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SLAC 'The Experiment Works'THE NUMBERS are impressive: 550 scientists at 73 institutions in nine countries combing through millions of bits of data for 16 months. And the goal is, well, cosmic: to make a precise measurement that might help us understand how we and everything we see and touch came to be. When the value--0.34±0.20--popped up simultaneously on three computer screens at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in January, particle physicists hailed it as a wondrous "baby step" toward a new understanding of the universe. "The excitement is that the idea works and the experiment works--we have 'first results,'" says researcher Pat Burchat. "We have demonstrated the feasibility of the experimental approach and are on our way." Burchat, a Stanford physics professor, and her colleagues from around the world have been working for a decade to design, build and run an experiment that will help explain why there's more matter than antimatter in the universe--a fundamental question of particle physics. (Though it's often glorified in science fiction, antimatter is very real--a mirror image of matter that has opposite electric and magnetic properties.) The researchers use SLAC's high-energy BaBar facility to produce collisions between electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons, then compare the rates at which they decay. Another team known as the BELLE collaboration has been pursuing a similar experiment at Japan's high-energy physics facility, KEK. So far, the numerical value the BaBar collaborators have measured--known as sin 2b--is consistent with the Standard Model of physics, the prevailing theory explaining how matter and energy interact. Although the result is the most precise to date, it's still not refined enough that physicists are willing to make any definitive statements. They're not even calling it a discovery--yet. "We don't know what more precision will bring us," says Burchat, PhD '86. "Perhaps the Standard Model will once again hold up. Or perhaps we'll observe some inconsistencies that could point the way in our quest to understand what physics lies beyond the Standard Model." Achieving greater precision will take time: the experiment is expected to last another five to 10 years. During 1999 and 2000, BaBar produced a whopping 25 million particle collisions. But by 2002, researchers expect it to churn out 80 million collisions per year. "It's not like an undergraduate lab, where you want to get the 'right' answer," Burchat says. "Instead, we want to know what nature has given us. It's a monumental effort, inspired by the desire to understand a question as basic as: how is matter different from antimatter?'" For the past 18 months, BaBar collaborators have worked in round-the-clock shifts to test and retest what project spokesperson Stewart SMITh calls "the number from hell." Every day from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., teams of researchers confer through videoconferences from their offices in Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, Russia and the United States. During the past year, Burchat coordinated the analysis portion of the experiment. After pursuing a more precise sin 2b for more than a decade, however, Burchat missed the moment of revelation. The date for publicly releasing the results kept shifting, and Burchat and her husband, Tony Norcia, PhD '81, had promised to take their children, Matthew, 12, and Michael, 9, to a Tahoe ski resort. At the moment computers flashed the final computation in a crowded office at SLAC, Burchat was on the road home from the mountains. Fifteen minutes later, she stopped at a restaurant in Davis and called her colleagues from a pay phone. Regrets? "Not enough to not go skiing with my family." |
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HUMANITIES Plan to Merge Language Departments Draws FireFIRST, THEY WERE driven apart, scattered in trailers across campus after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed the Language Corner. Then, five years later, the foreign languages and literatures departments were brought together administratively--despite faculty objections--under an umbrella "division" that coordinated undergraduate courses and graduate admissions. Finally, in 1996, the departments were reunited physically in seismically strengthened Pigott Hall. Now, deans in the School of Humanities and Sciences have proposed merging Asian languages, comparative literature, French and Italian, German studies, Slavic languages and literatures, and Spanish and Portuguese into one department. The consolidated department would have a single chair and directors for each of six "area groups." Many faculty perceive this proposal as the last step in a long-term University plan to downsize their fields of study, and 743 students and staff have signed a petition asking for more input and a lengthier discussion of the topic. Both sides say they're concerned about the shrinking number of faculty members. "We have six relatively small departments that are vulnerable to changes and vacancies," says Keith Baker, cognizant dean for the humanities. "A large department will have more weight in making claims to the University for resources." Baker says he has a "firm guarantee" from outgoing