Arthur Bienenstock to chair Wallenberg Research Link
Arthur Bienenstock, special assistant to the president for federal research policy, has been appointed chair of the Wallenberg Research Link, which facilitates and coordinates visits to Stanford by Swedish individuals and groups from academia, industry and government, Provost John Etchemendy announced recently.
Bienenstock, who will become chair on Sept. 1, will succeed Stig Hagstrom, a professor emeritus of materials science and engineering, who has held the position since 1999. The program also supports a network that helps Swedish newcomers settle in at Stanford.
"Academically, I have become interested in how nations are organized to fund and perform research, and how that influences the research itself," Bienenstock said. "The Wallenberg Research Link will give me the opportunity to understand Sweden a lot better, and to compare it to the United States and see the advantages and disadvantages of different relationships."
Bienenstock, a professor of applied physics and of materials science and engineering, has held a variety of positions at the university since arriving in 1967. In 1978 he took the helm as director of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory—a post he held until 1997.
He served as director of the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials from 2002 to 2003, and as vice provost and dean of research and graduate policy from 2003 to 2006. He became special assistant to the president for federal research policy last November, a post he will retain.
Bienenstock also spent several years in Washington, D.C., where he served as associate director for science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from 1997 to 2001, during the Clinton administration.
Bienenstock, who recently received an honorary doctorate from Lund University, has been a member of the Swedish university's science advisory board since 2006.
Hagstrom joined the Stanford faculty in 1987 as chairman of the Materials Science and Engineering Department and as the head of the Center for Materials Research.
In 1992, he was called back to Sweden to become the chancellor of the Swedish university system. From 1993 to 1996, he served as chairman of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, the oldest engineering academy in the world.
Hagstrom returned to Stanford in 1999 to help establish the Wallenberg Global Learning Network, which links Stanford researchers with colleagues in Sweden and Germany working on joint projects in the sciences, humanities and medicine.
In 2001, Hagstrom became co-director of the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning, which conducts scholarly research to advance the science, technology and practice of teaching and learning, and brings together teachers, scholars and students from around the world.
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