NEW DEAN FOR LAW SCHOOL
Photo: Courtesy University of Virginia School of LawMary Elizabeth Magill, a scholar of administrative and constitutional law from the University of Virginia, is the new dean of Stanford Law School. She succeeds Larry Kramer, who left to become president of the William ('34, Engr. '39) and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Magill earned her JD at Virginia in 1995 and joined its faculty in 1997. Since 2009 she has served as vice dean, with curriculum and faculty recruitment among her responsibilities. Magill's research interests include the relationships between legal doctrine and institutional behavior of the courts, Congress, presidency and private bar.
"Everyone who knows Liz Magill is impressed by her creative and insightful approach to problems and her skill at engaging a community in their solution," noted Provost John Etchemendy, PhD '82.
MEDICINE DEAN APPOINTED
Dr. Lloyd B. Minor, provost of The John Hopkins University, will become dean of the School of Medicine December 1. Departing dean Dr. Philip Pizzo plans to take a one-year sabbatical before returning to teaching and research at the University.
Minor, who received his bachelor's and medical degrees at Brown University, directed the department of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Johns Hopkins medical school before becoming provost. His accomplishments included expanding annual research funding by more than half.
Minor noted the particular appeal of Stanford's interdisciplinary research. "As a provost, I know and have extensive experience with the value of these cross-cutting interactions," he said. "The fact that I am the third provost hired to lead a Stanford school speaks to Provost Etchemendy's and President Hennessy's belief in the transformative effects a broad vision can have on the great challenges facing not only medical research and practice, but all of education today."
School of Education Dean Claude Steele served as Columbia University's provost before joining Stanford, and Richard Saller, dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, previously was provost at the University of Chicago.
PHYSICIST LINDE WINS $3 MILLION
Photo: Linda A. CiceroPhysics professor Andrei Linde is among nine inaugural recipients of the Fundamental Physics Prize, which awards $3 million to each winner. The prize honoring "transformative advances" is the creation of a foundation established by Russian entrepreneur and theoretical physicist Yuri Milner.
Linde was selected for his work on cosmic inflation theory, a modification of the big bang theory proposed by another of the prize winners, Alan Guth of MIT. Concepts advanced by Linde produced predictions that closely matched observations of the sky, and ongoing research will further test current inflation theory.
Linde says the prize involves its own unique calculations: "For people like me, who do not have a strong financial background, deciding what to do with this money is equally complicated as deciding what to do with the formation of the universe."
THREE BOOKS—NOT!
The three books program for incoming freshmen and transfer students, moderated this year by music professor Mark Applebaum, includes only one book, plus a DVD and access to three iPhone applications. Applebaum chose the book Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural Nörth Daköta by Chuck Klosterman, the film My Kid Could Paint That and the iPhone apps MadPad, Ocarina and I Am T-Pain.
Students don't need to own or purchase iPhones or apps; devices loaded with the apps will be available during New Student Orientation, September 18-23, and a website provides video and music demonstrations. Using works other than books—an option available but not used in previous years—"was liberating," says Applebaum, "allowing for questions about what we learn from different types of texts, whether they are a book, a film or a tool." NSO activities include a September 23 panel discussion with speakers including Klosterman.
