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Hey! What about Stanford’s graduate students?

September 18th, 2012

Law School graduates at Commencement

Oh sure. The freshman undergraduates get all the attention—what with all that singing, dancing and yelling on opening day.

But don’t graduate students actually outnumber undergraduates at Stanford? What about them?

KEN HSU, assistant vice provost and director of the Graduate Life Office; ANDY HERNANDEZ, assistant dean of graduate life; and JOHN PEARSON, assistant vice provost and director of the Bechtel International Center, recently outlined graduate student numbers for colleagues in Student Affairs.

Here are some of the statistics for new graduate students:

Stanford anticipated welcoming 2,623 graduate students this fall. Since 2007, the number of new graduate students has increased 8.7 percent. This year, some students have been delayed by visa challenges, meaning the final number will likely increase.
Some 35 percent of the new graduate students will study in the School of Engineering.
Incoming graduate students at Stanford range in age from 18 to 62. The average age for students pursuing master’s degrees is 25.5, for doctoral students is 24.7 and for professional degree students is 25.8.
Men constitute 61 percent of new graduate students.
There are about 920 international students among Stanford graduate students from about 75 different countries. There are 21 countries represented by just one graduate student.
China, India, South Korea, Canada and Singapore are among the top countries of origin for Stanford graduate students.
In autumn 2012, there will be 240 families living in Escondido Village (EV), 100 of which are new.
In EV, there will be 266 children under the age of 5 and 18 teenagers. There will be more than 230 spouses and partners of graduate students living there.

This year marks the sixth anniversary of the New Graduate Student Orientation, coordinated by grad students FATIMA HUSSAIN, civil and environmental engineering; CATHY JAN, electrical engineering; and KAREN POWROZNIK, sociology. Events began Sunday, Sept. 16.

Powerhouse in the pool: Roy Perkins to compete in Paralympics 2012

August 22nd, 2012

Roy Perkins competed in the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. He’s preparing to compete in London next week. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

It’s difficult to believe that ROY PERKINS, ’13, was once terrified of putting his face in the water and didn’t learn to swim until he was 12. Now he’s preparing to compete in the 50-, 100- and 200-meter freestyle events, 50-meter backstroke and 50-meter butterfly at the 2012 Paralympics, which begin next week. Born without hands or feet, Perkins comes to the Games a powerhouse: In Beijing he won his category’s gold in the 50-meter butterfly as well as bronze in the 100-meter freestyle.

Stanford magazine caught up the Earth systems major before he headed to London.

Read SAM SCOTT‘s interview on the Stanford magazine website.

Keeping track of Stanford’s Olympians in London

August 7th, 2012

Tennis duo Bob and Mike Bryan, both of the Class of ’98, won gold. Photo: Stanford magazine

With nearly 40 Stanford-affiliated athletes participating in the summer games in London, it may be hard to keep track of who has won the gold and who is still in contention. There are two Stanford sites that are keeping tabs on it all. One, of course is Athletics, which has a dedicated Olympics site. There also is Stanford magazine, which, in addition to its online postings, is using Facebook and Twitter (#Cardinal2012) to keep readers abreast of Stanford’s contenders.

On tap today, Aug. 7?

The U.S. women’s water polo team, which includes ANNIKA DRIES, ’14; MELISSA SEIDEMANN, ’13; MAGGIE STEFFENS, ’16; JESSICA STEFFENS, ’10; and BRENDA VILLA, ’03, will play in the semifinal against Australia. MARIYA KOROLEVA, ’12, will compete for Team USA in synchronized swimming; ARANTXA KING, ’12, will compete in the women’s long jump for Bermuda; KERRI WALSH-JENNINGS, ’00, will compete for the USA in the women’s beach volleyball semifinal against China, while USA volleyball players LOGAN TOM, ’03, and FOLUKE AKINRADEWO, ’09, play the Dominican Republic.

The Stanford magazine site as well as the Athletics Olympics site both feature profiles and highlights.

