Archive for October, 2011

Family and friends remember Steve Jobs at Memorial Church

October 17th, 2011

Several hundred friends and family of Steve Jobs gathered for a private memorial service at Memorial Church on Sunday evening. Among them were leaders in the high-tech, entertainment and political worlds.

Following the about 90-minute service in the dramatically illuminated church, the guests walked along a candle-lined path to an outdoor reception at the Cantor Arts Center.

Traffic was diverted around the Oval for several hours Sunday because of the event, and the Quad was closed for the hour before and during the service.

(Photo: Stanford News Service)

Students ‘Party On The Edge’ at Cantor

October 14th, 2011

The Cantor Arts Center hosted its annual Party On The Edge for students last week. The late-night show featured art in 24 galleries, poetry, live music, student films and work by Art Grants artists - including an interactive exhibit that harnessed audience members’ brain waves to mechanically control a marker doing a live drawing on canvas. Megan Erin Miller with Stanford Institute for Creativity and the Arts was there and prepared this video.

Gretchen Daily wins Prince Albert II Biodiversity award

October 13th, 2011
Gretchen Daily

Gretchen Daily

Gretchen Daily, the Bing Professor in Environmental Science and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, was in Monaco last week to receive the Biodiversity Award given annually by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. The award is one of three given by the foundation each year. The others are for work in the areas of climate change and water.

The letter informing her of the award stated that she was chosen because of “your contribution to the science and your work for a better understanding of our environment.”

The award includes 40,000 euro to help support her work, along with a trophy and an expense-paid trip to Monaco to attend the awards ceremony.

His Serene Highness Prince Albert II personally presented each of the winners with their awards in a ceremony on Friday, Oct. 7.

Prince Albert II established the foundation in 2006 to “protect the environment and encourage sustainable development.”

Asked for her thoughts on winning the award, Daily replied by email, “Funding from the award will boost the research of my students, for which I am very grateful and thrilled! Together in the Center for Conservation Biology, we are working to illuminate and quantify the many ways in which Nature benefits people – whether through pollination and pest control on farms, enhancement of water supplies, or improvements in cognitive function – and on how to harmonize people and Nature. Together with the Natural Capital Project, we are packaging this fundamental research into practical tools and using them in major resource decisions around the world. In China, for example, 25 percent of the country’s land area – across all provinces – is now being zoned to secure vital natural capital, and our tools are being used to delineate these areas.”

Daily is the director of both the Natural Capital Project and the Center for Conservation Biology.

Ogwumike sisters named to Wooden Award Preseason List

October 12th, 2011
Chiney and Nnemkadi Ogwumike

Chiney and Nnemkadi Ogwumike

The Ogwumike sisters, senior Nnemkadi and sophomore Chiney, were among the 30 collegiate women’s basketball players named to the 2011-12 John R. Wooden Award Preseason List, the Los Angeles Athletic Club announced this week. The Ogwumikes are the only players from the Pac-12 on the list.

The 36th annual Wooden Award ceremony, which will take place the weekend of April 9-12, 2012, will honor the Men’s and Women’s Wooden Award winners.

Nnemkadi Ogwumike, entering her fourth season at Stanford, is a two-time Wooden Award All-American (2010-11) and was named to the award’s final ballot last season. In 2010-11 she was selected to three additional All-America Teams, the WBCA Coaches squad, the USBWA’s team and to the Associated Press’ Second Team.

She led the Cardinal and the Pac-10 last year with 17.5 points per game and a 58.6 shooting percentage, also grabbing 7.6 rebounds per game. Over NCAA Tournament games she averaged 23.4 points and 6.6 rebounds while shooting 62.5 percent from the field as Stanford reached its fourth straight Final Four.

Younger sister Chiney Ogwumike enters her sophomore season at Stanford in 2011-12. In last year’s campaign, she led the Cardinal with 8.0 rebounds (281 total) per game, averaged 11.7 points a game and shot 57.4 percent from the field en route to being named Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. Her all-around performance, one that included 52 steals and 29 blocked shots as she established a fierce defensive reputation, also earned her selections to the All-Pac-10 Team, All-Freshman Team and All-Defensive Team. In the NCAA Tournament, she averaged 12.2 points and 9.4 rebounds a game while shooting 54.2 percent from the field.

Read more about the Ogwumike sisters, as well as the Stanford women basketball team’s upcoming season on Stanford Athletics’ website.

