alumni Association President Howard Wolf, ’80. “One thing they all have in common, however, is a deep thirst for knowledge and intellectual stimulation. We are lucky to have so many amazing faculty members here at Stanford willing to quench this thirst through their participation in a myriad of alumni education offerings. We are truly in their debt.”

Named in honor of Stanford’s seventh president, the Richard W. Lyman Award was established in 1983 as a way to thank a specific faculty member who exceeds expectations and continues to engage alumni once they leave campus. In addition to the award, the prize includes funding toward books and materials for the University Libraries designated by the recipient.