Archive for October, 2009

Disch-Bhadkamkar named university treasurer; Davis assistant treasurer

October 12th, 2009

dish_odileODILE DISCH-BHADKAMKAR has been named to the new role of treasurer, reporting to RANDY LIVINGSTON, vice president for business affairs and chief financial officer (CFO). The position is responsible for management of the university’s operating liquidity, cash management, debt issuance and management, bondholder relations, credit card merchant services and retirement program investment oversight, Livingston said in an email announcement last week.

Disch-Bhadkamkar’s previous position was senior director of finance and bondholder relations. She has worked at Stanford since 1992. Prior to joining the office of the CFO in 2000, she worked in the University Budget Office and the School of Medicine. Before joining Stanford, she spent nine years at JP Morgan, where she was vice president in the corporate finance division.

SCOTT DAVIS will move from the Controller’s Office to become assistant treasurer with responsibility for cash management and credit card merchant services. Davis has been at Stanford since 2007 and previously held positions in treasury management with Lam Research and Raychem.

GSB alum shares Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics

October 12th, 2009

OLIVER E. WILLIAMSON, Stanford MBA 1960, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences today. Williamson, a professor emeritus of business, economics and law at U.C. Berkeley, was cited “for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm.” He shares the prize with Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University.

Heard on Campus: ‘You lie’

October 9th, 2009
Bob Simoni

Bob Simoni

Biology Professor BOB SIMONI did a convincing – and thoroughly tongue-in-cheek – imitation of a certain GOP congressman from South Carolina at last week’s Faculty Senate meeting when he shouted “You lie” to President JOHN HENNESSY. It happened early in the meeting, during the time set aside for announcements from the president. Hennessy had thanked everyone who had helped Stanford take major steps toward taming its financial problems. “As I think you will see from the provost’s report, Stanford will be in significantly better financial position as a result of that,” he continued. “It will mean that we are able to go forward and continue the important work that we do here much faster than we would have had we not had your support and engagement. So thank you all on behalf of the university and future generations of students and faculty. That’s it, Madame Chair,” he said, turning toward electrical engineering Professor ANDREA GOLDSMITH, who was wielding the gavel for the first time.

“Are there any questions for the President,” she asked.

“You lie!” came the rejoinder – an outburst that immediately brought down the house. The laughter continued as the white-haired professor, who is known for his wisecracking, said: “Joe Wilson made $2 million with that rude comment [during President Barack Obama's nationally televised speech on health care to a joint session of Congress last month]. And even better than that, the House [of Representatives] gave him some sort of reprimand and that was worth another million. So I am hoping to be called down to the dock and reprimanded. And I will contribute my net gain to the university’s financial problem.” Goldsmith played along, saying she’d take up the requested rebuke with the steering committee “and report back on that shortly.”

- Kathleen J. Sullivan

Photo: L.A. Cicero

Seen on campus: Tiger Woods, Noam Chomsky, students coming together for good

October 7th, 2009

Sightings on campus: TIGER WOODS spent Monday on the Stanford practice golf course getting ready for the Presidents Cup in San Francisco this week . . . Steve Young, who visits the Stanford Video studio regularly to tape appearances on ESPN, was there last Friday . . . Regina Dugan, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, commonly known as DARPA, was on campus last week, according to the New York Times . . . Noam Chomsky spoke at an anti-war rally on White Plaza Sunday. (Who said Stanford students don’t have a radical streak?) Some simply just streak: Apparently, a group of students, undeterred by the threat of a nasty flu bug, held an unofficial smooch fest on the Quad - some even mooned the Full Moon.

UPDATE: FBI Director Robert Mueller spoke to alums of the Graduate School of Business and the Law School Thursday night. The title of his talk? “Transforming the FBI in an Uncertain World.”

SIGOURNEY WEAVER, ’72, was not on campus as far as we know, but she celebrates a birthday Thursday - her 60th.

CarePackageSmallMeanwhile, on a more serious note, Stanford’s Pilipino American Student Union has been working tirelessly to aid the victims of Typhoon Ketsana. The group is hosting a benefit concert Thursday evening at 7 in the CoHo and continues to collect donations of light clothing, blankets, flashlights and bandages. Donation boxes are set up in most undergraduate dorms and the organization is hoping to have them outside CoHo during the concert. The organization already has sent 10 boxes to the Philippines via Philippine Airlines, says senior SYLVIE ROUSSEAU. They are referring those who wish to donate money to www.sealnetonline.org/ketsana. “SEAL Net is an organization started by Stanford students, but separate from the university,” Rousseau said, adding that all donations will be sent to the Philippine Red Cross.

- Elaine Ray

The Mini Med School Index

October 6th, 2009

The first course in the Continuing Studies Program‘s Mini Med School series set a record for enrollment in the 21-year history of the CSP. The course, which began Sept. 22, had to be capped at 250, as that is as many as the auditorium can hold.

Here are some of the numbers:

  • Number enrolled: 250
  • Number on the waitlist: 113
Among those who have enrolled:
  • Stanford employees: 53
  • Medical Center employees: 7
  • Stanford alumni: 66
  • Stanford Alumni Association members: 23
  • Stanford faculty: 2
  • Teachers (non-Stanford): 7
  • Age 65+: 35
. . . and of those who have enrolled, and who did not decline to state the highest degree they’ve earned (201 identified their highest degree):
  • High school: 6
  • Undergraduate: 64
  • Graduate: 98
  • Professional: 33

  • pizzo

    Philip Pizzo

CHARLES JUNKERMAN, associate provost and dean of Continuing Studies, credits Medical School Dean PHILIP PIZZO and KATHRYN GILLAM, senior adviser to the dean, for their “instigation and inspiration.” Junkerman said part of Pizzo’s motivation is to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the Med School coming to the Stanford campus. “It really is generous on his part and the part of his colleagues,” Junkerman said. “He thought carefully about the subjects and the content. It really is a very nice gift to the community, particularly when all of us are thinking about health and healthcare.”

In fact, Pizzo was not in class this week because he was in Washington participating in a briefing titled “The Hidden Impact of Health Reform: What Reform Means for Academic Health Centers and the Communities They Serve.” The Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC), a national nonprofit association, sponsored the briefing. Pizzo was elected chair of the AAHC’s board of directors Sept. 25.

Elaine Ray

Physicist shares Onsager Prize

October 5th, 2009

STEPHEN SHENKER, professor of physics and the Richard Herschel Weiland Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, has been awarded the 2010 Lars Onsager Prize for his contributions in the field of theoretical particle physics. His research focuses on quantum gravity, particularly string/M theory, and the application of these ideas to cosmology and the interior of black holes. Shenker shares the prize, including $15,000, with Daniel Friedan, professor of physics and astronomy at Rutgers University. They were both recognized for their “seminal work on the classification and characterization of two-dimensional unitary conformal field theories of critical states.” The Lars Onsager Prize has been awarded every year since 1997 in recognition of outstanding research in theoretical statistical physics.aaas_shenker

Shenker has been a professor at Stanford since 1998 and was the director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics from 1998 to 2008. He received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard and his doctorate from Cornell, and was a professor at the University of Chicago and Rutgers University prior to coming to Stanford. He has been awarded the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award and fellowships from the Sloan Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the American Physical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Onsager, who made significant contributions to statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, was given the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1968.