THE RIGHT STUFF
Out of more than 3,500 applicants, three of the nine men and women selected by NASA for its 2009 astronaut candidate class are Stanford alums. The future astrograds are Michael S. Hopkins, MS '93, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force and special assistant to the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, Kathleen Rubins, PhD '06, a principal investigator and fellow at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT, and Mark T. Vande Hei, MS '99, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and flight controller for the International Space Station. They began training at Houston's Johnson Space Center in August.
AP Photo/Tom Hevezi
MAJOR ACHIEVEMENT
Weeks before the 2009 British Open, five-time champ Tom Watson, '71, teasingly told a reporter that "Somebody with the initials T.W.!" would win the tournament. His words seemed prophetic when the 59-year-old held the lead by a stroke going down the final fairway. (Pre-tournament favorite Tiger Woods, '98, failed to make the cut after the second round at Turnberry.) In the end, Watson lost a tie-breaking playoff to Stewart Cink, but he stands by his 8-iron approach shot on the 18th hole, telling the Associated Press, "I hit the shot that I wanted to hit."
INTERNET TRAFFIC COP
There's a new sheriff in cyberspace. Tech entrepreneur and former director of the National Cyber Security Center Rod Beckstrom, '83, MBA '87, was named president and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as ICANN. The nonprofit organization oversees the allocation of domain names to maintain an orderly flow of Internet traffic so that you don't end up at zyzzyva.org when you wanted aardvark.com. One of the original architects of the Internet Vint Cerf, '65, said of Beckstrom's appointment: "His experience in industry and government equip him for this global and very challenging job."
AFRICA IN FOCUS
Writer Ruthann Richter and documentary photographer Karen Ande, both MA '79, whose 30-year friendship began when they were roommates in Escondido Village, have collaborated to advocate for a cause close to both their hearts. Their book, Face to Face: Children of the AIDS Crisis in Africa, was published by the Hope Publishing group of Pasadena, Calif., in August.
In an effort to modernize Ethiopia's market system, whose inefficiencies have been partly responsible for the country's persistent food shortages, economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin, MA '98, PhD '99, designed the nation's first commodities exchange, which opened in 2008. Recently, her work was featured in a segment of PBS's Wide Angle.
GOOD FELLOWS
Three alumni were among the 15 people selected for 2009-10 class of White House Fellows. Zheng Huang, '99, MS '01, is co-founder of Business Connect China, a consultancy that helps global companies gain insights into their investments in and related to China. Emil Michael, JD '98, is founder and president of Venture Consulting, which advises promising tech start-ups on business strategy, corporate development and executive recruiting. Presiliano (Raúl) Torrez, JD '05, is an assistant attorney general in the special prosecu-tions division of the New Mexico attorney general's office.
President Obama appointed Peter Henry, the Matsushita Professor of International Economics at the Graduate School of Business, to the President's Commission on White House Fellowships, the body responsible for selecting fellows for the prestigious program.
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
After more than two decades of service, University archivist Maggie Kimball, '80, retired in July, relinquishing stewardship of more than 30,000 linear feet of Stanfordiana, ranging from maps, blueprints and architectural drawings, to administrative records and faculty teaching materials, to student diaries, letters and yearbooks. "Part of what an archivist does is try and anticipate what's going to be important in the future," Kimball told Stanford Report. "And the best way to be able to do that is to understand as much of the past as you can."
