Stanford Emeriti/ae Council Autobiographical Reflections

Phil Pizzo: The Threads That Connect a Life

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On February 27, 2025, Phil Pizzo, David and Susan Heckerman Professor and former Dean of the Stanford School of Medicine, treated an audience of emeriti/ae community members to an absorbing lecture entitled “The Threads That Connect a Life.” Pizzo narrates his story along two dominant themes – discovery and social justice – that have animated his life and career choices. Deciding to commit to education as the only way to escape a difficult early life in the Bronx, he is fascinated by experiments, studies philosophy and marine biology at a Jesuit college, makes his way through medical school, and pursues a passion for microbiology and infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health. Marrying very young and coming of age in the tumultuous 1960s, he joins peace marches and becomes involved in HIV/AIDS advocacy and treatment especially for children. Never having been interested in academic administration, he is nonetheless enticed to become Stanford Medical School dean in 1995 and embarks on strategic planning and new thinking about education, research, clinical care, and physician-scientist training. Partial to entirely new beginnings, Pizzo next creates Stanford’s Distinguished Careers Institute, a new model for higher education focused on intergenerational learning, community, and opportunities for impact throughout the lifespan. And in his most recent life transition, he and his wife convert to Judaism, and he begins rabbinical school, later adding a program of spiritual care and counseling. Following the path of tikkun olam, “repairing the world,” Pizzo continues to seek social justice.

Claude Steele: A Talk for My Emeriti Colleagues

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On October 23, 2024, Claude M. Steele, Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, Emeritus and Professor of Psychology, Emeritus in the School of Humanities and Sciences, presented “A Talk for My Emeriti Colleagues.” Through a candid personal chronology of his life, he illuminates how the nature of race had been a central issue from the day of his birth in a segregated hospital on the south side of Chicago in 1946, through his K-12 education in all-Black and all-white schools, and how race eventually influenced his interest in the emerging field of social psychology. In search of “good problems” for research and publication in academia, Steele focused on different topics, including understanding addictive behaviors such as alcoholism. He describes influential research on affirmation and stereotype threat that help to explain the “underperformance” of students of color and of women in math and sciences. Service as a leader at Columbia and UC-Berkeley involved with the fraught topic of diversity helped to shape Steele’s views on what hasn’t worked, and a possible new path for making diversity work: a focus on building conditions that enable trust in the important settings of our lives, including our schools, businesses, classrooms, and churches.

John Rickford: Speaking My Soul

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Wed, 15 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On May 15, 2024, John R. Rickford, the J. E. Wallace Sterling Professor of Humanities, Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, engaged emeriti/ae community members with a lecture and slide presentation, entitled “Speaking My Soul: Race, Life and Language.” Rickford dedicates the lecture to his colleague and good friend David Abernethy who had recommended him for a Danforth Fellowship in 1971 thus allowing him to go on to graduate school and pursue an academic career. The talk follows the structure of Rickford’s recently published memoir of the same title, leading his listeners through his life growing up in Guyana, South America, stories about his family and ancestors, student days at Queen’s College high school, attendance at UC Santa Cruz, wedding to wife Angela in 1971, and influential mentors that inspired him to pursue the field of sociolinguistics obtaining his PhD at University of Pennsylvania. He talks about leading “learning expeditions” as Stanford director of African and African American Studies to the South Carolina and Georgia Sea Islands, Jamaica, and Belize. He recaps the experience in 1990 of teaching with David Abernethy at a Stanford in Oxford summer program on “Britain in the Third World and the Third World in Britain.” Rickford discusses issues such as the use of African American Vernacular English, the life of Dennis Brutus, an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa (who lectured in the Oxford program), and the visit to Stanford of Frederic Willem de Klerk, President of South Africa. Rickford ends by remarking that he has had a life-long love affair with Stanford and plays a short video of the Stanford Chamber Orchestra performing “Hail, Stanford, Hail.”

