OUR MAN IN MOSCOW
President Obama has nominated Michael McFaul, '86, MA '86, to be the next U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation. McFaul, senior director of Russian and Eurasian affairs for the White House National Security Council, is a Stanford political science professor (currently on leave), and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Hoover Institution. Pending confirmation by the Senate, he would replace John Beyrle, who was appointed by George W. Bush in 2008.
Photo: Pete Souza
Plaudits for Premiere
Directed and filmed by Jon Shenk, MA '95, and produced by Richard Berge, '84, MA '94, and Bonni Cohen, MA '94, The Island President was warmly received on the festival circuit this summer. The documentary profiles President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, who won his country's first democratic election in 2008, and who has been instrumental in marshaling efforts to battle climate change in the island nation. Telluride Film Festival co-director Gary Meyer praised the film as perhaps the best environmental movie he'd ever seen. At the Toronto International Film Festival, it received the Cadillac People's Choice Award for Best Documentary.
BRILLIANT INNOVATORS
MIT's Technology Review named Piya Sorcar, MA '06, PhD '09, and Pieter Abbeel, MS '02, PhD '08, to its 2011 list of "35 Innovators Under 35." School of Education alumna Sorcar was cited for her TeachAIDS interactive software and computer scientist Abbeel was saluted for teaching robots to infer the intent of instructions. Assistant professors Fan Yang, in the department of bioengineering and orthopedic surgery, and Jennifer Dionne, in materials science and engineering, also made the list. Popular Science magazine named Susannah Tringe, PhD '00, and Hatice Altug, MS '06, PhD '07, to its 10th annual "Brilliant 10" list. Biophysicist Tringe studies the genomics of wetland ecosystems and engineer Altug manipulates light to create biosensors.
"I've seen a lot of fossils in my career, and this was a fossil that gave me the chills: A big, mostly complete fossil with a baby inside of it—that's awesome."
—Paleontologist F. Robin O'Keefe, '91, speaking with PBS NewsHour's The Rundown blog about uncovering evidence that aquatic plesiosaurs gave birth to live offspring.
