Every year, communicators across the university, from the News Service to the medical and business schools; from Hoover and SIEPR and many of the other campus institutes, keep a vigil during Nobel Prize week. They sleep with one eye open or wake up in the wee hours of the morning to check the Nobel announcements in anticipation that one of Stanford’s scholars will win the ultimate prize. They reserve rooms for possible press conferences and keep their schedules clear, just in case. Often, the advance planning pays off. Alas, this year, no Stanford scholar got the Nobel nod, but the campus rests easy knowing that sooner or later that 3 a.m. call will come again. In the meantime, we celebrate others whose work has been singled out for recognition.
HERMAN WINICK, professor emeritus in applied physics and a physicist at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), has been awarded the Andrei Sakharov Prize, an honor given every two years by the American Physical Society in recognition of scientists who have worked to uphold human rights. Winick told SLAC Today that he suspects he was nominated for work he did in 2001 to pressure the Iranian government to release Iranian physicist Mohammad Hadi Hadizadeh Yazdi, a former colleague. Winick organized a letter-writing campaign on Hadizadeh’s behalf, recruiting 32 Nobel laureates in the effort . . .
PAULA ENGLAND, sociology, was recently appointed as a fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science . . .
MARK J. SCHNITZER, biology and applied physics, will receive the Michael and Kate Bárány Award for Young Investigators for his creativity at the interface of biology, physics and engineering . . .
SANJIV GAMBHIR, radiology and bioengineering, is this year’s recipient of the Radiology Society of North America’s annual Outstanding Researcher Award . . .
ALICE WHITTEMORE, health research and policy, has been named the Saul Rosenberg Research Award from the Northern California Cancer Center.