Myra Strober: Ninety Men and Me

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On February 28, 2024, Myra Strober, Professor of Education, Emerita, and Professor Emerita of Economics (by Courtesy) at the Graduate School of Business, treated an audience of emeriti/ae community members to a wonderful lecture, entitled “Ninety Men and Me: Some Autobiographical Reflections.” Speaking candidly and from the heart, she traced the arc of her life as a student, wife, and mother of young children, making her way in academia beginning in the 1960s at a time when women were rare as graduate students and even more rare as professors. Discovering along the way that she was a “feminist,” she created, through her research, the new field of gender (or feminist) economics and helped to found what is now Stanford’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research (initially the Center for Research on Women). Strober spoke about leading the joint MBA-MA in Education degree program, teaching a popular course entitled Work and Family for many years, and recently co-authoring a book, Money and Love: An Intelligent Roadmap for Life’s Biggest Decisions. With humorous anecdotes and an unfailingly positive attitude, Strober described the difficult challenges she had faced and the valued support she has received in her professional and personal life.

Michael Wald: The Power of Social Context

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

On Nov. 15, 2023, Michael S. Wald, the Jackson Eli Professor of Law, Emeritus, reflected on his 57 years at the Stanford Law School combining research, teaching, and university service. He also described professional periods of leave including at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the San Francisco Department of Human Services. He acknowledged his good fortune as a white male growing up in the 1950s within a highly supportive educational system and community, leading to Cornell University as well as Law and Political Science degrees from Yale University. He contrasted his own experiences with those of highly disadvantaged children who are often trapped on a “school to prison” conveyer belt. He discussed the ways in which his research and involvement in drafting state and national legislation had been focused on bettering the life chances of families and children who must overcome poverty and inequality in order to thrive. Wald reflected dismay over the vast and unintended expansion of the U.S. welfare system over the past thirty years. He stressed that deep interdisciplinary collaborations, such as those he and faculty in the social sciences and medicine had carried out at Stanford’s Boys Town Center for the Study of Children, Youth and Families, will be necessary at universities like Stanford if multiple structural barriers are to be surmounted.

Ann Arvin: Autobiographical Reflections

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Mon, 15 May 2023 22:39:20 +0000

On Apr. 19, 2023, Ann Arvin, the Lucile Salter Packard Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Emerita, a nationally recognized scientist, spoke to an emeriti/ae audience. She shared some of her experiences growing up on a farm and as a “faculty brat.” She commented on her undergraduate years at Brown University as a philosophy major, followed by an MD at the University of Pennsylvania, with just seven female students who found the patriarchy “alive and well,” but were active in seeking changes. Arvin noted that becoming an assistant professor in a Medical School clinical department brings with it the demanding and simultaneous new role of attending physician and “decider” in patient care. She also reflected on the challenges of joining Stanford in 1978 as one of very few women faculty across campus, gravitating to each other and founding a Faculty Women’s Caucus to help bring about change. She described the excitement of her research career in molecular virology and infectious diseases, focusing on the varicella zoster virus (which causes chicken pox and shingles). Enticed into leadership through the University Fellows Program, Arvin served from 2006 to 2018 as Stanford’s Vice Provost and Dean of Research, and she offered perspectives on Stanford’s robust system of of interdisciplinary programs and institutes, envied by many peer universities. In response to a question, Arvin expressed pride in being a physician-scientist and the hope that this valuable and rewarding model will continue.

Paul Yock: Tales of a Medical Gizmologist

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 23:38:12 +0000

On Feb. 15, 2023, Paul Yock, the Weiland Professor of Bioengineering and Medicine, Emeritus, treated an audience of emeriti/ae community members to a wonderful lecture, entitled “Tales of a Medical Gizmologist,” about his life and career. After a middle-class upbringing in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, he attended Amherst College and Oxford University, studying both science and philosophy, then attended Harvard Medical School and pursued a career as an interventional cardiologist first at UCSF followed by Stanford. He provided a fascinating “insider’s” perspective on the major role that Stanford has played in creating the large Bay Area medical technology ecosystem. Tracing the story from the 1980s when several faculty members who became health technology pioneers left Stanford due to a perceived lack of support for their innovation activities, he discussed the present environment where the university, and particularly the School of Medicine, is placing heavy emphasis on “translational” research bringing discoveries forward into patient care. This evolution was reflected in the inclusion of an early Medical Device Network as part of the “Bio-X” concept, the creation of innovation fellowships in 2001, the launch of many start-up companies from Stanford Biodesign, and the creation of the Bioengineering Department, uniquely housed in two schools. He discussed in some detail how the biodesign process is being taught and improved, for example by ensuring that consumers of health care are involved in the research phase. A beneficial fusion of entrepreneurship and scholarship was evident throughout this talk, in which Yock acknowledged his mentors and predecessors.