H&S Dean Malcolm Beasley that assistant professors who leave or are denied tenure will be replaced and that the consolidated department will hire five new senior faculty. Many faculty, however, argue that five new positions departmentwide won't compensate for escalating losses. For example, French and Italian chair Jeffrey Schnapp says that his department has lost one-third of its faculty to retirements and tenure denials over the past 15 years--"and the University has refused to allow us to replace them." The Slavic department has become perilously small, with only four tenured faculty. And the merger proposal contains no guarantee that departing professors will be replaced within the same area group. In addition, says Asian languages chair Chao Fen Sun, it doesn't make sense "to lump Asian languages with European departments." Sun has proposed a task force to consider establishing an autonomous department of East Asian languages and cultures. Schnapp has also submitted an alternative proposal: to create a division of international studies. Some faculty, however, say such reasoning supports a merger of the existing departments. "People don't just read French or Italian or American literature--they read more broadly," says comparative literature professor Sepp Gumbrecht. A consolidated department "would reflect that truth." Baker and associate dean John Bender say the merger proposal emerged from last year's external review of the division. In it, Catharine Stimpson, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science at New York University, and Sander Gilman, professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, recommended four ways to strengthen the division. "But their report explicitly argues that departmentalization is the weakest alternative," says Schnapp, PhD '82. He and others contend that a consolidated department is characteristic of schools that do not have exemplary graduate programs. "Not a single peer institution--not Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia or Chicago--has anything remotely resembling a department of modern languages," Schnapp says. If the merger is approved, he adds, "Stanford will find itself in the company of Allegheny State College and Pepperdine." Stimpson and Gilman note in their report that "graduate students, going out into the academic job market, might find a doctorate from a department of languages, cultures and literatures lacking in specificity. As a result, potential employers, e.g., a German department, might not immediately know what a Stanford degree represented." Many professors and students believe the administration is acting without their input. "We need to democratize the process," says Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano, chair of Spanish and Portuguese. And German studies chair Rob Robinson, '68, who says he's "interested [in] and not opposed" to the merger, says "absolutely" there is "a top-down element" to the decision making. The 743 petitioners have asked the Faculty Senate to discuss the proposed merger. The H&S deans have contended in the past that the Faculty Senate does not need to consider the issue, since no degree requirements are changing. They have forwarded their proposal to Provost John Etchemendy, who in 1994 chaired the Language Task Force that recommended the division structure. Etchemendy, PhD '82, discussed the merger with his Advisory Board on March 14 and, at press time, was expected to make a recommendation to University President John Hennessy. Hennessy, in turn, would pass along his recommendation to the Board of Trustees in June. |
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Cardinal NumbersWeeks Stanford's men's basketball team ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll: 7 Cardinal victories over eventual Final Four teams: 2 Consecutive free throws senior Ryan Mendez made to set a new Pac-10 record: 49 Times Mendez always bounces the ball before a free throw: 3 Age at which Collins twins, Jason and Jarron, began playing on the same team: 6 Weight, in ounces, of an adult male terrapin: 17 Days terrapins can be hunted, according to Maryland law: 214 (April 1-October 31) SOURCES: Stanford Department of Athletics; National Aquarium in Baltimore. |
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CAMPUS SECURITY Hail to the Retiring ChiefMARVIN HERRINGTON,the son of a veteran Detroit cop, retires in May after 30 years as chief of police at Stanford--which, with a daytime population of 30,000, is bigger than many towns. He hung tough through the anti-war demonstrations of the '70s and charmed such visiting dignitaries as the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Presidents Carter, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. Capt. Marvin Moore, a 27-year member of the force, will replace him. Stanford: What was the most challenging moment of your career? Herrington: [Mikhail] Gorbachev's visit. The motorcade was close to 100 cars, and we had the kgb, the Secret Service and everybody in our department, plus 300 other officers from the sheriff's department and the Highway Patrol. Every place Gorbachev went had to be swept for explosives, and we put 11,000 people through metal detectors before we let them onto the Quad. We also welded manholes shut and sealed off buildings because we didn't