Philosophy Chair John
Etchemendy to become provost
John Etchemendy, chairman
of the Department of Philosophy, has been named
Stanford's new provost, effective Sept. 1, President
Gerhard Casper announced at the Faculty Senate meeting on
Thursday, June 8. Casper appointed Etchemendy on
the recommendation of provost and president-designate
John Hennessy, who co-chaired an 11-member search
committee.
"I am very pleased to
report to you that at the request of the
president-designate and incumbent provost, I appoint John
Etchemendy as the university's next provost," Casper
told members of the senate, who applauded his
announcement.
Hennessy said Etchemendy
has made numerous contributions to Stanford. "He's
been an outstanding chair of philosophy and helped lead
philosophy to a new level. He served as associate dean
under [former Humanities and Sciences] Dean John Shoven
and he's received rave reviews from his colleagues.
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"I think he brings a
wonderful perspective on the humanities, but -- just as
important -- an ability to talk broadly to his colleagues
across the institution. He's of course well-versed in
technology and served as the initial leader of the
presidential Commission on Technology in Teaching and
Learning."
Etchemendy, 48, earned his
doctorate at Stanford in 1982 and has been a faculty
member in the Department of Philosophy since 1983. He is
also a faculty member of the Symbolic Systems Program and
a senior researcher at the Center for the Study of
Language and Information.
Etchemendy, whose research
interests include logic, semantics and the philosophy of
languages, has challenged orthodox views on the central
notions of truth, logical consequence and logical truth.
His recent work has focused on the role of diagrams and
other nonlinguistic forms of representation in reasoning.
His latest books are Language, Proof and Logic
(1999) and Hyperproof (1994), both written with
the late Jon Barwise. He and Barwise also developed the
academic software "Turing's World" and
"Tarski's World," as well as the
"Hyperproof" software that allows computers to
support the human reasoning process.
An exceptionally popular
teacher, Etchemendy won the Bing Teaching Award in 1992,
the first year it was presented. He was cited for
"the most extraordinarily positive testimony from
students."
Etchemendy said he sees
the provost's position as an "awesome
responsibility. It's something I accepted because I love
Stanford and I think Stanford is a great
institution," adding that he wants to do everything
he can to ensure "the university's possibilities
come to fruition."
Etchemendy served as
senior associate dean in the School of Humanities and
Sciences from 1993 to 1997. He was director of the Center
for the Study of Language and Information prior to that.
He also chaired the Commission on Technology in Teaching
and Learning that President Gerhard Casper established to
explore ways to enhance traditional teaching methods
through technology. Etchemendy served on the advisory
board of the Academic Council in 1998-99, and has been a
freshman adviser.
During the past year, he
was deputy chair of the search committee that in April
nominated Hennessy to be Stanford's next president.
Etchemendy was born in
Reno, Nev., and earned his bachelor's and master's
degrees at the University of Nevada, Reno. He was a
lecturer at Princeton University from 1981 to 1982 and an
assistant professor there from 1982 to 1983.
He is a member of the
American Philosophical Association and the Association
for Symbolic Logic. SR
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