Clayborne Carson: Where Do We Go from Here? Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Still Unanswered Question for the World

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Thu, 15 Dec 2022 18:46:20 +0000

In a lecture on Nov. 15, 2022, Clayborne Carson, the Martin Luther King, Jr., Centennial Professor of History, emeritus, spoke in the Emeriti/ae Council’s “Autobiographical Reflections” lecture series. He traced the path of his early life growing up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, undergraduate and graduate studies at UCLA, becoming a “historian” rather unintentionally, and his almost fifty-year career at Stanford. He described his early interest in the civil rights movement, focused principally on young activists his own age, especially those in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which became the subject of his first book. Carson explains how he was asked by Mrs. Coretta Scott King to edit and publish her late husband’s speeches, sermons, and other writings, and became the founding Director of the King Institute at Stanford. He also spoke about his collaboration with PBS on the Eyes on the Prize documentary series which led him to write two plays about King’s life and teachings, which have been performed in China and in Palestine. Carson is continuing his online educational efforts by establishing the World House Project at the Freeman Spogli Institute, collaborating with international human rights advocates to realize King’s vision of a global community in which all people can “learn somehow to live with each other in peace.”

William Durham: Surprising Implications of Evolution

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Fri, 6 May 2022 22:40:43 +0000

On April 20, with an introduction by Professor Emeritus David Abernethy, Professor Emeritus William Durham presented a lively Abernethy Autobiographical Reflections lecture to Emeriti/ae at the Stanford Faculty Club. Durham’s lecture highlighted three widely distinct aspects of evolution from the biological, to the cultural, to the personal.

First, stemming from the blue-footed booby photo of Professor Emeritus Lubert Stryer’s recent Abernethy lecture, Durham considered the origin of the iconic Blue-footed Boobies of Galapagos. Here opportunistic mating and the elevated importance of blue feet evolved to an essential reproductive strategy in both female and male blue-footed boobies. The seasonal shift in blue-footed booby foot color to aqua is dependent on dietary carotenoids from sardines (in turn from phytoplankton) and correlates with their ocular spectral sensitivity range and with cold mineral-rich marine upwellings nearby. The foot-color shift to “sardine blue” points to a Galapagos origin for the species, counter to orthodoxy in the field.

In the second, surprising example, Durham discussed a classic cultural anthropological study of the Thongpa, a group of tax-paying serfs in traditional Tibet and Tibetan-speaking Nepal. Cultural inheritance in this society resulted in an exceptional diversity of marriage practices tightly managed by parents with the long-term goal of uniting all legal heirs of each generation into a single marriage with inheritance, thus to hold on to the essential land. This cultural practice was maintained in the context of extreme climate, low primary production in the steep agricultural valleys, and financial tolls exacted by the local manorial landlords. Thongpa emigrants to India do not continue those diverse marriage practices. There were clear adaptive advantages to the practice in the homeland, yet it’s a product of cultural evolution – an important correction, says Durham, to the claims of sociobiology.

In keeping with the theme of Autobiographical Reflections, in his final example Durham credited his childhood interest in finding fossils, from brachiopods to trilobites, during limestone treasure hunts near his home in Northern Ohio. In his personal “evolution,” the enduring question remains: what are the origins of the diversity of life?

