Old semiconductor materials find a new groove.
Stanford engineers have found a way to improve infrared LEDs and sensors by combining modern design techniques with some of the oldest known semiconductor materials—lead selenide and lead tin selenide—effectively teaching “old materials new tricks,” said Kunal Mukherjee, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering. The researchers’ approach produces devices that are smaller and more defect-tolerant, and potentially easy to manufacture using existing chip-making infrastructure. Because infrared technology is widely used to detect heat and chemical signatures, the advance could improve tools for environmental monitoring, medical diagnostics, and industrial sensing, while also enabling new kinds of compact, high-performance devices that work with infrared light in more flexible ways.
Reexamining constitutional rights.
Jud Campbell, JD ’11, a Stanford law professor and the winner of the Federalist Society’s 2025 Joseph Story Award for excellence in legal scholarship, argues that the assumptions we bring to constitutional questions today are very different from those the nation’s founders had. His research suggests the founders saw constitutional meaning as something shaped through civic deliberation—not left to judges alone—and grounded in a shared obligation to serve the common good. “We’ve lost touch with that idea,” Campbell told Stanford Report. In the 18th century, for example, freedom of speech was viewed as an inherent liberty bounded by the public good. Campbell said his aim isn’t to push a particular outcome, but to highlight how much our assumptions have shifted, and to prompt new thinking about how constitutional meaning should evolve. “Jud is tackling some of the most fundamental questions of civil liberty in the United States,” said Michael McConnell, professor of law and faculty director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center.
The art of medicine.
Photo: Andrew Brodhead
A new sculpture at Stanford’s Center for Academic Medicine may help shift your perspective. “Medicine is not just a hard science, but a human art,” said Jeffrey Goldberg, MD ’03, PhD ’03, a professor of ophthalmology who helped steward the 26-foot-tall sculpture’s donation to the university. Chaos Kosmos, by Jedd Novatt, is meant to convey both power and delicacy through interlocking geometric forms, Goldberg said, reminding us that “while most of our work may happen in the lab or the clinic, it really starts and ends with people and with creativity.”
A dad’s decision.
When professor emeritus of psychology Jeff Wine’s infant daughter, Nina, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF), he made what he calls a “foolhardy” career pivot—from neuroscience to studying the disease his family would grapple with. A paper on the intersection of CF and ion channels, which are also present in nerves, convinced him he could apply his neuroscience background to this new line of research. Wine has since published more than 100 papers on the disease, become director of Stanford’s Cystic Fibrosis Research Laboratory, and helped foster advances in the field. He also advocates for preventative antibiotic treatment of CF. Lung infections pose a major threat to people with CF, but antibiotics are typically administered only after an infection is present, for fear of creating antibiotic resistance. Nina, now 44, was treated preventatively and did not develop resistance. She also never developed chronic lung infections, Wine said. “She never became a typical cystic fibrosis child, and now she is not a typical cystic fibrosis adult.”
But wait, there’s more…
Professor emeritus of biology Paul Ehrlich, who joined Stanford’s faculty in 1959, died on March 13. He wrote dozens of books, including The Population Bomb, which in 1968 predicted catastrophic population growth and famine and became one of the top-selling environmental books of all time.
David Abernethy, a professor emeritus of political science and specialist in sub-Saharan Africa, died on January 30. He taught at Stanford for 57 years before retiring in 2002. That year, he won the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for distinctive contributions to undergraduate education.
Héloïse Hoffmann, ’26, leads a student team working on a promising new gene therapy for facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy. Hoffman, who has the rare disease, was spurred to action by her diagnosis. “There’s no better motivation than chasing my cure and working alongside others to do so,” she said.
Why are Americans obsessed with Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu? Professor of psychology Jeanne Tsai, ’91, explained that Liu’s exuberant performance reflects a cultural preference for visible enthusiasm, making her gold-medal skate feel especially rewarding to U.S. fans.
Child care in California consumes up to a quarter of household income, often forcing parents—especially mothers—out of the workforce. A policy brief from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research proposes that robust public investment in affordable child care could help 100,000 women enter the workforce and generate substantial societal returns.
Stanford economists wrote that if oil prices follow current forecasts, the typical American household will pay $740 more in gas this year, wiping out most of the larger tax refunds those same households are expecting.
Stanford women’s swimming and diving teams finished second to UVA’s Cavaliers in last weekend’s NCAA championship event. The Card brought home five individual swimming titles and the platform diving title.
The WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), led by Nneka Ogwumike, ’12, have reached a tentative new labor deal that includes major increases in player salaries and will raise standards across facilities, staffing, and support.
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