Awards | The Dish

Archive for the ‘Awards’ Category

Jenny Bilfield to be honored

March 9th, 2012

JENNY BILFIELD, artistic and executive director of Stanford Lively Arts, will be recognized by Cantabile Youth Singers of Silicon Valley with a 2012 Champion of the Arts award later this month.

Cantabile Youth Singers of Silicon Valley, headed by internationally recognized conductor Elena Sharkova, offers an award-winning music education program to local children and teens.

The Champion of the Arts award honors a Silicon Valley individual who has made a significant impact on the performing arts in the region.

Since joining Stanford Lively Arts in 2006, Bilfield has led the organization’s transformation from university presenter to a campus-based arts producer. Bilfield has collaborated extensively with faculty and program partners to develop new pathways for high-impact arts experiences for students and arts-goers in Silicon Valley and the wider Bay Area.

The award will be given at a gala on March 24 at the Stanford Faculty Club. Titled “A Jazz Gala,” the evening will feature a concert by the Cantabile singers, accompanied by the Larry Dunlap Jazz Trio.

For more information on the event, visit the Cantabile website.

The Cardinal’s winning weekend

March 7th, 2012

The Cardinal men’s swimming and diving team won its 31st consecutive conference championship last weekend in a 131 point landslide victory in East Los Angeles.

But that’s not all.

Stanford’s synchronized swimming team captured the Western Regional this past weekend, and will advance to the US Collegiate Nationals on March 15-17.

Men’s tennis duo of BRADLEY KLAHN and RYAN THACHER defended their title to become Pacific Coast Doubles Champions again.

Meanwhile, in women’s basketball, the Pac-12 announced its regular-season awards Tuesday, as voted by the conference’s head coaches. Stanford headlined the list with NNEMKADI OGWUMIKE, who was named Pac-12 Player of the Year. CHINEY OGWUMIKE was named Defensive Player of the Year, and TARA VANDERVEER took home her 12th Pac-12 Coach of the Year award.

And the Oscar goes to . . .

February 28th, 2012

For many, Sunday night’s Academy Awards were an introduction to SHARMEEN OBAID CHINOY. But the Stanford News Service has had the Pakistani-born documentary filmmaker in its sights for nearly a decade. Back in 2003, LISA TREI, then social sciences writer for the News Service, featured Obaid and her first film Terror’s Children. That documentary, which chronicled young Afghan refugees in Pakistan, was on the cusp of being released. After hundreds of rejections to her appeals for funding, Obaid, then a 24-year-old graduate student in international policy studies and communication at Stanford, had succeeded in making the film she wanted to make.
Terror’s Children “really gave me more of a drive to make other films out of Pakistan,” she told Trei, who now is an associate communications director in the Office of the Dean of Humanities and Sciences. “It gave me a sense that things are wrong in my country and people should know about it from our perspective,” Obaid said.

Since then, Obaid Chinoy has made more than a dozen films and won numerous prizes, including an Emmy. And on Sunday night, she walked away with an Oscar for Best Documentary for her film Saving Face. The film tells the stories of two women who are survivors of acid attacks in Pakistan and their efforts to bring their assailants to justice, and the charitable work of a plastic surgeon who strives to help them rebuild their lives.
“The Oscar is the award, not just another award,” she said during an interview on the Today program in the days leading up to the Academy Award ceremony. Saving Face will air on HBO March 8.
Obaid Chinoy is not the only person with Stanford ties to snag a golden statue on Sunday. ALEXANDER PAYNE, won a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Descendants. Payne, who earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford, where he majored in Spanish and history, has won numerous awards for his directing and screenwriting, including Oscar and Golden Globe awards for Sideways.

The Dish makes no predictions about the success of Game Change, a film adaptation of the book by the same name about the 2008 United States presidential contest. JAY ROACH, who graduated with a BA in economics from Stanford, has directed such movies as Austin Powers, Meet the Parents, Meet the Fockers and Dinner with Schmucks. Roach will be back on campus today for a pre-screening and informal discussion of Game Change. The event is sold out.