Lubert Stryer: Light and Life

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Thu, 3 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

On Feb. 16, 2022, Lubert Stryer, the Winzer Professor of Cell Biology, Emeritus, delivered a lecture entitled “Light and Life.” Born in China in 1938, he shared memories of his childhood in Shanghai during WWII. US visas for his family came through a few months before Shanghai was taken over by Mao. After high school in New York, he graduated at the age of 19 from the University of Chicago, where he met his wife, Andrea. After receiving his MD at Harvard, he devoted himself to basic science research. As a postdoctoral fellow, he studied physics before going to the Medical Research Council in England. His mentors included Elkan Blout, Edward Purcell, and John Kendrew. In 1963, Dr. Stryer was recruited to the Biochemistry Department at Stanford as an assistant professor. in 1969 he was recruited to Yale as Professor of Molecular Physics and Biochemistry. He returned to Stanford in 1976 to serve as the founding chair of the new Structural Biology Department.

Long fascinated by “the interplay of light and life,” Stryer pioneered the application of fluorescence spectroscopy to explore the dynamics of biological macromolecules. Stryer and Haugland established that the efficiency of energy transfer is dependent on the inverse 6th power of the distance between two light absorbing groups, the donor and acceptor molecule. This led to the realization that energy transfer can be employed as a “spectroscopic ruler” as cited in over 12,000 scientific papers by now.

As a second theme of his reflections, Stryer focused on how light acts on photoreceptor cells to trigger a signaling pathway to initiate vision. Here he described the distinct lines of evidence converging to lead to his discovery of an amplifying protein. This protein in rods allows for incredible sensitivity to light and underlies how a single photon can trigger the activation of a neuron. This story is told in a way that the sequence of gaps and discoveries is revealed. Stryer shared a sense of gratitude for a rewarding life of research and teaching, and for the rich, collaborative environment at Stanford.

Throughout his life, and in appreciation of Life, Stryer is captivated by visual imagery and color. Retiring at the age of 65, though still mentoring students and younger colleagues, the “gift of time” is allowing new explorations in international travel with Andrea, and in art through his nature photography. His lecture was capped by a handful of stunning photographs, including gorgeous examples of color in the natural world.

Jerry Harris: My Mississippi

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 20:49:33 +0000

In a lecture on Nov. 17, 2021, Jerry Harris, Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus, speaks about “My Mississippi,” his meandering path through segregation, opportunity, despair, and hope. He briefly discusses his research on novel applications of seismic waves for characterizing and monitoring subsurface resources such as oil and gas as well as in carbon sequestration. Focusing primarily on his youth, Harris tells a vivid and compelling personal story of growing up on a farm in rural Mississippi, one of 11 children, attending a “separate but unequal” two-room primary school, and being the only Black student in a white high school, where he experienced episodes of hostility, exclusion, and inequitable treatment from teachers and fellow students. Attending “Ole Miss” (the University of Mississippi) a few years after it was integrated by James Meredith under National Guard enforcement, he and other Black students organized equal rights protests, one of which caused them to be arrested and expelled, though his expulsion was “suspended” and he was able to graduate with an engineering degree. Noting that Jim Crow laws, freedom marches along local highways, and Ku Klux Klan terrorism were ever-present throughout his young life in Mississippi in the 1950s, Harris stresses that the opportunities he also experienced were possible only through integration and Federal law. After working in the petroleum industry and obtaining a PhD at California Institute of Technology, he joined the Stanford faculty in 1988. In addition to teaching and research, Harris was a founding member of the Earth School’s Office of Multicultural Affairs. He describes the creation and funding of the award-winning SURGE program (Summer Undergraduate Research in Geoscience and Engineering) to increase the pipeline of minority and women students into graduate studies at Stanford and elsewhere, with the goal of creating a broad “intercultural” experience.

Milbrey McLaughlin: Context and the Power of Opportunities

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 22:35:54 +0000

Milbrey McLauglin, the David Jacks Professor of Education and Public Policy at Stanford University, Emerita, spoke to an emeriti/ae audience on April 22, 2021.She traced her life trajectory through college and an “awakening” of sorts in Kansas City, Missouri, to policy analysis at the RAND Corporation focused on disadvantaged youth, and quite “unintentionally” to a faculty position at Stanford where she was the founding director of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities. Professor McLaughlin discussed several themes in her work helping to identify policies that can improve outcomes for vulnerable urban youth, including “mutual adaptation” by local educators and careful attention to the settings and contexts of both teachers and students. She highlighted the power of well-designed extra-curricular opportunities such as the CYCLE program in Chicago, that allowed youth to overcome hostile conditions in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green public housing project and embark on positive life paths.