Alumna Colleen Lim returns to Stanford to become director of admission

August 6th, 2012

COLLEEN LIM, senior associate commissioner for governance and administration at the West Coast Conference, has been named associate dean and director of admission at Stanford.

The appointment marks a return to Stanford for Lim, who served as the university’s assistant dean of admission from 2007 to 2009. In that post, Lim supervised the process of recruiting and evaluating prospective students. She also served as the liaison to the Stanford Alumni Association and the Stanford Office of Development.

“We are extremely thrilled to have Colleen Lim return to Stanford,” said RICHARD SHAW, dean of admission and financial aid. “She brings 22 years of management and operations experience, and we have full confidence that she will be an exceptional leader for the undergraduate admission office.”

At Stanford, Lim will direct the daily operations of the admission office and play a key role in shaping the overall direction the university takes with respect to its admission initiatives and programs, including outreach, multicultural programming, international admission and intercollegiate athletics, and the composition of each freshman and transfer class.

Lim will begin her new job Sept. 22. She succeeds BOB PATTERSON, who left Stanford last June for Chegg Inc., where he is the director of college outreach.

Lim, who earned a master’s degree in the Stanford Teacher Education Program in 1980, earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education at the University of California-Berkeley.

Lim joined the West Coast Conference (WCC) in 2009 as associate commissioner for governance and administration, and was promoted to senior associate commissioner for governance and administration in 2011.

At the WCC, Lim managed governance and operations, including conference legislation, cabinets and committee administration. She served as liaison to senior women administrators and to faculty athletics representatives, and to selected coach groups and cabinets. She also oversaw the internal operations of the conference, including supervision of compliance, student services, business, finance and human resources. Lim was appointed to the NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Committee in 2010.

Prior to joining Stanford in 2007, Lim worked at Yale University for nearly 20 years, as senior assistant director of athletics (1990-1994), as associate director of athletics (1994-1998) and as senior associate director of athletics (1998-2007).

At Yale, Lim was very active in the NCAA governance structure, having chaired the Division I women’s soccer committee and the Division I field hockey committee, while also serving on the Committee on Athletics Certification, the Championship and Competition Cabinet and the Initial Eligibility Waivers Committee. In addition, she supervised several sports programs, managed the varsity sports operations and student services staffs, and administered the NCAA and Ivy League compliance and eligibility program for 33 Division I sports.

— KATHLEEN J. SULLIVAN

Persis Drell goes to Washington

June 26th, 2012

Persis Drell, director of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Photo by L.A. Cicero

On June 21, SLAC Director PERSIS DRELL was in Washington, D.C., to testify before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, for a session devoted to Department of Energy user facilities. It was her first time doing this.

Drell was one of five witnesses. The others were ANTONIO LANZIROTTI, chairman, National User Facility Organization; STEPHEN WASSERMAN, senior research fellow, Translational Science & Technologies, Eli Lilly and Company; SUZY TICHENOR, director, Industrial Partnerships Program, Computing and Computational Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and ERNEST HALL, chief scientist, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering/Materials Characterization, GE Global Research.

Drell prepared written testimony, but, as she put it, “The real show is the oral testimony.” She used the five minutes she was given to describe the science being performed at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and explain why government should support large user facilities.

“The most encouraging part of the hearing was that, while there were differences of opinion on how one might fund basic research, there was clear bipartisan support for science,” Drell said. “Before I went to D.C. for this hearing, a colleague asked if it was really worth flying across country for the opportunity to speak for five minutes in front of the subcommittee. My response is that this is my job. But even if it wasn’t, yes, I believe it is worth it.”

Read Drell’s full description on the SLAC Today website.

Stanford team goes to national clean energy competition

June 20th, 2012

A Stanford team with a novel idea finished in the top six of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National University Clean Energy Business Challenge earlier this month.

In May, the Stanford team’s project beat out more than 60 other university teams to win the competition’s western regional segment, earning a $100,000 prize. The award also earned them a trip to Washington to compete in the finals last week.

