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Archive for the ‘In the Spotlight’ Category

Nobel week in pictures

October 17th, 2012

It begins with a phone call in the wee hours of the morning, and while the media calls eventually come in at a slower pace, the glory of a Nobel Prize lasts for generations.

This year the Scandanavians rang twice for Stanford. First, on Oct. 10, BRIAN KOBILKA, professor and chair of molecular and cellular physiology at the Stanford School of Medicine shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with ROBERT LEFKOWITZ, professor of biochemistry and of medicine at Duke University. The two men were selected for their work on G-protein-coupled receptors.

Then on Monday, Oct. 15, ALVIN ROTH, a Harvard economist who is transitioning to Stanford, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on market design. He shares the prize with LLOYD SHAPLEY, professor emeritus at UCLA. Roth is a pioneer in the field of game theory and experimental economics and in their application to the design of new economic institutions.

University Photographer LINDA CICERO created slideshows of Kobilka and of Roth.
Videogrpher STEVE FYFFE, put together videos of Kobilka and Roth as well.

‘Gangnam Style’ flash mob at the GSB

October 16th, 2012

Last week Stanford Report received a request to encourage members of the Stanford community to show up for a “mystery event” at the Knight Management Center. When the caller would not reveal the nature of the event, we took a wait-and-see attitude. It turns out that the mystery event was the Sloan Management Program’s class of 2013′s take on “Gangnam Style,” the hit song by South Korean rapper Psy.

STEN TAMKIVI, a GSB student, said their version of the video got about 10,000 hits over the weekend. “It has also gone quite viral in China, sporting 36,000 views and a lot of comments on Youku, their version of YouTube,” Tamkivi added in an email. Here’s the action, caught by CNN.

Documentary captures the fear factor of public speaking

October 15th, 2012

Dread public speaking? You are not alone. In fact, it is the world’s leading fear. It stands to reason, then, in the age of reality shows and celluloid competition, that it would not be long before someone would document a public-speaking competition on film.

PAUL GALICHIA, who graduated from Stanford in 1996, and fellow filmmaker BRIAN WEIDLING created a documentary simply called Speak, which follows contestants in a national competition sponsored by Toastmasters International, a speaking and leadership organization.

In an interview in Stanford magazine, writer Sam Scott interviews Galichia about the process of making the film, how to stay neutral during the competition despite the inspiration and heartbreak that comes with being up close and personal.

“My producing partner heard a story about a woman who was very shy and who couldn’t look anyone in the eye and who volunteered to give a speech in front of all these executives at American Express, where she worked. A couple of months went by and all these people she worked with were like, ‘Oh, God, this is going to be a disaster, she can’t even talk to us,’” Galichia said.

“And the woman went up there and she did a great job and ended up getting a promotion. They asked her, ‘How did you do that? Because two months ago you couldn’t even talk at a meeting,’ she said, ‘I joined Toastmasters.’

“We just started showing up to [Toastmasters International] meetings and filming and then we heard about the World Championships and so we just decided to go for it.”

Read the full story online on the Stanford magazine website.

Stanford psychologist partners with ‘30 Rock’ actor

October 12th, 2012
Photo by Jason Anfinsen

'30 Rock' actor John Lutz. Photo by Jason Anfinsen

“Comedian JOHN LUTZ, who plays a sketch writer on the popular TV series 30 Rock, is often the fall guy for others’ mischief and the target of practical jokes on the show. So when I read in a recent Arts Beat blog entry about a new endeavor titled The Lutz Experiment, I naturally assumed he’d be the lead role in some sort of new reality TV show where he would eat strange and unusual foods, perform death-defying acts and, in general, test his emotional and physical limits,” LIA STEAKLEY, a social media producer for the Medical School, posted recently on the school’s SCOPE blog.

Jamil Zaki, assistant professor of psychology at Stanford

As it turns out, Lutz has teamed up with JAMIL ZAKI, assistant professor of psychology at Stanford, for a series of experiments and a book.

In that New York Times Arts Beat piece that Steakley refers to, Zaki describes Lutz as “the perfect lab rat.”

“You see him on 30 Rock and he comes off as this total goofball, a little bit of a doofus, even,” Zaki said. “It’s so strange to then meet him and see this incredibly well-spoken, thoughtful guy in the same body.”

