PULITZER WORTHIES
Sheri Fink, PhD '98, MD '99, was awarded a 2010 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting for her 13,000-word report on the medical staff at a New Orleans hospital following Hurricane Katrina, which appeared in the New York Times Magazine last summer on the fourth anniversary of the disaster.
Co-director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford David Kennedy was elected co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize board. Kennedy, '63, a Pulitzer-winning historian, has been a member of the body, which presides over the judging process, since 2002. He and Amanda Bennett of Bloomberg News succeed Anders Gyllenhaal of the Miami Herald. Their term will last one year.
GOING THE DISTANCE
Former Stanford All-American Ryan Hall, '05, finished fourth in the Boston Marathon with a time of 2:08:41—the fastest time ever for an American in the event. Though he was two seconds shy of earning a place on the podium, Hall told the San Jose Mercury News that "running is not all about records and places."
A decade after the fact, former gymnast Amy Chow, '01, MD '07, was awarded her third Olympic medal—a team bronze to add to her team gold and individual silver from 1996—for her part in Team USA's 4th-place finish at the 2000 Sydney games. Third-place China was stripped of its medal after an investigation by the International Gymnastics Federation determined that one of the team's gymnasts did not meet the age requirement.
GOOD FELLOWS
The John Simon Guggenheim memorial fellowships aim to "assist research and artistic creation."
This year, some 3,000 artists, scientists and scholars from the United States and Canada vied for the highly selective fellowship, now in its 86th year. The 2010 class of fellows includes: Lorraine Adams, '87, a fiction writer in New York City; Adam Begley, PhD '89, a biographer in the U.K.; Ethan Canin, PhD '82, a writer and professor at the Iowa Writers' Workshop; Catherine Chalmers, '79, a video artist in New York City; Amy Franceschini, MFA '02, an artist in San Francisco; Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg, PhD '92, a professor of economics at Princeton; Juan Felipe Herrera, MA '80, chair in poetry at UC-Riverside; Linda Hess, '64, lecturer in the department of religious studies at Stanford; Nathaniel Mackey, PhD '75, poet and professor of literature at UC-Santa Cruz; Richard Serrano, '88, associate professor of French and comparative literature at Rutgers; Hyongsok (Tom) Soh, MS '96, PhD '99, associate professor of materials and mechanical engineering at UC-Santa Barbara; Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, MA '76, PhD '84, a professor of anthropology at UC-Santa Cruz.
PATRONS OF THE ARTS
A gala dinner at Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus honored TheatreWorks founder Robert Kelley, '68, for 40 years of leadership and financial guru Frank Quattrone, MBA '81, for his support of tech industry companies. Playwright David Henry Hwang, '79, was an emcee and pianist Vienna Teng, '00, performed at an accompanying concert at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.
The Ojai Music Festival recognized Ronald Rosen, '54, JD '57, and his wife, Judith, for their 40 years of support for classical and contemporary music in Southern California with a tribute and benefit concert by pianist Jeremy Denk.
THAT'S MY BABY
The daughter of Susie Wise, MA '08, is one of four infants from around the world profiled for the documentary Babies, which opened in theaters nationwide in May. Wise's husband, cinematographer Frazer Bradshaw, shot the Bay Area segment of the film, which follows little Hattie from birth to 18 months. Wise turned the film's premiere in San Francisco into a fundraiser for Stanford-incubated non-profit Embrace.
