The Dish | Stanford people on the move and in the spotlight

H&S Arnice P. Streit Award presented to Chester Washington

May 23rd, 2012

Maintenance worker CHESTER WASHINGTON, a 42-year veteran of the university, was recently awarded the 2012 Arnice P. Streit Award for distinguished service to the Department of Biology, the School of Humanities and Sciences and Stanford.

The award was created in 1987 in honor of Arnice P. Streit, whose record of excellence in several key posts left an indelible impression on faculty and staff during her 27-year career in H&S.

The award was presented during a recent ceremony that also included the awarding of other School of Humanities and Sciences recognitions. Service awards went to 95 employees who represent 1,089 years of continued service, ranging from five to 40 years.

Washington was praised for his integrity, skill and resourcefulness. A faculty nominator praised Washington for a “generosity of spirit” that “infects the people he helps so much. He is such an open-hearted person that just talking with him puts me in a good mood for a week.”

Also honored with the Dean’s Award of Merit were ALYCE BOSTER, office manager in the Department of English, PAMELA HUNG, administrative associate in the Department of Biology, GABRIELA MAGANA, administrative associate in the Department of Linguistics, and PAMELA WIDRIN, administrative associate in the Department of Psychology.

Frost Amphitheater comes alive again

May 22nd, 2012

For the first time in a long time, Frost Amphitheater saw a lot of action over the weekend between national headlining acts and Stanford’s own homegrown entertainment.

First up in Saturday’s Frost Revival Concert was Benjamin Francis Leftwich, a singer-whisperer-songwriter from York, England, who just ended his national tour. He delivered a short set that warmed up the crowd, just he and his guitar, followed by an animated performance by Provo, Utah’s, Eyes Lips Eyes. Front man Tony Hello, sporting blond locks that hark back to Robert Plant from back in the day, kicked around a trash can for a bit and danced with the Stanford tree before relinquishing the stage to the headliner, Modest Mouse (above).

Modest Mouse delivered. The band played 14 songs in the hot sun, including a debut performance of Heart of Mine from its upcoming release before returning to the stage for a three-song encore. The 4,500-plus members of the audience could not have been happier.

Sunday’s Blackfest saw a smaller crowd, but the devoted fans of E-40 and Kendrick Lamar filled Frost with high energy.

Contributing to the festivities before the headliners were Stanford Greeks and the East Palo Alto youth empowerment group Mural Music & Arts Project. MMAP’s breakout star, Fat Boy, treated the crowd to some inspired Dougie moves during an on-stage dance-off while impromptu dance lines popped up in the crowd.

E-40 and Kendrick Lamar delivered short, impactful sets that had the audience singing along and bouncing in rhythm to the beats. Lamar wrapped up the show by jumping down into the crowd and communing with the fans. He came back for a one-song encore and finished for good at precisely 6:59 p.m. – just in time to catch the solar eclipse.

The Amy J. Blue Awards ceremony honors staff members and the memory of Amy Blue

May 21st, 2012

STEVE PAPIER, supervisor of engineering trades in Land, Buildings & Real Estate; DENNI DIANNE WOODWARD, associate director of the Native American Cultural Center; and DONNOVAN SOMERA YISRAEL, manager of relationship and sexual health programs at Vaden Health Center, were recently honored with Amy J. Blue Awards.

The annual awards recognize staff members who are exceptionally dedicated, supportive of colleagues and passionate about their work. The recent ceremony also featured remembrances of the late AMY BLUE, who was an associate vice president for administrative services and facilities known for her leadership and dedication to Stanford.

Legendary swim coach Skip Kenney to retire

May 18th, 2012

Skip Kenney

One of the most respected coaches in the world of swimming, SKIP KENNEY, Stanford’s Goldman Family Director of Men’s Swimming, announced his retirement following 33 years at the helm of the Cardinal program.

Kenney will coach the Cardinal through the U.S. Trials, ending July 2.

“Who would have ever have thought it? I grew up in California and in Fresno, went to Long Beach State, and Stanford was always the big name,” said Kenney. “We exceeded all levels of expectation. The kind of people you get to work with here, the athletes that come through here. You pinch yourself when you are really here. It’s just unbelievable.”

