Archive for April, 2010

Patricia Burchat

PATRICIA BURCHAT, the Gabilan Professor and chair of the Department of Physics, will receive the 2010 Judith Pool Award for mentoring young women in science from the Northern California Chapter of the Association for Women in Science this month. Supporting letters commended Burchat as a mentor and a role model. In particular, nominators noted that she is a passionate teacher, inspiring scientist and caring mentor. Among the praise she received from students and postdocs:

“Pat’s a great role model who makes time to answer questions and give honest, thoughtful and exceedingly useful advice.”

“Pat has always made an effort to discuss my progress and offer professional development advice. Working with Pat has made me a better scientist, teacher and mentor.”

The Judith Pool Award is named for one of the first women to be promoted to full professor in the Stanford School of Medicine. Pool’s lab was noted for having developed a purification process from human plasma for one of the clotting factors that is used to treat hemophilia.

The award is given to a woman who is relatively senior in her research career, has distinguished herself in science and is an inspiring mentor.

Burchat joined Stanford as associate professor in 1995 from the University of California-Santa Cruz. Among her many awards is the university’s Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, which she won in 2007. Burchat’s research interests focus on fundamental physics: What is the universe made of? What are the laws of physics that govern the fundamental constituents of the universe? She has been a key player in a number of accelerator-based particle physics experiments that probe the fundamental interactions, especially the “weak” interaction. She is beginning a new research effort on a large survey telescope to map the dark matter in the universe as a probe for understanding the nature of dark energy.

Bill Cooper

BILL COOPER, associate vice president for management services and chief procurement officer for the University of Missouri System, will join Stanford June 1 as associate vice president and chief purchasing officer. Cooper’s appointment has been announced by RANDY LIVINGSTON, vice president for business affairs and chief financial officer. Cooper will be responsible for managing the entire purchasing to payable process, including sourcing, purchasing, contracts and payables functions.

At Missouri, Cooper oversees procurement, facilities planning and development, risk and insurance management, real estate acquisition and sales, records management and minority business development for the four system campuses and the health system. Prior to that, Cooper managed procurement at Caltech and had a similar role at Cal State Northridge.

Livingston says, “Bill has a unique blend of experience in both the government and private sectors in addition to his higher education experience. This experience will be valuable as we continue on our journey to a first-class purchasing and financial organization. Throughout his career, Bill has been a leader in implementing eProcurement systems, improving customer service and building strong purchasing staffs. In 2009, Bill was named the University of Missouri Systems’ Administrator of the Year, and he received the Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Award sponsored by the National Purchasing Institute.”

Livingston also extended thanks to SAM STEINHARDT, who served as interim director of purchasing and contracts. Steinhardt will return full time to his position as executive director of business services in IT Services on June 1.

Marcus Feldman

MARCUS FELDMAN, the Burnet C. and Mildred Finley Wohlford Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, will receive an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University during a meeting of the school’s International Board of Governors in May.

Feldman will be honored for his “illustrious scientific career and groundbreaking work on mathematical modeling techniques in order to study problems in evolutionary biology” and for his “committed support and friendship toward Tel Aviv University and the State of Israel.”

Feldman, who earned his PhD at Stanford, has been a member of the faculty since 1971. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the California Academy of Science. His work was honored with the 2003 Paper of the Year award in all of biomedical science from The Lancet. He has written more than 335 scientific papers and four books on evolution, ecology and mathematical biology.

Julia Smit

While the women’s basketball team was getting all the (well-deserved) attention for earning a berth in the Final Four, Stanford senior JULIA SMIT became Stanford’s 10th winner of the Honda Sports Award, given to the top woman swimmer. As a member of the U.S. Olympic team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Smit was the only active collegiate swimmer to win two medals: silver in the 400-meter free relay and bronze in the 800-meter free relay. Smit joins a prestigious list of Honda Award winners from Stanford: JENNA JOHNSON, JANET EVANS, SUMMER SANDERS, JANEL JORGENSEN, JENNY THOMPSON, MISTY HYMAN and TARA KIRK. Smit is now a nominee for the Honda-Broderick Cup, given to the top female athlete across 12 sports. Read more.

Tony Pan

Justin Solomon

Congratulations to Stanford senior JUSTIN SOLOMON and Stanford alumnus TONY PAN for earning Hertz Fellowships, which are given to “uniquely gifted scientists and engineers with the potential to change the world for the better.”

Solomon, a double major with honors in mathematics and computer science, and Pan, currently a doctoral candidate in theoretical astrophysics at Harvard University, are two of the 15 students across the country who earned Hertz Fellowships for 2010-11.

The fellowships, which were announced Tuesday, are provided by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, which is based in Livermore, Calif.

“By supporting uniquely talented young leaders in the applied sciences and engineering to develop and explore their genius, the Hertz Foundation promotes innovative solutions to emerging challenges our nation and world face today,” said Jay Davis, the foundation’s president.

Each fellowship comes with a no-strings-attached award of $250,000 that will allow Solomon and Pan to pursue their own ideas with financial independence, under the guidance of the finest professors at the country’s top universities. They competed with nearly 600 applicants for the coveted awards.

Solomon, 22, of Oakton, Va., intends to pursue a doctorate in computer science, with concentrations in graphics, numerical analysis and physical simulation.

As an undergraduate, Solomon contributed to several research projects on campus and in the private sector.

At Stanford, Solomon works with Leonidas J. Guibas, the Paul Pigott Professor in the School of Engineering and head of the Geometric Computation Group in the Computer Science Department, on pattern analysis on discrete 3-D surfaces for application in geometric modeling.

At Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, Calif., Solomon worked in the Tools Research Group, under the supervision of senior scientist Michael Kass. Solomon collaborated on image processing and non-photorealistic rendering projects that have applications in the field of entertainment, as well as biomedical imaging, visualization and computational photography.

Solomon served during the 2008-09 academic year as an editor-in-chief of the Stanford Undergraduate Research Journal, an annual peer-reviewed publication of research articles written primarily by Stanford undergraduates. From 2007 to 2009, he served as managing editor of ACM Crossroads magazine, the student journal of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Pan, 24, who grew up in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at Stanford in 2008. His current research is centered on exploring a new method to study the very first stars, galaxies and cosmic gas at the epoch of reionization, when the first sources of light turned on in this universe.

Pan is a graduate student member of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Pan, who is the president of the Harvard Physics Graduate Council, said he hopes to become his generation’s Carl Sagan, referring to the late astronomy professor, planetary scientist and best-selling author who wrote and narrated the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Pan said he hopes to bring more public attention and funding – and attract more young, eager minds – to the scientific endeavor.

Last month, Pan was one of six students with Stanford affiliations who received Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for Young Americans.