WHITE HOUSE HONORS DRELL, SHAPIRO
Physicist Sidney Drell, deputy director emeritus of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and biologist Lucy Shapiro, director of the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine, received the National Medal of Science February 1 from President Obama in ceremonies at the White House.
Drell, honored for work including contributions to quantum field theory and quantum chromodynamics, and Shapiro, whose research focus includes emerging infectious diseases and antiobiotic resistance, were among a dozen recipients of the award for 2011 (announced in 2012).
At the same event the president took note of the contributions made to his administration by outgoing U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, the former physics department chair who won the 1997 Nobel Prize for research conducted while at Bell Labs.
Photo: Courtesy LaTonia KarrTRUSTEES ADD KARR
LaTonia "Tonia" G. Karr, '92, was elected to the University's Board of Trustees for a five-year term that began February 1. Karr, who earned her undergraduate degree in economics and an MBA from Harvard Business School, is vice chair of the board of directors of Meritus College Fund and served on the advisory council of the K-12 initiative that was part of the Stanford Challenge.
HIV-RESISTANT CELLS CREATED
School of Medicine researchers have engineered immune cells that are resistant to infection by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. A study published in January in the journal Molecular Therapy describes a technique for introducing HIV-resistant genes into T-cells, specialized immune cells targeted by AIDS, and successfully blocking the virus from entering the cells.
Matthew Porteus, MD '94, PhD '94, an associate professor of pediatrics, said the current drug treatments used to deter AIDS infections might be replaced at some point by the kind of gene therapy driving the research. The results so far were accomplished in the laboratory and must be followed by clinical trials, which Porteus hopes to begin within three to five years.
NEW NAME FOR EDUCATION
The School of Education has retitled itself the Graduate School of Education to better convey the scope of its research efforts, which include advanced degree programs in areas that prepare students for work in policy making, organizational leadership and entrepreneurship as well as teaching.
"Our graduate school," said Stanford President John Hennessy, "has long been a place for educational innovation, the training of expert teachers and the advanced study of pedagogy. Now its name is catching up with its pioneering work."
