Scientists honored with ‘GLAM’ portraits

Clockwise from the top: Malcolm Beasley, Alexander Fetter and Arthur Bienenstock. A portrait of Theodore Geballe hangs along with the others in the McCullough Building.

Art and science melded seamlessly at the end of the day Friday, March 9, as ARTHUR BIENENSTOCK, THEODORE GEBALLE, MALCOLM BEASLEY and ALEXANDER FETTER, all former directors of the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, were honored by their own.

Amid strains of Beethoven’s String Quartet Opus 59 Number 1 F Major offered by the St. Lawrence String Quartet, faculty, staff and students celebrated the unveiling of GLAM (as in the lab’s acronym) Portraits, painted by PAMELA DAVIS KIVELSON.

Geballe, emeritus professor of applied physics and of materials science and engineering, founded the Geballe Laboratory, an independent laboratory that supports and fosters interdisciplinary education and research on advanced materials in science and engineering, in 1999. At Stanford since 1968, Geballe has focused much of his attention on materials with extreme properties. He held the Theodore and Sydney Rosenberg Professorship in Applied Physics, served as chair of the Department of applied physics and directed the Center for Materials Research.

Beasley, the Theodore & Sydney Rosenberg Professor of Applied Physics, emeritus, also was one of the Geballe Lab’s founders. The former dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences is best known for his research in superconductivity and superconducting materials.

Bienenstock, professor emeritus of photon science, is special assistant to President John Hennessy for federal research policy, and director of the Wallenberg Research Link at Stanford. Bienenstock’s other roles at Stanford have included serving as vice provost and dean of research and graduate policy, director of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory and vice provost for faculty affairs.

Fetter is professor emeritus of physics and applied physics. His research interests include theoretical condensed matter and superconductivity. Fetter joined the Stanford faculty in 1968. In addition to serving as director of the Geballe Laboratory, he also directed the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory.

You can view the Kivelson’s portraits on the third floor of the McCullough Building.

- ELAINE RAY