Archive for the ‘Best of’ Category

(Photograph courtesy Edith Wu-Nguyen)

New Student Orientation (NSO) is pregnant with possibility – and that goes beyond the stellar talents of the Class of 2013. Just after EDITH WU-NGUYEN, ’99, the director of new student programs, delivered a daughter last week, she sent a photo of little Eleanor, who was sporting an “I’m an NSO Baby” button. The Labor Day delivery took place in the throes of preparations for the arrival of the freshman class. And to add to the baby-and-mama drama, two other key members of the NSO team are with child. KOREN BAKKEGARD, associate dean in the office of Undergraduate Advising and Research, is expecting a baby next month. AMANDA WILSON BERGADO, who runs “Approaching Stanford” and adviser recruitment, is due in November. But the staff hasn’t missed a beat. “I think it’s going to make us stronger,” Dean of Freshmen and Undergraduate Advising JULIE LYTHCOTT-HAIMS, ’89, wrote in an email after delivering Edith’s news. “We’re all donning our rowing trou, grabbing an oar, so we can pull together.”

- Elaine Ray

Coach Harbaugh has made some changes to The Walk this year. (Photograph by Kyle Terada)

Stanford is wacky for its walks. In addition to the nontraditional Commencement processional, there is the more reflective ”Walk the Farm” event, led by history professors DAVID KENNEDY and RICHARD WHITE, and based on the Midwestern practice of walking the perimeter of one’s property to stay in touch with the land. There also is the Cardinal Walk, led by Provost JOHN ETCHEMENDY and designed to get us out of our desk chairs and into the spirit of health and wellness.

But there also is a tradition simply known by football aficionados as The Walk. A tradition at Stanford for decades, it’s the one where the football team and coaches make their way from the locker room at Arrillaga Family Sports Center, past the Chuck Taylor Grove, into the Gate 1 at the stadium, cheered on by fans and our not-exactly-traditional Band. In the past, the coaches and players – fully suited in pads and helmets – began the walk 80 minutes before kickoff. But starting with this Saturday’s home game against San Jose State, the team will take their walk two hours before kickoff donned in sweats instead of full gear.

Coach JIM HARBAUGH, who has enjoyed The Walk since the days when his father coached here, explained: ”We are making these updates to The Walk, in both time and dress, to allow our players to put on their pads, braces and uniforms in the Stanford Stadium locker room. Each player and each position group will now be able to conduct their most beneficial pre-game warmups and routines before putting on those pads.” Harbaugh added that the updated tradition will also protect players from extra exposure to the sun and heat. Harbaugh says he does not expect the changes in The Walk to dampen the spirits of supporters during pre-game festivities. “Cardinal fans can now set their watches to join me and our players two hours before kickoff, each and every Saturday we proudly play at home in Stanford Stadium,” he said.

-Elaine Ray

Professor IAN MORRIS, may be a specialist in ancient history, but it was his own past that caught up with him more recently. Morris, professor in classics and history, was the subject of an item published in Time Out Chicago magazine last week. Question: ”There’s a rumor floating around the University of Chicago that a professor of ancient history and archeology once played guitar in Iron Maiden. Is this true?” The answer was, well, almost. It turns out that Morris, who was a professor at the University of Chicago before joining Stanford’s faculty in 1995, played lead guitar with several bands in and around Birmingham, England, when he was a student in the late ’70s. Iron Maiden was looking for a new guitarist and Morris sent a demo. He didn’t get that gig, but his backup plan has worked out pretty well.

Gracing the cover of the September/October issue of Stanford magazine is alum VALERIE JARRETT. In a profile written by alum ROY JOHNSON, Jarrett, White House adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison, aka “First Friend,” calls her undergraduate experience on the Farm “the best years of my life . . . except for the four coming up.” There’s a great Stanford Quad photo of Jarrett and her dormmates from Olivo-Magnolia, the African American theme dorm now known as Ujamaa. And speaking of fabulous photos: Photographer ROD SEARCEY, Class of ‘84, walks readers through a portrait gallery of some of the most memorable teachers and administrators from his undergraduate years. Titled “Teachable Moments,” the photo essay features President Emeritus DONALD KENNEDY, history Professor ESTELLE FREEDMAN, psychology Professor EWART THOMAS and former dean of admission FRED HARGADON, among others . . .

- Elaine Ray

Alums Yukio Hatoyama, presumptive prime minister of Japan, and John Roos, U.S. ambassador to Japan, share a Cardinal moment. (Phtotograph by Junko Kimura/Getty Images)

Redesigning Japan’s government and economy probably wasn’t what YUKIO HATOYAMA had in mind when he studied engineering at Stanford. But more than three decades after leaving the Farm, a promise to shrink his country’s bureaucracy and shore up its economy helped Hatoyama lead his Democratic Party to a landslide victory in Sunday’s election, and secure for him the role as Japan’s presumptive next prime minister. Hatoyama earned a master’s in electrical engineering in 1972 and a master’s in operations research a year later. In 1976, he received a doctorate in operations research. On Thursday, Hatoyama met with another alum, JOHN ROOS, U.S. ambassador to Japan, in Tokyo.