Stanford PhD student YANIV SCHERSON and one of his advisers, BRIAN CANTWELL, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, traveled to D.C. to showcase a new technology that removes nitrogen from wastewater while generating energy.

Scherson’s other adviser on the project is CRAIG CRIDDLE, a senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment.

Although the project did not win one of the top two national prizes, being in the top six had its privileges. While in D.C., Scherson had a chance to meet Secretary of Energy STEVEN CHU.

“Being selected as a clean-tech finalist by the DOE is a tremendous honor,” Scherson said. “It shows the promise and opportunity in water technologies. We are very grateful for the recognition.”

Scherson and his team began developing the low-cost technology in 2009 with a grant from the Stanford Woods Institute’s Environmental Venture Projects initiative. The process recovers energy from waste nitrogen by converting it into nitrous oxide. The nitrous oxide can be used to burn biogas, which results from the recovery of methane from organic waste, or to power a small rocket thruster that converts the nitrous into clean, hot air.

The technology is an important part of a larger effort at Stanford to develop economical and energy-efficient ways of recovering clean water and other valuable products from wastewater. Current wastewater treatment in the U.S. is energy intensive and has not focused on resource recovery.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center for Re-inventing the Nation’s Urban Water Infrastructure, headed by Stanford Woods Institute Senior Fellow DICK LUTHY, helps support the ongoing wastewater-to-energy project.

— BY ROB JORDAN, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

With stories and praise, colleagues honor Blacker for leadership

June 19th, 2012

Colleagues gathered at a reception to honor Coit Blacker for his decade of leadership at FSI. From left to right: Blacker, Condoleezza Rice, Stephen Krasner and Ronald Spogli. Photo Credit: Rod Searcey

He’s been a presidential adviser, academic administrator, scholar and mentor. But listening to those who best know COIT BLACKER talk about his professional achievements is to hear people describe a close friend nearly everyone calls “Chip.”

“One of the reasons Chip has been so successful as a leader is that he is simply a good guy,” said CONDOLEEZZA RICE, professor of political science and of business, who first met Blacker at Stanford in the early 1980s – long before she would become the university’s provost and later serve as President GEORGE W. BUSH’s secretary of state.

“Great leaders are first and foremost good people,” Rice said.

After a decade leading Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), Blacker is stepping down from the position on Aug. 31. He will be succeeded by President Emeritus GERHARD CASPER.

Following a yearlong sabbatical, Blacker plans to return to campus and continue teaching about foreign policy – a topic he mastered through academic research and as President BILL CLINTON’s special assistant for national security affairs and senior director of Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian affairs at the National Security Council.

Reading letters written by Clinton, former national security adviser SANDY BERGER and MICHAEL McFAUL – the U.S. ambassador to Russia and FSI senior fellow who studied closely with Blacker – Rice capped a lineup of colleagues, students and donors who honored the departing director during a recent farewell reception at the Cantor Arts Center.

“Under your directorship, the institute has enhanced its status as one of the globe’s most prominent and influential centers for the study of international relations,” Clinton wrote. “The institute’s research is helping us move toward a more stable, sustainable and equitable world in this age of interdependence. In addition to your devotion to Stanford, I will always be grateful for your outstanding work at the National Security Council during my presidency.”

Nearly 20 years before joining the Clinton administration in 1995, Blacker arrived at Stanford as a postdoctoral fellow in the university’s Arms Control and Disarmament Program. He lectured and taught through the 1980s, becoming a popular professor known for working closely with his students.

“I saw in him a mentor who not only excelled in his field, but did so with intellectual fortitude, integrity and a deep-seated sense of service to which I only hoped I could aspire,” said THEO MILONOPOULOS, a former student of Blacker’s who is now a Fulbright Scholar at King’s College London.

In 1991, Blacker became a senior fellow at the Institute for International Studies, the precursor to FSI. He was appointed as the institute’s deputy director in 1998 and took over as director five years later.