Stanford wins top honors among workplaces for commuters

February 22nd, 2012

For the ninth year in a row, Stanford was recognized as one of the Best Workplaces for Commuters by the National Center for Transit Research.

Stanford also competed in the Best Workplaces for Commuters 2011 Race to Excellence. The award recognizes those who offer the highest levels of commuter benefits. Stanford was honored with the “Best Of” award, the top prize in the Race to Excellence.

“Stanford University strives to attract the best and the brightest. Being designated as one of the Best Workplaces for Commuters is important recognition of the university’s leadership in sustainable transportation, which enhances the lives of our commuters, benefits the community, and helps the environment,” said BRODIE HAMILTON, director of Parking & Transportation Services at Stanford.

Funded by the Florida Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Transportation, the National Center for Transit Research is located at the University of South Florida.

Glynn, Krawinkler and Pelc also elected to National Academy of Engineering

February 16th, 2012

Peter W. Glynn

The previous Dish item reported that STEVEN M. GORELICK, the Cyrus F. Tolman Professor in the Department of Environmental Earth System Science, had been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). It turns out that in fact three other Stanford faculty also received the honor this year. The four Stanford faculty members are among 66 new members and 10 foreign associates whose election was announced last week.

PETER W. GLYNN, the Thomas W. Ford Professor in the School of Engineering and chair of the Department of Management Science and Engineering, was elected and cited for contributions to simulation methodology and stochastic modeling.

HELMUT KRAWINKLER, the John A. Blume Professor, Emeritus, in the School of Engineering, was cited for the development of performance-based earthquake engineering procedures for evaluating and rehabilitating buildings.

Norbert Pelc

NORBERT JOSEPH PELC, professor and associate chair for research in the Department of Radiology and professor of bioengineering, was cited for the development of algorithms and technologies for MRI, CT and hybrid X-ray/MRI imaging.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature,” an NAE press release noted. It also recognizes the “pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.”

The latest election brings to 98 the number of Stanford faculty in the engineering academy.

Steven Gorelick elected to National Academy of Engineering

February 16th, 2012

Steven Gorelick

STEVEN GORELICK, the Cyrus F. Tolman Professor in Environmental Earth System Science, is one of 66 new members elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Election to NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer, according to the academy’s press release. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice or education.

The NAE press release noted Gorelick’s “optimization techniques and transport models for groundwater and remediation of contaminated aquifers.”

Gorelick, who earned his master’s degree and doctorate in hydrology at Stanford, has been a Stanford faculty member since 1988. He also is a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and serves on the Water Advisory Board of the Natural Capital Project.

Gorelick’s research involves the study of water resources with an emphasis on groundwater. The objective of his work is to develop an understanding of fundamental aspects of the transport of fluids and contaminants and to investigate regional water resources systems. He and his students have combined hydrogeology with aspects of ecology, geophysics, operations research and economics to study meadow restoration, wetland protection, water supply management in Mexico and India and contaminated groundwater remediation methods.

Visit Gorelick’s website for more information.

Muwekma-Tah-Ruk wins Stanford’s Bicycle Safety Dorm Challenge

January 23rd, 2012

What does it take to motivate undergraduate students to commit to bike safety?

Students in 42 undergraduate residences participated in the second annual Bike Safety Dorm Challenge, sponsored by Parking & Transportation Services (P&TS) between Sept. 20 and Dec. 16. The challenge promotes bike safety by encouraging undergraduates to pledge to follow the rules of the road and to wear a bike helmet for every ride, even short trips.

Three dorms—Jerry, Muwekma-Tah-Ruk and ZAP—posted 100 percent participation and tied for first. Muwekma-Tah-Ruk, the Native American theme dorm, won a drawing that broke the tie and took away the grand prize: a free charter bus to Lake Tahoe.

Jerry and ZAP did not leave empty-handed: Each dorm received a $500 credit toward a future charter bus to Tahoe.