JEFF GILBERT, the lead principal at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, Calif., had his mettle tested when he and two other staff members averted disaster by tackling a former student who showed up at school with 10 pipe bombs, a chain saw and a sword. Two of the bombs went off in an empty hallway before a teacher wrestled him to the floor. Gilbert and a counselor helped restrain the 17-year-old until police arrived. No one was injured. Gilbert, who earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Stanford in 1989 and a master’s from the Stanford Teacher Education Program in 1990, was hailed as a hero by JON WEISMAN, a Los Angeles Times blogger and former freshman dorm mate. Hillsdale High School is one of STEP’s partner schools.

… On a lighter note: Alums DRUE KATAOKA and SVETLOZAR KAZANJIEV tied the knot at MemChu Saturday, following a flurry of feature stories about their gift wish list, dubbed “The World’s First Startup Wedding Registry.” Their venture, the non-nuptial one, is called Aboomba, which is described by the New York Times as “a consumer Web company that is still in stealth mode.” A visit to the Aboomba website last week gave no clues, but directed you straight to the registry. “You know that whole department store imposed wedding registry ritual thing? We thought, like, why not rebel against it,” Kataoka, best known for her Japanese brush paintings, said in a video on the registry site. The couple, who met at Stanford, asked for such gifts as $134 for an upgrade from a first-aid kit to a week’s worth of real health insurance and $385 to feed a lawyer for an hour. Gifts under $100 included Red Bull on tap for a week ($52.41) and pizza for a week ($62.93 for Domino’s and $97.93 for Round Table). At the end of the gift list was a photo of an RSVP card. “Your attendance on August 29th: Priceless!”

In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a gaping expanse where Kresge Auditorium used to be. The building was razed earlier this summer to make way for a new Law School building that is expected to be completed in December 2010. Kresge was built in the early ’70s and dedicated along with the Law School’s Crown Quadrangle in the fall of 1975. But while the school’s student population has remained pretty steady, the expansion of programs and centers has resulted in an increase in the number of faculty, staff and researchers there. Kresge, of course, was not just a venue for Law School activities. Author and Stanford alum MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM read from his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Hours, there. Environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill talked about putting her body on the line by staging a protest in a 1,000-year-old Humboldt County redwood for 738 days. F. W. de Klerk, the former president of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize winner, defended his record amid protesters. FBI Director Robert Mueller spoke at Kresge during the release on campus of a George W. Bush administration draft report on cybersecurity. Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson talked about the outing of his wife, former CIA officer Valerie Plam

e. The Rev. Bernice King remembered her father, Martin, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson honored César Chávez. Feminist Betty Friedan gave her perspective on aging at Kresge, and Maxine Hong Kingston talked to a mostly freshman audience about the endurance of her book The Woman Warrior. As for the building itself, you can watch a time-lapse video of the demolition on the Law School’s website.

And as one building goes down, another goes up. A Centennial Time Capsule filled with donated items from faculty, students and staff was “interred” Aug. 19 in the floor of a classroom in the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge, which is under construction at the School of Medicine. Items in the 90-pound silver box include pipettes, medical textbooks, news articles about Stanford, the Nov. 5, 2008, New York Times announcing Barack Obama’s election to the presidency, a Stanford campus map and an issue of Rolling Stone magazine with actor Orlando Bloom on the cover, signed by Stanford medical students. If all goes well, the Class of 2008 will open the capsule at their 50th alumni reunion in 2058.

- Elaine Ray

Another Stanford grad, CARLOS PASCUAL, who was named U.S. ambassador to Mexico earlier this summer, was in the news last week when he greeted President Obama when he arrived in Guadalajara for a mini-summit with Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Pascual, who earned his bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford in 1980, was a student of COIT “CHIP” BLACKER, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Pascual then became Blacker’s deputy on the National Security Council, and later Blacker’s successor as senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia on the NSC.

U.S. President Barack Obama (L) waves next to U.S ambassador in Mexico Carlos Pascual as they arrival at the International airport in Guadalajara City August 9, 2009. U.S. President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon will meet in Guadalajara to attend a summit of North American leaders on August 9 and 10. (Photograph by Henry Romero / Reuters)

Stanford’s reach has always been global, and last week it really flexed its international muscle. On Aug. 4, just after American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were pardoned by the North Korean government with the help of former President (and former Stanford dad) Bill Clinton, the Korean Central News Agency released this photo via the Korean News Service and the Associated Press of Clinton seated next to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Also in the photo were former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta and several “unidentified” individuals. One of those unnamed members of the delegation (standing next to the lone woman in the photo) was DAVID STRAUB, associate director of the Korean Studies Program in the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center (APARC).