Eve Vivienne Clark: From French Literature to First Language Acquisition

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Fri, 5 Mar 2021 22:41:34 +0000

Eve Vivienne Clark, Richard W. Lyman Professor in the Humanities and Professor Emerita of Linguistics presented a lecture via Zoom on Feb. 17, 2021 entitled “From French Literature to First Language Acquisition.” She discussed her early life and her education in France and Edinburgh, advice along the way from important mentors, and joining Stanford’s Department of Linguistics in 1974. She shared vivid examples of her extensive research on how children acquire language, the development of principles in language acquisition and use, and how new words are coined by children and adults. Clark described sabbaticals and summers doing research, teaching, and sailing in The Netherlands and multiple other European countries along with her husband, Stanford Psychology Professor Herbert Clark. She expressed gratitude for Stanford’s supportive environment and answered audience questions about her research and what it was like to be one of very few women faculty members and part of a rare couple with two faculty appointments at Stanford beginning in the 1970s.

Jim Gibbons: Tutored Video Instruction, Before and After Zoom

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Mon, 7 Dec 2020 17:45:23 +0000

James Gibbons, Stanford Professor of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus, spoke in the Abernethy Emeriti/ae Lecture Series. In his talk he traces the origins and uses of the Tutored Video Instruction (TVI) process, which he developed in 1972 while serving on President Nixon’s Science Advisory Council. Originally designed to teach Stanford electrical engineering graduate courses to Silicon Valley engineers at off-campus locations, Gibbons outlines the positive learning outcomes achieved through TVI and DTVI (Distributed TVI) as well as the elements contributing to that success, including the importance of tutor selection and training. He describes subsequent uses of TVI in very different settings: teaching computer literacy to children of migrant farm workers and teaching emotional skills to youth in a variety of school and juvenile justice settings across the country. Gibbons mentions that the TVI methodology was also used in a Stanford poetry course and adopted by faculty at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara.

David Abernethy: A Fortunate Life

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 19:21:25 +0000

In a lecture on Nov. 20, 2019, entitled “A Fortunate Life,” David Abernethy, Stanford Professor of Political Science, Emeritus reflects on the advantages of being born into an American, white, middle class, Protestant family. His youthful commitment to doing something about sub-Saharan Africa led to summer experiences in Nigeria and Guinea with Operation Crossroads Africa and eventually to filling a new faculty billet at Stanford in African politics. He discusses changes at Stanford since he arrived in 1965, including the increased diversity of the student body and trends in student activism; his support for replacing the freshman Western Culture requirement with more globally oriented courses; involvement in campus anti-apartheid and disinvestment issues; and his role in the controversy over the location in the campus foothills of the proposed Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. He describes his post-retirement desire to balance activities that are familiar vs. unfamiliar and benefitting himself vs. others. New activities include singing in the Stanford Symphonic Chorus and chairing the Emeriti Council. He advises that it is okay in retirement to step back from our hectic lives. He also answers audience questions about his book, “The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires, 1415-1980,” published in 2000.

Albert Camarillo: Growing Up Mexican American

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Tue, 2 Apr 2019 17:00:00 +0000

Albert Camarillo, Stanford Professor emeritus of History, reflects on growing up as a Mexican American in the Los Angeles suburb of Compton and the profound effect of that environment and the opportunities it provided in shaping his scholarship and his life. He discusses racial restrictive covenants, changing demographics, school integration in the 1960s, and the value of playing team sports. As one of very few Mexican American students when he entered UCLA, he met his wife Susan and discovered the nascent field of Chicano history, going on to earn the first PhD in this field. Coming to Stanford in 1975 as an affirmative action hire, he praises senior faculty mentors in the history department. After founding Stanford’s Center for Chicano Research, he directed the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and credits Stanford for taking a chance and investing in the development of this new field. He mentions chairing a major two-year study, the University Commission on Minority Issues. And he notes that his service as associate dean of Humanities & Sciences helped him learn how the university works from the inside.