Under Blacker’s tenure, FSI expanded its number of research centers from four to seven, and grew its faculty from 21 to 32 professors. The institute’s endowment is nearly $200 million, up from $122 million in 2002.

“FSI has really become the jewel in the crown of Stanford’s interdisciplinary institutes under Chip’s leadership,” said ANN ARVIN, Stanford’s dean of research. “I hesitate to say how many times I have advised others to just ask Chip how they do it at FSI – whatever ‘it’ may be.”

Read the full story by ADAM GORLICK, FSI’s communications manager, on the institute’s website.

‘Mad Dog’ returns

June 7th, 2012

MARK MADSEN, one of the most iconic and inspirational basketball players in Cardinal history, is coming back to the Farm as an assistant coach, JOHNNY DAWKINS, head coach, announced Tuesday.

During his four years as a player at Stanford, Madsen earned All-America honors in each of his final two seasons while helping lead the Cardinal to four NCAA Tournament appearances, including the 1998 Final Four. A nine-year NBA veteran, Madsen spent six seasons with the Minnesota Timberwolves following a three-year stint with the Los Angeles Lakers, in which he contributed to the franchise’s 2001 and 2002 NBA championships.

“I’m really excited to have Mark join our staff and return to the Stanford basketball program,” said Dawkins. “Mark’s energy and enthusiasm is infectious and his experience at Stanford will provide an invaluable resource to our team. I have no doubt that our student-athletes will benefit greatly from working with Mark on a daily basis.”

Known back in the day as “Mad Dog” for his signature physical and aggressive style of play, Madsen, now 36, has spent the last two years on campus, completing coursework toward his MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

“I am very grateful to Coach Dawkins and Stanford University for the opportunity to join the basketball staff and work with such a highly talented group of student-athletes,” said Madsen, who accompanied the Cardinal on its preseason trip to Spain last September. “I feel extremely fortunate to represent an institution that has meant so much to me, both personally and professionally. I’m excited to get started and look forward to contributing immediately as our program builds on last year’s success.”

Read the full announcement on gostanford.com.

Stanford students named Google Policy Fellows

May 30th, 2012

Two Stanford students, ANDREW BLANCO and ANJNEY MIDHA, have been chosen as 2012 Google Policy Fellows. The program gives undergraduate and graduate students interested in Internet and technology policy the opportunity to work in public interest organizations at the forefront of debates on broadband and access issues, content regulation, copyright and trademark reform, consumer privacy and open government. Fellows work directly with senior staff members of a host organization. Only 15 fellows were selected from among more than 1,300 submissions.

Blanco, a graduate student in management science and engineering, will be working at Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creative content by offering free, easy-to-use copyright licenses.

Midha, a freshman majoring in economics and in public policy, will be working with the Technology Policy Institute, a think tank that specializes in the economics of innovation, technological change and related regulation, domestically and internationally.

BY KATY ASHE

Legendary swim coach Skip Kenney to retire

May 18th, 2012

Skip Kenney

One of the most respected coaches in the world of swimming, SKIP KENNEY, Stanford’s Goldman Family Director of Men’s Swimming, announced his retirement following 33 years at the helm of the Cardinal program.

Kenney will coach the Cardinal through the U.S. Trials, ending July 2.

“Who would have ever have thought it? I grew up in California and in Fresno, went to Long Beach State, and Stanford was always the big name,” said Kenney. “We exceeded all levels of expectation. The kind of people you get to work with here, the athletes that come through here. You pinch yourself when you are really here. It’s just unbelievable.”

“Coach Kenney is one of the iconic figures in college swimming and he has had a profound impact in shaping the lives of hundreds of young men,” said BOB BOWLSBY, the university’s Jaquish & Kenninger Director of Athletics. “Skip has always been a coach that put the team first, and in doing so he has taught lifetime lessons about how to weave the fabric of a high-achieving organization. The Stanford Men’s Swimming Program under Coach Kenney’s guidance has established many standards that will never be equaled in the PAC 12 or nationally.”

Read the complete story on the Stanford Athletics website.