want people popping out. The three kgb colonels we dealt with in the planning stage knew their job well and were far easier to work with than some we've had here, like the French who came with [François] MITterand and landed on Roble field in their helicopters. How do students typically have contact with your officers? Students would probably say it's when they get parking tickets. But we work with a lot of students on events and even give them advice about how to run a party. Then, if something goes wrong and they have a problem or a fight, uniformed officers will respond and say, "Okay, the party's over," which takes the onus off the students. In fact, we've had students call us and say, "Will you come over and shut us down? Because it's getting out of hand, and we don't know how to do it." Is alcohol still a big problem on campus? There was a time when any Friday night on Mayfield [Avenue], there were too many drunks to pick up. But what concerns me now is the number of students who come here with alcohol problems. They will tell you that they drink until they pass out. It's a very different attitude. What were the toughest years for law enforcement? 1971 through '74. There was a tremendous amount of violence, with buildings being trashed almost daily. And in those days they would throw personalized rocks at us, with pigs painted on them. But demonstrations went on into the late '70s and early '80s on lots of different things, from divestiture in South Africa to animal rights. You mentioned Gorbachev's visit in 1990. How did that compare with Chelsea Clinton's arrival in September 1997? The Secret Service told me that was one of the most difficult details they'd ever had because the President was outdoors, wandering around, being a parent that day--all of which gives people in my business heartburn. The thing that startled me most was that the family showed up half an hour early, and we had to cover them for 15 hours until they left. I'm glad I won't be here for graduation this June. |
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GENDER EQUITY Plugging Leaks in the PipelineLOWER SALARIES. Smaller labs. Fewer committee assignments. A 1999 faculty study at MIT showed that women teaching in the School of Science routinely experienced discrimination. And, most stunning to the academic world, MIT admitted it. At MIT's invitation, the presidents of Stanford and seven other prominent research institutions came together on the Cambridge campus in January to make another very public statement: "We recognize that barriers still exist to the full participation of women in science and engineering." In five brief paragraphs, the men who lead MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, UC-Berkeley, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and Caltech pledged to diversify their faculties, share information about how salaries and resources are assigned and ensure that professors with "family responsibilities" are not "disadvantaged." In a speech to the Stanford community six weeks later, President John Hennessy said his administration would "monitor and guard against inequities in the hiring and promotion of any individual." He also comMITted to "continue the process of adding more women and people of color to both our faculty and staff." Vice provost for faculty development Pat Jones, who also attended the MIT meeting, will assemble an advisory committee to focus on the status of women faculty. "We think our chairs and deans are making appropriate decisions in terms of setting salaries and assigning lab space, and we expect that gender is not a factor in those decisions," says Jones, a highly regarded specialist in immunology who was the first woman to chair the biology department. "But we think the central administration has a very important leadership role and an important role in vigilance over these processes." According to some who've monitored the progress of female faculty, Hennessy and the other university presidents' willingness to openly acknowledge and address gender inequity could make a difference. "It's a very hopeful step, and it could be a first step in building a new consciousness," says education professor Myra Strober, one of four Stanford representatives at the MIT meeting. "But I'd say the jury is still out." Stanford has been grappling with the question of how to increase the percentage of women on the faculty for years. In 1993, Strober chaired a committee that found the University was "seriously lagging with respect to recruitment and retention" of women. Today, she says, the numbers still tell a "sad story," particularly in the sciences and engineering. As of September 1999, women represented 8 percent of the engineering faculty and 12 percent of the natural sciences faculty. While that's "not bad compared to the national figures," Jones says, it is "much lower than we want it to be." The so-called pipeline--women enrolled in PhD programs in the sciences and engineering--is "very leaky" today, she observes, as students increasingly choose careers in industry over academia. And the number in the pipeline is not exactly robust to begin with. As of 1997, about 18 percent of the enrollees in undergraduate and master's-level engineering courses, and 12 percent of those in doctoral-level courses, were women. Sheri Sheppard, the