Lee Shulman: A Well-Marbled Career

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 17:00:00 +0000

Lee Shulman, Ducommun Professor of Education, Emeritus at Stanford, reflects on his life and academic career, describing the chance-filled path he took from slicing pastrami in his parents’ deli to teaching at Michigan State and Stanford and then presiding over the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He talks about his Yeshiva high school in Chicago, undergraduate and PhD experiences at the University of Chicago, his research interests in the philosophy and psychology of education, integration of pedagogy with content, development of new forms of teaching assessment, and his work at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching which moved to the Stanford campus. He comments that just as pastrami is marbled, teaching and research should be equal parts of a well-marbled career.

Irv Weissman: Autobiographical Reflections

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Thu, 8 Nov 2018 17:00:00 +0000

How does a Jewish high school student from Great Falls, Montana with "B" grades become a world-renowned scientist and founding director of Stanford's Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine? In these autobiographical reflections, Irv Weissman, Professor of Pathology and of Developmental Biology, describes his journey to Stanford Medical School and his decision to make medical research his life-long priority. He discusses his laboratory's work on blood-forming stem cells with the ability to cure some cancers, his experience and advice concerning formation of biotech companies in order to ensure that promising therapies reach patients in need , and his role in writing California Proposition 71 in 2004 that established the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

Ewart Thomas: Autobiographical Reflections

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 07:00:00 +0000

Professor Emeritus Ewart Thomas reflected on his growing-up years in Guyana, his education at University of the West Indies and Cambridge University, and decision to join Stanford's Psychology Department. He focussed on the key role friends and colleagues played throughout his life, encouraging him to perform at his best and to take leadership roles as department chair and as Dean of Humanities and Sciences.

Channing Robertson: A Journey Through Uncharted Waters

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Channing Robertson, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, explained how advisers from high school through graduate school urged him to move to the next educational level, enabling a once-unthinkable career in academia to become a reality. He discussed the opportunities Stanford presented to work closely with researchers in several scientific disciplines, achieving results a specialist in only one field could not attain. He also described being an expert witness in important trials against pharmaceutical and tobacco companies.

William Chace Autobiographical Reflections

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 23:03:00 +0000

Determined to oppose the habit of self-importance almost endemic to an autobiographical talk, Bill Chace instead discussed his life with irony, eloquence, and humor. A professor of literature who valued his teaching, he discovered he also liked administration and put to good use—as president of Wesleyan and Emory Universities—his observations during two decades at Stanford. He believes that leadership at a university must be fundamentally truth-telling.

David Hamburg: Stanford as Impetus for an Unexpected, Gratifying, Long Career

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (David Hamburg) — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 07:00:00 +0000

Reflecting on his Stanford years and a long career of public service, David A. Hamburg, M.D., former professor and chair of psychiatry at Stanford, spoke about the establishment of his chimpanzee research in Tanzania, the kidnapping (and release) of 4 students, and coming face to face with problems of poverty, disease and revolution. He also discussed his time as head of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, President of Carnegie Corporation, and co-chair of Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict. He worked with several US presidents on issues including national health policy, war and peace, nuclear disarmament and preventing mass violence.

James Sheehan, "Living in History"

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (James Sheehan) — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 17:22:00 +0000

Jim Sheehan, Stanford Professor of History, Emeritus, describes the two ways in which he has lived in history: as a historian who studies the past, while at the same time living in a present that will become a part of history. He reflects on his Irish Catholic upbringing in San Francisco, Stanford undergraduate years in the 1950s, and doctorate in German history at UC Berkeley. He discusses his career academic focus on Germany within the broader context of European history.