Read Steakley’s full post on the SCOPE blog.

Third annual Stanford Food Summit set for Oct. 24

October 11th, 2012

Food Summit 3 takes place Oct. 24.

Stanford researchers and scholars and local food activists are invited to Food Summit 3, a one-day symposium designed to connect Stanford faculty, graduate students and undergraduates who are interested in food-systems research with members of community-based food organizations who are interested in improving the quality of the food we produce, provide and consume. The symposium will take place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Arrillaga Alumni Center, with a public forum to follow that evening at Memorial Auditorium.

The symposium will present findings from three pilot projects that grew out of the Stanford-community partnerships established at the second Food Summit event in 2011. The projects, in the areas of farm-to-school food, hospital food and food-bank food, are examples of what the organizers hope will become a larger effort to encourage food-systems research at Stanford.

In the SCOPE blog, Erin Digitale rates her own diet.

“Our longer-term goal is to build a food-systems research center on campus,” said CHRISTOPHER GARDNER, associate professor of medicine, who is organizing the summit. The engagement of all seven Stanford schools in a variety of food-related research projects gives Stanford a unique niche in addressing local, national and global food problems, Gardner said. “Of 7 billion people on the planet, a billion are hungry and nearly a billion are overweight or obese,” he said. “There’s enough food to go around, but how do you produce it and how do you distribute it? Those are systems issues in growing a sustainable-food movement that Stanford may be able to help solve.”

The Food Summit’s public forum, set for 7 p.m. on Oct. 24, will feature a keynote presentation by author and speaker JOHN ROBBINS, who walked away from his family’s Baskin-Robbins ice cream fortune to become a social activist, first rising to prominence with the publication of his 1987 book, Diet for a New America. Robbins’ presentation is titled “Food Revolution 2012.” It will be followed by a panel discussion titled “Farm Bill or Food Bill?” with Stanford and Bay Area food activists.

More information and registration for the summit is available on the event website. The daytime symposium is targeted at faculty, researchers and students with an interest in food-systems research and community food activists, and is limited to 400 participants. The evening forum is open to the general public. Both events are free.

Read the Food Summit’s full announcement by ERIN DIGITALE on the Medical School’s news website. And speaking of food, check out Digitale’s post in the SCOPE blog about her efforts to reach her personal best in the nutrition department and beyond.

 

The Stanford Band encouraging good behavior? Say it isn’t true!

October 10th, 2012
Stanford Band

The Stanford Band replicating the notorious Circle of Death.

THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY MARCHING BAND isn’t generally known for encouraging good behavior among fellow students. The renowned scatter band is generally better known for its irreverent humor, various clever hijinks and for being—how to put this?—a tad anti-authority.

But good advice about wearing bicycle helmets is exactly what the Band gave new students during its halftime show in this past weekend’s Homecoming football game against Arizona.

In a script called “Survival Guide,” the Band hilariously replicated the notorious Circle of Death, the dangerous intersection located near the clock tower. The on-field shenanigans featured Band members chaotically running in a giant circle, narrowly averting crashes.

Meanwhile, the announcer encouraged freshmen to, “Look to your right. Now look to your left. All of you will crash your bikes in the Circle of Death. Fifty students enter, four will not leave. Instead, they’ll crash into each other with one carrying a giant project that is now ruined. Survival tactic: Wear a helmet, and walk all large projects to your classroom.”

But then, the Band being the Band, the announcer reconsidered, “Come to think of it, don’t go to class.”

The Band also warned freshmen about GREEN LIBRARY, with the announcer explaining, “Your professors, and even your fellow students, will convince you that Green is an amazing library. You know what it really is? A confusing labyrinth that you will never find your way out of. Survival tactic: Use a buddy system. Use GPS. Use a system of mirrors that when aligned lights the way to the exit. Just don’t go inside without an exit strategy.”

On-field, the Band replicated a labyrinth, while the Jumbotron screen flashed some more good advice: “The librarians are not Minotaurs. Please do not try to defeat them.”