only tenured woman on Stanford's 36-member mechanical engineering faculty, is conducting a yearlong study at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to figure out why young women are being turned off by engineering classes--and what can be done to bring them back. Sheppard believes her department must aggressively recruit more women faculty. But she thinks University administrators have to provide clear leadership. "A message from the president is a good start," she says. "But how does that message get implemented at the level of department chairs and senior faculty making decisions? How do you judge earnestness, and how will we as an institution hold ourselves accountable?" The 35 students in Engineering: Women's Perspectives, a seminar Sheppard teaches, have more immediate questions about the dearth of female faculty and the dismissive attitudes they perceive from many senior professors. At the final meeting of the class in March, they put their concerns to engineering dean Jim Plummer. "Is it a matter of time, waiting for junior faculty to move up?" one student wanted to know. "Or is there something we can do now to help create a more woman-friendly environment?" Plummer, ms '67, PhD '71, promised to talk with department chairs the following week and agreed to meet regularly with the students. "Something that really bothers me is that engineering is such a dynamic discipline and it's always changing, but changing the dynamics and increasing the population of women is harder than adopting the latest computer technology," Plummer said. "It's an agonizingly slow process." |
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LECTURE HALL Asking the Tough Ethical Questions"HOW MUCH OF a human brain can you put into a mouse? Is there any limit? Is there a point where it begins to look more like a human brain than a mouse brain?" Before the 200 assembled students could ask Irving Weissman questions about the lecture he'd just given on transplanting stem cells, the pathology professor was firing off some thought-provokers of his own. "What is the architecture of the quality of human-ness?" he continued. "What is it that makes us human?" Weissman, md '65, has been a frequent guest speaker for Bioethical Issues in Human Biology in the nine years it has been offered. Not surprising, since he deals every day with the kinds of moral, ethical and religious issues the course is designed to address. The yearlong course complements the core sequence in human biology, which introduces students to the relationship between biology and social science. "I tell the students they will create the future because the decisions they make about technology will govern how it is used for hundreds and maybe thousands of years," says the instructor, William Hurlbut, a physician and lecturer in human biology. "Questions and concerns raised now will either shut science down or open it up." Hurlbut, '68, md '74, begins fall quarter with a look at humans' place in the universe. This autumn, he tapped Andrea Nightingale, '81, an associate professor of classics, to talk about nature as it's been defined from Heraclitus through the postmodern age. Throughout the year, Hurlbut calls on specialists from around the University to share their best thinking on ethics and human nature, the human genome project, genetic testing, and religion and evolution. "I try to bring in top scientists who can give us a solid understanding of the science behind the technology and who can also talk about where we come from, what we're here for, where we're heading and what we want in life," Hurlbut says. By spring quarter the class is digging into questions of animal experimentation, biowarfare and ethical dilemmas in treating premature babies. Hurlbut tells students he wants no references or footnotes in the term papers he assigns--just original thought. "Draw on your own personal perspectives and your religious or philosophical beliefs," he says. After graduating from Stanford Medical School, Hurlbut studied theology, and he touches on that background in the lectures he presents on human purpose, eugenics and beauty. He also draws on his own experience as the father of a child who was born with severe brain damage. "I try to keep the science solid and objective, but you want to show students just how amazing the truth is at times," Hurlbut says, with echoes of astronomer Carl Sagan's contagious enthusiasm. A speaker on cosmology once showed the class a movie of "galaxy after galaxy" taken from the Hubble Space Telescope. The view was "from a tunnel so small that it was the size of the crossing of two needles held a yard away from your eye," Hurlbut recalls. "It gave us a sense of the universe being deep and dense and full of reality." The toughest part about teaching the class? Getting students to go home. After Weissman finished his talk on stem-cell research on a February night, the hour crept past 9 p.m., then past 9:30. And still the students stayed, asking questions about whether stem cells could be used to grow donor organs and how Weissman could justify animal experimentation in his lab. "They never want to stop talking about these issues," Hurlbut says. "That's one reason we meet in the evening, when they're perhaps more philosophical and they can go back to their dorms and just really think." |