Paul Berg: Science & the Polity, a Fragile Interface

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Paul Berg) — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 07:00:00 +0000

Paul Berg, Stanford Professor of Cancer Research Emeritus and 1980 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, spoke about: his arrival at Stanford in 1959, along with six colleagues from Washington Univ. in St. Louis, who created the open, sharing environment of the new Biochemistry Department; research on genetic processes and a search to understand cancer; work developing novel tools for manipulating DNA; and his role in organizing the important, public Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA in 1975 where scientists evaluated risks and policy issues and agreed to voluntary limitations and guidelines.

Alain Enthoven: Right Places at the Right Time

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Thu, 19 May 2016 00:44:00 +0000

Alain Enthoven, Professor of Public and Private Management, Emeritus in the Graduate School of Business reflects on his life and career. He discusses his contributions to a fundamental change in national and NATO defense strategy that reduced dependence on nuclear weapons and describes his contributions to the transformation of American health care finance.

Donald Knuth: Theory, Practice and Fun

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Donald Knuth, Professor of the Art of Computer Programming, describes how his own experiences as a young student inspired him to become a professor. He speaks about the privilege of connecting with the best students and being part of the world's leading department of Computer Science when that subject was just beginning to take shape. Knuth talks about contributing to a revolution in the printing industry by making computers do new tricks, mentions some of his over 30 books and many papers, as well as his love of music and composing.

Walter Vincenti: Autobiographical Reflections

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Walter Vincenti) — Wed, 28 Jan 2015 08:00:00 +0000

Walter Vincenti, Professor Emeritus of Aeronautics & Astronautics, reminisces about undergraduate student life at Stanford in the 1930s.

Helen Quinn: Autobiographical Reflections

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Helen Quinn) — Tue, 9 Dec 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Helen Quinn, Professor Emerita of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at SLAC, speaks about her life and career, lack of early recognition as a woman in physics, and recent extensive involvement in K-12 science education.

Michael Kirst: Accidental Professor

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Michael Kirst) — Mon, 9 Jun 2014 07:00:00 +0000

In the "Autobiographical Reflections" series, Mike Kirst, Professor Emeritus in the Graduate School of Education, talks about his career in the federal government prior to Stanford, and his current role as president of the California State Board of Education (for the 2nd time) and advisor to Governor Jerry Brown.

Saul Rosenberg: Autobiographical Reflections

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Saul Rosenberg) — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 08:00:00 +0000

Saul Rosenberg, a professor emeritus in the Stanford School of Medicine, came to Stanford in 1961, establishing and directing the Division of Medical Oncology from 1963 to 1993. He spoke about his career, the curing of Hodgkin's disease, and the joy of being a professor and a physician at Stanford.

Thomas Ehrlich: Autobiographical Reflections

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Thomas Ehrlich) — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 08:00:00 +0000

A lecture by former Stanford Law School dean Tom Ehrlich speaking primarily about his government service and his three senior roles in academic administration: dean of Stanford law school, provost at University of Pennsylvania, and president of University of Indiana.

William F. Miller: Adapting the University to a Changing Society

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (William F. Miller) — Thu, 30 May 2013 07:00:00 +0000

William F. Miller, Professor Emeritus in Computer Science and in the Graduate School of Business, and former Stanford Provost spoke in the Emeriti Council's Autobiographical Reflections series. He reflected on his experiences and changes in the University.

William Perry: A Journey at the Nuclear Brink

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (William Perry) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 07:00:00 +0000

William Perry, Berberian Professor emeritus in Management Science and Engineering, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies and at the Hoover Institution spoke about his life and career in an autobiographical talk.

Nancy Packer: Writing Short Stories and Fiction

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Nancy Packer speaks with candor and humor about her personal life and her career as a teacher and a writer of short stories and non-fiction books.

John Chowning: Autobiographical Reflections

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Stanford University) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:00:00 +0000

Lecture & musical demonstration by John Chowning, professor emeritus of music and founder of Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. He talks about his invention of FM synthesis, his musical compositions, and the Stanford environment that fostered his work.