Blas Cabrera chases dark matter, wins Panofsky physics prize

October 5th, 2012

Blas Cabrera

Abandoned mines might not be the most obvious places to set up cosmological experiments, but that’s where Stanford physicist BLAS CABRERA and BERNARD SADOULET, of the University of California-Berkeley, search for signs of dark matter. Their efforts have advanced dark matter research, and in recognition they have been jointly awarded the 2013 W.K.H. Panofsky Prize in Experimental Particle Physics. The prize is named for SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory founding director WOLFGANG “PIEF” PANOFSKY and awarded by the American Physical Society.

The pair’s decades-long Cryogenic Dark Matter Search has brought them to several underground sites in the hunt for direct evidence of theorized weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs (the deep shafts largely shield detectors from cosmic rays and other unwanted particle “noise”). If proven to exist, WIMPs could help define and explain dark matter, which is thought to make up about 25 percent of the energy density in the universe and is responsible for the formation of structure in the universe. This, in turn, could improve our understanding of the evolution of the universe and our interpretation of astronomical observations.

Cabrera, a Stanford physics professor who has a term appointment within the SLAC Particle Physics and Astrophysics faculty, said the prize, which includes a $10,000 award and a certificate citing the recipients’ scientific contributions, is gratifying, and it’s “wonderful to share it” with Sadoulet, a Berkeley physics professor and director of the UC Institute for Nuclear/Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. “We have been leaders of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search work for many years,” he said. “It’s also nice to have the tie with Panofsky, whom I knew and deeply admired for many years.”

Read the full announcement at the SLAC News Center.

— BY GLENN ROBERTS, JR., SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

 

Scholars awarded grants to explore ecosystem

October 4th, 2012

FIORENZA MICHELI, a professor of biological sciences, and REBECCA BIRD, an ecological anthropologist, were recently awarded National Science Foundation grants of $1.3 million and $250,000, respectively.

Micheli, an affiliate with the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, will study the capacity of natural systems and human communities to adapt to environmental change. Specifically, her project will investigate the impacts of oceanographic variability on coastal marine ecosystems and human communities of the Pacific coast of Baja California, Mexico.

Bird’s project will measure direct effects of indigenous burning practices on woodlands and low-elevation, mixed forests in the Central Valley, Klamath Mountains and Sierra Nevada and indirect effects of these practices on the availability of wild foods and materials used by indigenous peoples that inhabit the woodlands.

Both research projects got their start with funding from the Woods Institute’s Environmental Venture Projects, seed grants for transformative environmental and sustainability research.

 

— ROB JORDAN, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment

The Flu Crew: Med students provide vaccinations to the community

October 2nd, 2012
Mediratta and Rizal

Medical students Rishi Mediratta and Rachel Rizal are members of the Flu Crew.

Medical student RISHI MEDIRATTA vividly remembers the first time he gave someone a flu shot. “It was with a third-year medical student and I was very nervous having to stick a needle in someone,” said the future physician. But luckily, thanks to the training he received as part of the school’s student-run influenza-prevention program, “My first patient didn’t even feel the needle.”

Now more than a year later, Mediratta is co-director, along with fellow second-year medical student RACHEL RIZAL, of the FLU CREW. Officially called the Medical Student Influenza Prevention Program, Flu Crew delivers no-cost vaccinations to people at Stanford and in the local community in an effort to reduce the burden of influenza and improve public health. It is the largest medical-school program of its kind in the country.

Flu Crew participation is practically a rite of passage for incoming medical students these days: A majority of first-year students are involved in the program, including 75 percent of students in 2010 and 60 percent in 2011. At the beginning of the school year, students are taught about the pathophysiology and epidemiology of the influenza virus, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates is associated with anywhere from 3,000 to 49,000 deaths annually in the United States. They also receive hands-on training on administering vaccines.

Read more about the Flu Crew in MICHELLE BRANDT’s article from the Stanford School of Medicine. And then check out the flu website to plan when you are getting your free flu shot this year. Just roll up your sleeve. Trust us, it won’t hurt a bit.

The Stanford Oval was the place to watch the Endeavour fly over last week!

September 24th, 2012

Spectators at the Oval were treated to a great view of the shuttle Endeavour on its way to a flyover of Moffett Field; its final destination, Los Angeles. (Photos by Kate Chesley)