May | 2010 | The Dish

Archive for May, 2010

Bao Research Group Spinoff wins $200,000 MIT Clean Energy Prize

May 13th, 2010

Zhenan Bao Photo by Linda Cicero

C3Nano Inc., a spinoff developed in the lab of chemical engineering Associate Professor ZHENAN BAO, was named the top winner of the MIT Clean Energy Prize for the team’s revolutionary design that will increase the efficiency of solar photovoltaic panels. The team, which includes AJAY VIRKAR and MELBURNE LEMIEUX, researchers in chemical engineering, beat out more than 60 teams to win the top prize of $200,000.

The national competition was founded by MIT, the U.S. Department of Energy and NSTAR to accelerate the pace of clean energy entrepreneurship.

“Our innovation is a cross-cutting technology that not only has the potential to increase the efficiency of solar panels, it can be used in the manufacture of television, computer and cell phone touch screens and electronic displays to increase performance and lower cost,” LeMieux, C3Nano founder and chief science officer, said in a press release. “Winning this competition literally enables us to take the next step toward moving this important technology out of the laboratory and into the marketplace.”

Read the full press release.

Economist John Taylor wins Bradley Prize

May 12th, 2010

JOHN TAYLOR, professor of economics and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, has won one of the four Bradley Prizes awarded this year by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

The prize, which is given to prominent scholars and engaged citizens for outstanding achievement, comes with a $250,000 stipend.

Taylor will be recognized during an awards ceremony on June 16 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

This year’s other Bradley Prize winners are Michael Barone, senior policy analyst for the Washington Examiner; Paul Gigot, editorial page editor for the Wall Street Journal; and Bradley Smith, a law professor at Capital University.

Taylor – who outlined the recent financial meltdown in Getting Off Track: How Government Actions and Interventions Caused, Prolonged and Worsened the Financial Crisis – joins six other Hoover fellows who have received the Bradley Prize.

—Adam Gorlick

Historian Jack Rakove discusses new book on ‘The Daily Show’

May 12th, 2010

JACK RAKOVE, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and professor of history and of political science, was the guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Monday, May 11. He discussed his latest book, Revolutionaries, about America’s founding fathers. Click here to watch the video.

Susan Krieger’s journey toward blindness

May 11th, 2010

SUSAN KRIEGER faces daily what we all fear.

She suffers from “birdshot retinochoroidopathy,” which the lecturer in feminist studies describes as a “rare autoimmune disease that causes inflammation on my retina and choroid and affects both my central and my peripheral vision.” The upshot: She’s blind, or rather, on a long journey toward blindness.

Krieger’s latest book, Traveling Blind, is her discovery, with companions, of a new world and a new kind of vision as she journeys through cities, airports and the deserts of the Southwest. She will talk about her experience at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 11, at the Stanford Bookstore.

To find out more about Krieger’s journey, visit The Book Haven.

—Cynthia Haven

The Goat Project returns May 11

May 10th, 2010

The Stanford Goat Project, which is raising awareness and funds to purchase dairy goats for families in rural Africa, will return to White Plaza Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. This year, they’ll also be using money they raise to purchase chickens and affordable water pumps. Tickets are $5 to enter a chicken or goat pen, $10 to get your photo taken with the animals, and $20 to ride the water pump, pet the animals and get a photo. For more information, visit the Goat Project’s website.

Men’s volleyball advances to the NCAA final

May 7th, 2010

Stanford earned the right to play for the NCAA men’s volleyball championship on its home floor by sweeping Ohio State on Thursday and advancing to Saturday’s final against Penn State. The championship is scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday at Maples.

Stanford’s director of admission leaving for the Big Apple

May 6th, 2010

Shawn Abbott

After helping shepherd four undergraduate classes – from the Class of 2011 to the Class of 2014 – into Stanford, Shawn Abbott, director of admission, will be leaving the Farm to become assistant vice president for undergraduate admissions at New York University.

“It will give me an opportunity to be a major university’s chief admission officer, something I have been longing to do for quite some time,” Abbott said in an email message. “New York University receives more applications than any other private university in America, so I have a huge challenge on the horizon.”

New York University is one of the largest private universities in the nation, with 40,000 students attending 18 schools and colleges at five major centers in Manhattan – the center of the university is its Washington Square campus in the heart of Greenwich Village – and sites in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.

Abbott, whose last day at Stanford will be May 14, begins his new job on June 1.

By leaving the Farm, Abbott will be exchanging the Cardinal for the Violets, and the Tree – Stanford’s unofficial, but beloved mascot – for the bobcat.

Asked what he will miss, Abbott mentioned Palm Drive and sunshine.

“But more importantly, I’ll miss the people I’ve met more than anything,” he said. “I always tell people that I’ve made double the number of friends at Stanford and in San Francisco in half the time I lived in New York. It’s really that friendly and welcoming of a place.”

Before coming to Stanford, Abbott was senior associate director of admissions at Columbia University in New York City.

“I’ll also really miss representing a university that so accurately captures the pioneering spirit of the American West,” Abbott said. “It’s a place that excites everyone who knows it and it’s been a great ride getting to be one of Stanford’s ambassadors. I’ve been very lucky.”

—Kathleen J. Sullivan

Stanford sophomore recognized on ‘America’s Best Dance Crew’

May 5th, 2010

Stanford sophomore JACKIE ROTMAN was recognized last month on MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew. On the show’s “Champions for Charity” episode, Poreotics, the show’s latest winning dance crew, dedicated its performance to Rotman and presented her with a big $10,000 check to support Everybody Dance Now!, a program for youth in Santa Barbara that Rotman started when she was 14.

And speaking of reality TV talent, JORDIN SPARKS, winner of the sixth season of American Idol, will play Nina Rosario in the Broadway musical In the Heights, which explores the lives of Dominican American residents in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. The character of Nina is the first in her family to go to college – Stanford – but drops out after she gets overwhelmed working two jobs to pay her way.

ASSU uses posters to educate campus about abuse

May 4th, 2010

The ASSU Executive Health & Wellness Team, in collaboration with the Center for Relationship Abuse Awareness and V aden Health Promotion Services, launched a campus-wide relationship abuse and sexual assault poster campaign last month. The posters are available to view online.

“In running this campaign, we hope to inform students about the warning signs of relationship abuse, the importance of getting consent, and the power of bystanders in ending abuse and sexual violence,” said DAVID GOBAUD, ASSU President.

Office of Technology Licensing congratulated by Feds

May 3rd, 2010

On Friday, April 30, the Office of Technology Licensing celebrated its 40th anniversary. The celebration included the reading of a proclamation from U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director David Kappos. MICHAEL GOLDBERG, a partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures and a GSB alumnus, read the following proclamation:

Please accept my congratulations on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Stanford University’s Office of Technology Licensing. You are truly the gold standard of tech transfer offices, fortunate to be blessed with the very finest technology coming from some of the world’s very finest laboratories; visionary in the practices you have long adopted that put lasting relationships and outbound collaboration first, that make Stanford researchers the centerpiece of your practice, and that optimize to fast diffusion of research technology into the commercial sector for maximum impact on California’s economy.

You have demonstrated the key tenet of leadership — the confidence that by doing the right thing your institution will also do well.

And well you have done! Beyond practically anyone’s dreams, other than perhaps those of your senior leadership!

Thank you for the leadership all these 40 years. Thank you for creating so many jobs, and businesses, and cool products! Thank you for showing us all how to do tech transfer at the gold standard level.

And best wishes for your next 40 years!

David J. Kappos

Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office

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