Former President Bill Clinton, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il seated. Standing behind, second from the right is David Straub, associate director of the Korean Studies Program in the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center. (Photograph: Korean News Service via the Associated Press)

… And while Straub, SIEGFRIED HECKER, co-director of the Center for International Security and Cooperation, and DANIEL SNEIDER, associate director for research at APARC, were weighing in on North Korea, PRIYA SATIA, assistant professor of history and an expert on modern British history, was calling for a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in an op-ed published by the Financial Times, her third opinion piece in the FT since May. Satia also was quoted last week in the Toronto National Post on the significance of the death of Harry Patch, the last surviving First World War veteran, who died last month at the age of 111. Earlier this year, Satia participated in a workshop given by The OpEd Project and hosted on campus by the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research.

… In a ceremony last Thursday at the Hoover Institution, Director JOHN RAISIAN and historian ROBERT CONQUEST, a Hoover research fellow, were honored by the Republic of Poland for their contributions to that country. Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s minister of foreign affairs, presented Raisian with the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit and Conquest with the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit. RICHARD SOUSA, director of the Hoover Institution Library and Archives, was presented with the plaque of Amicus Poloniae (Friend of Poland) in recognition of his commitment to Polish concerns in the United States. “The Hoover Institution is deeply touched to receive such a distinguished honor and we’re proud to have the largest research collection on 20th-century Poland outside the country,” said Raisian, who is marking his 20th anniversary as director of the Hoover Institution this year.

… UMRAN INAN, professor of electrical engineering at Stanford, has been named the fourth president of Koç University in Turkey. Inan, who is director of the Space, Telecommunications and Radioscience (STAR) Laboratory and heads the Very Low Frequency Group, will take a leave from Stanford and begin his appointment in Istanbul this fall.

… Developing a new generation of global citizens is the theme of a two-day conference over which the Dalai Lama will preside in Washington, D.C., this fall. School of Education Professor LINDA DARLING-HAMMOND and Professors Emeriti NEL NODDINGS and LEE SHULMAN will be among the featured speakers at the event, titled Educating World Citizens for the 21st Century.

Heather Perry, an environmental engineer in Environmental Health and Safety competes in the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run, which started in Squaw Valley and ended in Auburn, Calif. Here she's seen on Cougar Rock at mile 12. (Photograph courtesy of Heather Perry)

When your cell phone lights up and it’s Stanford Police Chief LAURA WILSON, there’s a good chance it won’t be good news, but a few weeks ago, she called to relay just that. Her scoop? On June 28, HEATHER PERRY, an environmental engineer in Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S), had completed the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run, which started in Squaw Valley and ended in Auburn, Calif. The trail takes runners across rugged and mountainous terrain through high altitudes and extreme heat. “I arrived in Auburn 29 hours and 3 minutes after I set off from Squaw Valley, tired, dirty and totally elated,” said Perry. What made the accomplishment even sweeter was that Perry had trained, qualified and survived the lottery for the 2008 race, only to have organizers cancel it due to wildfires and bad air quality – three days before the event. “My car was already packed!” Perry recalled. This time she was joined on the home stretch by husband KEITH PERRY, emergency manager in EH&S, and their daughters Sarah Jo, 6, and Shannon, 9. “I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Keith and our daughters for allowing me the latitude to train and prepare not just once, but twice.”

Keith Devlin, a consulting professor in mathematics finishes the Death Ride, a 129-mile ride through the Sierra Nevada mountains on July 11, 2009. (Photograph courtesy of Keith Devlin)

…Going 129 miles, this time on wheels. KEITH DEVLIN, a consulting professor in mathematics, also known as the “Math Guy” for his appearances on National Public Radio, endured one of the toughest bike rides around, the Death Ride in the Sierra. The route is uphill, and then uphill again, and again, for 11 hours. “Beautiful but grueling,” he said.

…And speaking of folks on the move, last weekend four university administrators were among the more than 40 runners carrying a solar-powered torch through campus to inaugurate the 2009 Summer National Senior Games. They were PATRICK DUNKLEY, senior university counsel; PAUL GOLDSTEIN, director of financial and strategic studies in the University Budget Office; RANDY LIVINGSTON, vice president for business affairs and chief financial officer; and TIM WARNER, vice provost for budget and auxiliaries management.

…It won’t be just a jog around the block for KEITH HUMPHREYS, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, who is taking leave from the Medical School after accepting an appointment in D.C. as senior policy adviser at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. And last month, President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate geophysics Professor MARCIA MCNUTT to be the director of the U.S. Geological Survey and Science Adviser to the Secretary of the Interior. McNutt also is president and chief executive officer of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

…The Big Apple has taken a bite out of the Farm: PETER HENRY, professor in the Graduate School of Business, will become dean of the Stern School of Business at New York University in January; and earlier this year Columbia announced its new provost – Stanford psychology Professor CLAUDE STEELE, who most recently had served as director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. That means spouse DOROTHY STEELE, executive director of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, also has bid the Farm farewell.

Got Dish? Write to Elaine Ray at [email protected] and include Dish in the subject line.