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MEDICAL SCHOOL Seeing Through a New PrismWHEN KRISTINE MCCOY entered Stanford Medical School in 1998, she knew precisely what she wanted to do--provide medical care to people who might not otherwise get it. The mother of two arrived with a master's degree in public health and four years' experience writing policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But McCoy, '90, soon concluded that the curriculum would not prepare her to care for patients from diverse backgrounds. For example, she says, "we know that people from some communities, like the Lao, won't come to a Western physician because they're not comfortable being examined." McCoy wanted to understand how other cultures' beliefs about health "intersect with the rest of their lives." So she tracked down a dozen like-minded medical students. Together, they would meet over coffee to talk about how the school might broaden its curriculum. The brainchild of those chats is PriSMS--the Public Service Medical Scholars Program--which was launched this year as a supplementary course to the Stanford MD program. Directed by Tim Stanton, '69, former director of the University's Haas Center for Public Service, and funded by the Medical School, the program encourages students to develop emotional flexibility and empathy for patients from unfamiliar populations. It also teaches the practicalities of organizing free clinics and writing grants. Last fall, PriSMS awarded 13 yearlong fellowships, enabling medical students to explore ways to integrate public service into their careers. Third-year student Una Lee's fellowship garnered her a management post at the student-run Arbor Free Clinic in Menlo Park, which primarily serves uninsured Latino, black and Tongan local residents. At the clinic, Lee, '96, has learned to screen for tuberculosis, process lab results and follow up on care for patients with acute needs. She had planned to return to rural Ohio, where she grew up, and become a primary care physician, but now she thinks she might establish her own free clinic someday. "So many people come to medical school with a history of public service and a passion for it, but we get overwhelmed with classes and that fire kind of goes out," says Lee. Before starting medical school, she researched alcohol and substance abuse among Asian women and worked at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic. "This program is a good step in the direction of helping to keep that fire alive." |
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BIOLOGY Pianos, Piñatas and Rat Brains--Oh, My!IF YOU WANT a hint of what life is really like in Robert Sapolsky's lab, head into the lounge off the main office. Against one wall is a somewhat battered upright piano with a selection of classical sheet music. Against another is a well-worn gold corduroy couch with an old comforter on top. Perched on the piano is a piñata shaped like a lion. It's not exactly a dot-com workplace, where twentysomethings plot marketing strategies from beanbag chairs and blow off steam at the foosball table. But this lab--where Sapolsky, a professor of biological sciences and veteran of the Salk Institute, and his staff are studying nerve-cell death--has a similar atmosphere of casual intensity. As many as 20 students and employees are at work at once, setting up tissue experiments, dissecting rat brains and crunching data. Their research is basic science that others might someday translate into treatments for stroke, Alzheimer's or depression. In the so-called piano room, however, it becomes clear that life here isn't just about beakers and Bunsen burners. Accomplished musicians, including Sapolsky, play the piano on a regular basis. An occasional graduate student who is between housing assignments crashes overnight on the couch. Photos document hikes, parties and trips to research conferences. Each piece of memorabilia is imbued with significance. The piñata is a reminder of a bright spot during one of the lab's toughest periods, in 1996. A grant that would have provided about $200,000 annually had just fallen through, and Sapolsky had to lay off employees. Some of the remaining researchers put aside pet projects to concentrate on work that would bring in money. Then, the staff heard that Sapolsky and his wife, who had encountered difficulties having a healthy child because of a genetic condition, were expecting Benjamin, now 4. They threw a party complete with the piñata, whose lion's mane resembles Sapolsky's own mop of curls. "People really pulled together," Sapolsky remembers. And even though they're no longer navigating a rough patch, the lab members--from undergraduates to professional research assistants--still pull together. "In some labs there is a lot of animosity," notes Sheila Brooke, the most veteran employee with 11 years in the lab. Graduate student Mani Roy credits Sapolsky with fostering the camaraderie. "The tone is set by the leader, and [he] encourages collaboration." For his part, Sapolsky says he takes care to select students and employees who will get along well. Given that some of the shared workrooms are smaller than typical suburban bathrooms, they'd better. |