“Coach Kenney is one of the iconic figures in college swimming and he has had a profound impact in shaping the lives of hundreds of young men,” said BOB BOWLSBY, the university’s Jaquish & Kenninger Director of Athletics. “Skip has always been a coach that put the team first, and in doing so he has taught lifetime lessons about how to weave the fabric of a high-achieving organization. The Stanford Men’s Swimming Program under Coach Kenney’s guidance has established many standards that will never be equaled in the PAC 12 or nationally.”

Read the complete story on the Stanford Athletics website.

‘Bite-sized’ reading from SUP

May 17th, 2012

Harvey, the press' deputy director and editor-in-chief, has been named as the new director, effective July 1.

Our reading life is increasingly onscreen nowadays – and the demand is growing for texts that are faster and shorter, “bite-sized.” Stanford University Press has responded with a digital imprint called “Stanford Briefs.” The short e-originals – about 20,000 to 40,000 words – will focus on a variety of academic topics.

The first, The Physics of Business Growth by Edward D. Hess and Jeanne Liedtka, will be available this week for $9.99. According to ALAN HARVEY, incoming director of the press, it is “crisp and keenly focused on approaches for business readers to grasp and implement.”

Stanford Briefs will be available through all major e-book sellers, as well as on the press’ website, www.sup.org. The press also will offer print-on-demand trade paperbacks.

“There’s an underlying philosophy for the briefs here at the press,” said Harvey. “They’ll be accessible but not simplified, and should be digestible in one or two sessions – bite-sized – and not require a month of reading. In philosophy and literature, I anticipate the books having more parallels to the traditional essay format.

“Stanford has long had its eye on the marketplace for new electronic offerings. We were just waiting for the right concept to inspire us.”

Future titles include Moving Forward: Understanding U.S. Health Care Under the Affordable Care Act and Working The System: How to Resolve Organizational Quandaries by Engaging Systems Thinking. The press is considering other briefs in the areas of humanities, security studies, Asian and Middle East studies and political science.

“We’ve got our second brief coming in for peer review in a couple of weeks,” said Harvey. “We have two or three more manuscripts due this summer, and are fielding proposals from authors for more.”

“We’d initially thought six to eight per year would suffice, but we’ll expand as far as needed. If there are 20 excellent projects, we’ll take them on.”

— BY CYNTHIA HAVEN, Stanford University Libraries

And the Fidler goes to . . .

May 16th, 2012

Ken Hsu was presented with the Margaret Ann Fidler Award on Tuesday. Photo by L.A. Cicero

At a ceremony complete with red carpet, a Joan Rivers lookalike, and a John Travolta impersonator, the Office of the Vice Provost for Student Affairs Tuesday named KEN HSU, director of the Graduate Life Office, the recipient of this year’s Margaret Ann Fidler Award for Distinguished Service in Student Affairs.

The award, named for MARGARET ANN FIDLER, former associate vice provost for administration in Student Affairs, recognizes those who “demonstrate extraordinary dedication to their work and the mission of the university and whose work reflects integrity and a sincere belief in the value of teamwork and collaboration.” The winner is kept secret until it is presented at the annual Student Affairs Service Awards breakfast.

Fidler, who retired in 2001, was traveling and unavailable for this year’s presentation, but as is custom, Hsu will have lunch with her and previous winners of the award. He also will receive a $1000 prize.

CHRIS GRIFFITH associate vice provost for student life, presented the award to Hsu, recognizing his gifts as a role model, his extraordinarily calm, and his empathetic crisis-resolution skills.

Hsu, who was born in Taiwan and immigrated Wisconsin at the age of 14, also was cited “for being everyone’s favorite [University of Wisconsin] Badger Football fan outside of Wisconsin.”

Hsu said he had come to the breakfast under the pretense of meeting with Griffith and was completely caught off guard. “To look at all those dedicated people in Student Affairs, it’s very humbling. Everybody there is at least equally deserving.”

Hsu came to Stanford in 2000 as an undergraduate residence dean in Residential Education, working with freshmen in the Wilbur and Stern dorms. In 2004 moved to the Graduate Life Office as an assistant dean. He was promoted to assistant vice provost and director of that office in 2007.

In addition to the Fidler Award, the event was an occasion to recognize staff in the division who were celebrating their fifth, 10^th, 15^th, 20th, 25^th, 30^th and 35^th anniversaries. WENDY STEELE, VPSA’s HR manager, who dubbed herself Billy Crystal for the Academy Awards themed morning, planned this year’s event.