Sandy Dornbusch: Sociology

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Sandy Dornbusch) — Wed, 7 Mar 2012 08:00:00 +0000

Sanford (Sandy) Dornbusch talks about how he became a sociologist, his path to Stanford, the growth of the sociology department, and the origins of the undergraduate human biology program. (March 7, 2012)

Artie Bienenstock: Photon Science

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Arthur Bienenstock) — Mon, 7 Nov 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Artie Bienenstock, Professor Emeritus of Photon Science, speaks on divergent paths in his early life and on his professional career, both at Stanford and during his service at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. (November 7, 2011)

Wanda Corn: Art and Art History

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Wanda Corn) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Wanda Corn, professor emerita of art and art history, recalls her life and career, discussing her scholarly work and her work as museum curator. (April 26, 2011)

Paul Brest: Law and Where it Led

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Paul Brest) — Mon, 7 Feb 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Paul Brest, professor emeritus of law and President of the Hewlett Foundation, reflects on his career at Stanford. He focuses on his observations of legal education, philanthropy, and management styles. (February 7, 2011)

David Kennedy: Autobiographical Reflections

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (David Kennedy) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 08:00:00 +0000

David Kennedy recounts the story of his life, from his days growing up in Seattle and attending Stanford University to his later experiences as a professor and historian. (November 15, 2010)

Haresh Shah: Castastrophe Risk Management

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Haresh Shah) — Wed, 9 Jun 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Haresh Shah speaks about his personal journey from India to Stanford and his career in the field of catastrophic risk management. (June 9, 2010)

James March on Occupation: Teacher

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (James March) — Tue, 2 Feb 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Jim March, professor emeritus of education, psychology, political science, sociology, and business, speaks about his career at Stanford. He discusses how being at Stanford allowed him to be successful in such a diverse group of fields. (February 2, 2010)

Herbert Lindenberger: The Mind's Journey

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Herbert Lindenberger) — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Herbert Lindenberger, professor emeritus of humanities, speaks about his life and career at Stanford and elsewhere. He discusses his unconventional career as a researcher and compares the work he did in the sciences and humanities. (November 10, 2009)

Albert Macovski: The Course of a Career

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Albert Macovski) — Tue, 26 May 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Albert Macovski, professor emeritus of electrical engineering and radiology, speaks about the evolution of his career. He discusses how his career shifted from commercial imaging to medical imaging and how he transferred his skill set. (May 26, 2009)

Herant Katchadourian: Life and Serendipity

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Herant Kathadourian) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Member of Stanford's Emeriti Council, Herant Katchadourian, speaks about his four-decade career at Stanford University. He was an emeritus professor of psychiatry and human biology and focuses on his career and the role of serendipity. (February 23, 2009)

Eleanor Maccoby: Reflections on Fifty Years as a Research Psychologist

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Eleanor Maccoby) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:00:00 +0000

Professor Emerita Eleanor Maccoby discusses developments in the field of psychology over the past fifty years, as well as her own research on gender, families, and child development.

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza: Genes and Human Relationships

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Luigi Luca Cavallli-Sforza) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:00:00 +0000

Stanford Medical School Professor Luigi Cavalli-Sforza discusses his research on the evolutionary history of modern humans, focusing on the role of genetic drift and geography in evolution.

Arthur Kornberg: For the Love of Enzymes

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Arthur Kornberg) — Mon, 14 May 2007 07:00:00 +0000

Arthur Kornberg, professor emeritus of biochemistry and a Nobel laureate, discusses his time at Stanford and the research he conducted in the field of biochemistry. (May 14, 2007)

Diane Middlebrook: Autobiographical Reflections

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Diane Middlebrook) — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 08:00:00 +0000

As part of the Emereti Council's "Autobiographical Reflections" series, Diane Middlebrook, emerita professor of English, speaks about the influence of taking early retirement to facilitate a career change to full-time writer. (January 23, 2007)

Patrick Suppes: My Life and My Work

lindsay.cox@stanford.edu (Patrick Suppes) — Tue, 23 May 2006 07:00:00 +0000

Patrick Suppes, professor emeritus of philosophy, statistics, psychology, and education, discusses his time spent at Stanford and much of his life in general. (May 23, 2006)