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TOP JOBS SAA's New ChiefIN HIS FIRST week on the job in April, the new president of the Stanford Alumni Association had two goals: to find the water cooler and "get to know the great team." Howard Wolf, '80, was named by University President John Hennessy to succeed Bill Stone, '67, MBA '69, who retired in December 2000. Citing Wolf's business experience as the founder of publishing company FastMark and his 20 years of volunteer service to the campus, Hennessy said, "Howard has an enthusiasm for Stanford that is absolutely contagious." The former Lake Lag lifeguard and intramural water polo player majored in psychology and went on to earn an mba at Harvard Business School. He served as senior vice president and managing director for Cornish & Carey Realty Advisors and as senior vice president and partner at William Wilson & Associates, a commercial real estate firm, before launching his own business from a bedroom card table in 1994. As chair of his class's 20th reunion last fall, Wolf was known for the zany e-mails he sent into the ether, asking classmates to make phone calls and volunteer their own time and creativity. When the big night for the celebration on the Main Quad finally arrived, "every time someone wandered in, Howie would look up and wave," says the Alumni Association's Leslie Winick. He either knew everyone or was eager to, she explains. "And Howie is one of those guys who listens--who actually looks you in the eye." Married to business school classmate Kat Larimer, Wolf is the father of a true Cardinal clan. His two children--9-year-old Tucker and 11-year-old Rachel--knew when to jump during "All Right Now" before they started elementary school. And his golden retriever, Nellie, is "bummed big time" that she can no longer romp to the Dish, Wolf says. But she'll continue to frequent the Claw. |
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Inquiring MindsOh, Soot: The average surface temperature on Earth could increase more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control. The panel places most of the blame on excess carbon dioxide, caused by burning coal, gas and other fossil fuels. But Mark Z. Jacobson, '87, MS '88, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, says the group is underestimating the contribution of another product of fossil-fuel combustion: soot. According to Jacobson's February 8 article in Nature, the powdery black carbonic residue may be responsible for 15 percent to 30 percent of global warming.
Alien Invasions: Invasive species--plants, animals and bacteria that are foreign to a particular ecosystem and can cause economic or environmental harm--are second only to habitat destruction by humans in causing species extinction. Biological sciences professor Harold A. Mooney is working with the Global Invasive Species Programme, a group of scientists, policymakers and lawyers trying to develop a "rapid response mechanism" to counter these intruders worldwide.
Something Fishy: Rosamond Naylor, an economist at Stanford's Institute for International Studies, estimates that every pound of farmed fish raised on processed feed made from wild catches requires two pounds of wild fish. And since one out of every four fish consumed worldwide is from a farm, that's a lot of wild fish. Naylor, PhD '89, is studying ways to make fish farming--which also can spread disease and pollute the ocean--less harmful. Farming shellfish, as opposed to salmon, for example, can filter algae and waste from the water supply and provide protein for humans without depleting ocean populations. |
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INTERNSHIPS Fun in the Sun--and in the CubicleTHE EARLY BIRDSbegin showing up at the Career Development Center in stylish suits in October, trying to snag a serious summer job in banking or accounting--or even a post with the CIA. But Natalie Lundsteen, an internship adviser at the center, says she pushes students to look beyond the business world. "I'm a big advocate of summer jobs for exploring and testing, especially for freshmen," she says. "It may be the last chance they have to do something totally wild." Where have all the fun-loving interns gone? Sesame Street. Andrea Oldendorf, '98, spent a summer watching children's educational shows as an intern at a PBS affiliate in Schenectady, N.Y. "Typical grunt work." That's what Thaila Sundaresan, '00, says she did in 1999 for San Francisco-based Netmundo, a Latin American e-commerce start-up. And, by the way, she got to use her Spanish on a daily basis. Forget Paris? Not if you're senior Colleen Shaw. Two years ago, she pounded the pavement of the Champs-Elysées and landed a job organizing sailing trips off the coast of Brittany for Newsweek clients. Still available at press time: a stint tearing down beach furniture for Southern California's exclusive Jonathan Club, a position as a cabin steward aboard Lindblad Expeditions' cruises of the Alaskan Inside Passage and a job as the ice cream man--er, Scoop Truck Coordinator--for Ben and Jerry's at marketing events. |
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BookmarksJOHN FELSTINER, professor of English Index to Seismic Hazard Zone Maps (www.consrv.ca.gov/dmg/shezp/maps.htm)--Topographical maps show how safe California land is in the event of an earthquake. "I like to know what I'm dwelling on in this precarious, beautiful terrain," Felstiner says.