If you want to know more about the VPSA and its work, check out the fourth annual Student Affairs Assessment Poster Fair on Friday, May 18, from 2 to 4 p.m. in Tresidder Oak Lounge. Approximately 40 posters will be on display with staff on hand to explain their projects. Information about last year’s event is available on the Poster Fair website.

— BY ELAINE RAY

On video: Campus steps out for the Cardinal Walk

May 15th, 2012

More than a thousand people stepped out for the sixth annual Cardinal Walk last Friday. The one-and-a-half-mile hike around campus is held to encourage faculty, students and staff to incorporate regular exercise into their lifestyle. JOHN ETCHEMENDY, provost and acting president, was on hand to warm up the crowd.

SLAC Scientists win early career awards from the Department of Energy

May 14th, 2012

SLAC scientists Dao Xiang, left, and Leonardo Senatore are two recipients of Early Career Research Awards, presented by the Department of Energy's Office of Science.

Two SLAC physicists and an LCLS researcher from Berkeley Lab have won prestigious Early Career Research Awards from the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. They are among 68 young researchers selected from a nationwide pool of 850 applicants.

The award winners are:

DAO XIANG, a SLAC accelerator physicist who is working on a technique known as “external seeding” for improving the function of X-ray free electron lasers.
LEONARDO SENATORE, a theoretical physicist with the SLAC-Stanford Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) who is applying particle physics techniques to answer questions in cosmology.
OLIVER GESSNER, a physicist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who is using the Linac Coherent Light Source to study the fundamental physics of a promising method for increasing the efficiency of solar cells.

The five-year grants, announced Tuesday by the DOE Office of Science, are designed to provide financial support to exceptional young researchers at a point in their careers when they may be long on ideas but short on research funds.

“These awards demonstrate the extraordinary breadth of the research going on at SLAC – from theory to cutting-edge experiments and the development of accelerator technology that will power the research of tomorrow,” said SLAC Director Persis Drell. “I offer my congratulations to these young scientists and their colleagues across the nation.”

Read the full announcement on the SLAC Today website.

Richter honored by Obama, Chu in Washington

May 11th, 2012

President Barack Obama greets 2010 Fermi Award recipients Burton Richter, right, and his wife, Laurose, and Mildred S. Dresselhaus, third from right, and her husband, Gene, in the Oval Office, May 7, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

BURTON RICHTER, director emeritus of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the Paul Pigott Professor in the Physical Sciences, Emeritus, was one of two of the nation’s most accomplished scientists honored Monday for devoting their lives to great science, teaching and mentoring, and public service.

After visiting with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office on Monday, May 7, Richter and MILDRED DRESSELHAUS, professor emerita of physics and electrical engineering at MIT, were joined by distinguished guests at the Ronald Reagan International Center. There, Secretary of Energy STEVEN CHU, the Theodore and Frances Geballe Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, Emeritus, at Stanford, honored them as winners of the Enrico Fermi Award.

The Fermi Award is one of the oldest and most prestigious science and technology honors bestowed by the U.S. government. It is administered by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science to honor individuals who have given unstintingly over their careers to advance energy science, and to inspire future scientists to follow their example.

Richter was recognized “for the breadth of his influence in the multiple disciplines of accelerator physics and particle physics, his profound scientific discoveries, his visionary leadership as SLAC director, his leadership of science, and his notable contributions in energy and public policy.”

Read the full announcement at whitehouse.gov.

John Taylor wins Hayek Prize

May 10th, 2012

Stanford economist JOHN B. TAYLOR has won this year’s Hayek Prize for his book, First Principles: Five Keys to Restoring America’s Prosperity. The $50,000 award is given by the Manhattan Institute in New York and honors the book that best reflects economist and Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek’s vision of economic and individual liberty.

In First Principles, Taylor offers solutions to the current economic crisis that involve returning to America’s founding principles. “The premise of (First Principles),” writes Taylor, “is that the best way to understand the problems confronting the American economy is to go back to the first principles of economic freedom upon which the country was founded.”

Taylor shows that when we embrace these first principles, the economy prospers. When we abandon them, the economy falters.

A senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Taylor previously served as undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs. He was also a member of President George H.W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers.

He is the creator of the Taylor Rule, a monetary policy rule that stipulates how much the central bank should change the nominal interest rate in response to changes in inflation, output or other economic conditions.

Taylor will accept the prize and deliver the Hayek Lecture on May 31 in New York City.

Read the full announcement on Hoover’s website.