Jasmine Lee, ’13, community manager for Muwekma-Tah-Ruk, said her dorm decided to participate as a simple and easy way to make residents aware of how to bike safely.

“We are the only Row house with freshmen, and many of them were not exposed to biking culture like we have here at Stanford,” Lee said. “A majority of our residents did not have or wear helmets before the challenge, so our peer health educator kindly located helmets on campus that our residents could purchase for $10. It took some convincing, but now we are thrilled to be winners who are Tahoe-bound!”

Brodie Hamilton, director of P&TS, said he was excited to see the momentum building for bike safety among Stanford undergraduates and the enthusiasm of participants. He noted that participation by 926 students and 42 of Stanford’s 78 undergraduate dorms this year is up from 666 students and 40 dorms the previous year, when the challenge first launched.

“Some dorms even created their own bike safety mottoes this year, such as Larkin House’s ‘I love my Larkin lobes’ campaign, which encouraged all students to love their brains by wearing bike helmets, stopping at stop signs and using bike lights and reflectors when riding at night,” Hamilton said. “While there was one winner of a free charter bus to Tahoe, everyone who participated is a winner in our eyes. Bike safety is a way to save lives and lobes—and what brighter ‘lobes’ to save than those at Stanford?”

Rampersad wins biography award

January 19th, 2012

ARNOLD RAMPERSAD is the recipient of the 2012 BIO Award, given each year by members of the Biographers International Organization.

Rampersad, the Sara Hart Kimball Professor in the Humanities, Emeritus, will receive the honor during the 2012 Compleat Biographer Conference in May in Los Angeles, where he will deliver the keynote address.

Rampersad’s biographies include Ralph Ellison; The Art and Imagination of W.E.B. DuBois; The Life of Langston Hughes; Days of Grace: A Memoir, co-authored with Arthur Ashe; and Jackie Robinson: A Biography.

Rampersad, whose first volume of The Life of Langston Hughes was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, has received fellowships from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Rockefeller Foundation. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a 2010 recipient of the National Humanities Medal.

Stanford sweeps national soccer coach of the year honors

January 18th, 2012

Paul Ratcliffe

Stanford women’s coach PAUL RATCLIFFE and new men’s coach JEREMY GUNN each have been named National Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

Ratcliffe coached the Cardinal to its first national women’s title this year and Gunn, hired Dec. 21 at Stanford, led Charlotte to the NCAA men’s final.

Jeremy Gunn

This is the third such honor for Ratcliffe, who previously won in 2008 and 2009. Ratcliffe’s teams went 95-4-4 over the past four years, including 53-0-1 at home, and reached the NCAA College Cup each of those seasons, with three finals appearances.

Gunn led Charlotte to its first championship final in school history, falling to North Carolina in the NCAA title match.

Read Athletics’ press release.

Daily editor named Daniel Pearl intern

January 17th, 2012

Kathleen Chaykowski

KATHLEEN CHAYKOWSKI, editor-in-chief of the Stanford Daily, has been chosen as the 2012 Daniel Pearl Memorial Journalism Intern. Chaykowski, a junior majoring in English, will work in the Johannesburg bureau of the Wall Street Journal this spring.

The internship was established to commemorate the work and ideals of DANIEL PEARL, a Stanford graduate and Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002 at the age of 38.

In an essay written as part of the application process, Chaykowski wrote that Pearl’s “attention to the ambiguity and surprises he encountered yielded stories that delve far beyond the black and white. It is the gray — the small, human moments, the contradictions — that I aspire to capture through my own reporting.”

Chaykowski, of Fort Wayne, Ind., plans to be a foreign correspondent. A member of the Stanford Daily staff since her freshman year, she has had internships at the Mail & Guardian in South Africa and the Chautauquan Daily in New York. A committee of faculty in Stanford’s Department of Communication evaluated applicants for the internship. The final decision was made by the Wall Street Journal.

Read the full announcement on the Department of Communication website.