Mark Zoback talks to Senate committee about shale gas production

October 11th, 2011
Mark Zoback

Mark Zoback

Geophysics professor Mark Zoback testified before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources last week. The committee held the hearing to receive testimony on the first report of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board’s Shale Gas Production Subcommittee, which was released in August.

The report addressed the safety and environmental aspects of shale gas production in the U.S., a subject that has generated considerable concern in communities near shale gas reservoirs.

Zoback was one of four members of the subcommittee who gave testimony and answered questions. The subcommittee was assembled by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu at the request of President Obama.

Doug Owens takes helm of health policy centers

October 10th, 2011

From left, Douglas Owens, Philip Pizzo, dean of Stanford Medical School, and Coit Blacker, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

When he first came to Stanford as a freshman in 1974, DOUGLAS OWENS expected his education would lead to a career in engineering. But a new interest in medicine soon took hold, and he graduated as a biology major four years later. By 1985, he was practicing as a general internist.

Since then, he’s blended a doctor’s understanding of disease with an engineer’s approach to problem solving to understand the value of health policies and help develop better ones.

“I’m really most interested in the intersection of health and important policy questions and being able to use quantitative, analytic tools to get insights into those questions,” he said.

As the new director of the Center for Health Policy (CHP) at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research (PCOR) in the Department of Medicine and School of Medicine, Owens will lead an interdisciplinary group of Stanford researchers interested in judging the efficiency of health care policies around the world.

Owens – who is a professor in the School of Medicine and a senior investigator at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System – was one of the first faculty members to join CHP/PCOR when the centers were founded in 1998. He replaces ALAN GARBER who led the centers since their inception.

“I’m delighted that Doug has assumed the directorship of CHP and PCOR,” said COIT BLACKER, director of FSI. “He has just the right combination of skills to lead both centers at a critical time in their development. He is smart, seasoned, strategic, and committed. He also has a wonderful way with people – be they faculty, staff or students – without which none of the other talents matter when it comes to building strong academic institutions.”

Read the full announcement on the FSI website.

— BY ADAM GORLICK

Gambhir receives $10 million grant from Ivy Foundation

October 7th, 2011

SANJIV “SAM” GAMBHIR, professor and chair of radiology, has received a five-year, $10 million grant from the Ben and Catherine Ivy Foundation to develop new molecular-imaging agents for a variety of scanning technologies in order to image, at the molecular level, brain tumors of the variety known as glioblastoma multiforme.

The grant also underwrites the development of these tools for use in monitoring cell-delivery therapies, and for both predicting and monitoring — in real time — patients’ response to therapeutic interventions.

Glioblastoma multiforme is the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer among adults. Fewer than one in 10 patients survives for more than two years after the condition is diagnosed. While tumors can be excised by brain surgery, any residual cancer cells may be sufficient to cause the tumor’s return. At the same time, surgeons must be extremely careful to leave as much healthy brain tissue intact as possible.

The Ivy Foundation, based in Phoenix, funds research to develop better diagnostics and treatments aimed at improving the life expectancy of patients with brain cancer and eventually curing the disease.

Read the full announcement on the Medical School News website.

 

 

Statement by Stanford President John Hennessy on the legacy of Steve Jobs

October 6th, 2011

“Steve Jobs was an extraordinary man, and I am deeply saddened to learn of his death. A pioneer in the computer industry, his creativity and vision are legend. But he was also a great communicator, who was able to cultivate innovation in others. When he spoke at Stanford’s 2005 Commencement, he told our students that the key to doing great work is to love what you do. Steve Jobs loved what he did, and he inspired us all to think differently. He will be profoundly missed.”

- President John L. Hennessy, Oct. 5, 2011

‘Diet for a Small Planet’ author to speak at Stanford Food Summit

October 6th, 2011

Before Alice Waters, Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman became household names, there was Frances Moore Lappé. Now, Lappé, who is best-known for her 1971 book, Diet for a Small Planet, is speaking at Stanford University Oct. 11 to inspire the next generation of food and environmental activists. The presentation is free and open to the public. The event will begin at 7 p.m. in Stanford’s Memorial Auditorium.

For more information or to register for the summit, visit the Medical School’s news website.

2011 Fall Activities Fair on video

October 5th, 2011

On Friday, Sept. 30, more than 350 student organizations turned out on White Plaza to showcase their activities. Watch the video.