PATRICK YOUNG, lecturer in computer science |
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HOOVER INSTITUTION The Books Go Marching One by OneWHEN PROTESTORS CLAMBERED onto a tank during the 1991 attempted coup of the Soviet government, a Hoover Institution employee was in the streets below, picking up leaflets for the Hoover archives. And when war broke out in Serbia and Bosnia, Hoover operatives were on the scene, collecting the kind of primary sources that Herbert Hoover envisioned when he established the library in 1919. Since the mid-1960s, Hoover has also been purchasing a more conventional library staple--books--in core subject areas like politics and history. But the Hoover Library is running out of space to shelve them. So in September, it will begin transferring some of its 1.6 million volumes and 39 of its 68 staffers to Stanford's main library system. The 300,000-volume East Asian collection is slated to move first; librarians will determine which additional books will move over the next 21/2 years. The rare and archival materials will remain at Hoover. "This returns the Hoover Library to an exclusive focus on its original mission," says Charles Palm, the Hoover Institution's deputy director. When the plan became public in December, scholars from around the world swamped the institution and several professional list-servs with complaints. "This is nothing short of a calamity," wrote historian Karin Hall, PhD '98. "This decision . . . was made in complete ignorance of the value to scholars of the rare, unique and extensive collection." Palm and University librarian Michael Keller say the critics generally did not understand the proposal. Once they were told that only books would be moved--and that Hoover Library patrons could still use them--most were mollified. "In the hearts and minds of those involved, there is nothing but goodwill and an intent to serve Stanford as well [as] or better than we have in the past," Keller says. "We are not politicians. We are librarians." |
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RESEARCH Fishing for InformationA GRADUATE STUDENT a graduate student rushes into Barbara Block's office to show her his latest findings: a graph charting the breeding behavior of Atlantic bluefin tuna in the Gulf of Mexico. Block is thrilled at the detailed, never-before-seen results. "It's spectacular," she says. Thanks to new technology, "we can see what a tuna does every second." Block, an associate professor of biological sciences, works at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station, a low-key set of buildings in Pacific Grove, Calif., sandwiched between the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Lovers Point. While tourists cruise in and out of outlet stores, locals jog along the poppy-strewn cliffs and sea lions bask in the sun, Hopkins scientists are studying, among other things, the sex lives of tuna. It's no ordinary voyeurism. As Block puts it, "how do you study an organism that weighs 1,000 pounds and has as its home range the entire Pacific Basin or the entire Atlantic?" The answer: you attach electronic tags as small as a pack of gum--or as large as a hand-held microphone--to the animals. The tags cost $500 to $3,500 apiece and either record data or transmit it to researchers via satellite for several years. They're like highly efficient graduate students, Block says--only they work day and night and don't need a stipend. Block and colleagues from Hopkins and the Monterey Bay Aquarium will soon apply their tuna-tagging techniques to several additional species as part of the first census of marine life. In a project called TOPP, for Tagging of Pacific Pelagics, the researchers plan to track about 3,000 open-sea dwellers, including elephant seals, leatherback turtles and albatross. The goal of the census, which involves biologists and oceanographers from around the world, is to learn about what used to live in the ocean, what resides there now and what will inhabit its waters next. The information, says Block, is important for conservation efforts. In preparation for TOPP's kickoff in 2003, Block and her colleagues have tagged eight Pacific tuna. Meanwhile, the results from 475 Atlantic bluefin continue to roll in. So far, the researchers have recorded 13,500 tuna days, including body temperatures, migratory patterns, ocean depths, favored feeding grounds--and yes, even those breeding habits. |
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Speakers' CornerHello, Muddah: In a Parents' Weekend address titled "Dear Mother and Father: Stanford Students Write Home," Stanford archivist Maggie Kimball shared one early student's observations of Palo Alto. "Real estate would be a good investment," wrote Francis Batchelder in 1891. "Lots are cheap." Kimball's lecture was one of 28 back-to-school classes--on topics ranging from 20th-century Irish literature to the physics of nanostructures--that parents could attend during the February 23-24 weekend. "Keep those letters and e-mails from your students," Kimball, '80, admonished her audience. "They may come in handy for future researchers." |
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Campus Notebook
For Stanford Hospital, 'Tough
Decisions' The Largest School Gets a New Dean Another Year, Another Tuition
Increase For SLAC, a $15 Million Institute After a Retraction, Surgeons Face
Investigation For Commencement Speaker, HP's
Chief Campus Mourns Sophomore's Death Fat Envelopes for a Lucky 2, 416 |
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