Nobel winners enjoy sweet success.
“You have 50 minutes to collect yourself and wait until your life changes.” Those were the words chemistry professor Carolyn Bertozzi heard at 1:43 a.m. last Wednesday, when a caller from Stockholm phoned to tell her she’d won a Nobel Prize in chemistry. Bertozzi, who is also the director of Stanford’s Sarafan ChEM-H, established the field of bio-orthogonal chemistry, a term she coined for a technique that allows scientists to pursue chemical reactions inside a living system without disturbing it. She made the discovery in the course of studying the sugars that surround our cells—long, branching chains of complex carbohydrates called glycans. Her enthusiasm for glycoscience—a field many neglected because of its complexity—has answered fundamental questions about the role of sugars in biology and led to breakthrough tests for infectious diseases and a new biological pharmaceutical that better targets tumors. The award shouldn’t surprise you, though. In Stanford magazine last March, Bertozzi’s colleagues prepared readers for the possibility of her win. Said one: “I may even argue it’s just a matter of time.”
Bertozzi, who is the first woman on the Stanford science faculty to win a Nobel, shares the prize with two other chemists, including Barry Sharpless, PhD ’68, of Scripps Research Institute for his work on a related concept called click chemistry. He is just the fifth person in the world to win two Nobels. His first was awarded in 2001 for his work on chirally catalyzed oxidation reactions. Say that five times fast.
Three former fellows at the Freeman Spogli Institute’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) are among the leaders of two human rights organizations that received this year’s Nobel Peace Prize—the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine and the Russia-based Memorial. "This recognition is very well-deserved," said Kathryn Stoner, director of CDDRL. "Both the Center for Civil Liberties in Ukraine and Memorial in Russia are on the front lines of the battle to protect human rights and liberties, and their work and bravery should be acknowledged and rewarded. We are proud to have supported some of their work here at CDDRL."
Do talk to strangers.
Despite the advice you may have been given as a child, talking to people you don’t know is the way many of life’s essential connections—jobs, friendships, romance—start. Sarah Stein Greenberg, MBA ’06, executive director of Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (d.school) and author of Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways, includes a chapter in her book to get you started chatting in the checkout line (or at a networking event, or a party). She’s got tips for bursting the shyness bubble. First up: Take a walk and say hello to everyone you pass. Will you seem weird? Maybe, but not for talking.
Wish you were here.
If you’re not performing with an Australian circus and taking a class about trees, are you even a Stanford student? Recently, undergraduates who were enrolled in the Art of Circus Movement Arts Intensive course joined local performers and Australian circus company Circa for a two-night performance full of tumbling, balancing, and high-flying acrobatics. It was the North American premiere of Circa’s Leviathan. Acrobatic skills may have been handy last spring for undergrads who branched out in an introductory seminar on trees. Participants took campus walks, observing and climbing trees as they learned from biologists, arborists, and authors.
The big picture.
Photo: Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
The largest digital camera ever built for astronomy has been assembled and tested at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST to its friends) weighs three tons and is the size of a small car. It will soon sit atop the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Simonyi Survey Telescope in Chile, aimed at the southern sky, and snap a 3,200-megapixel image every 15 seconds for the next 10 years. The data gathered will help researchers understand some of the universe’s biggest mysteries, such as dark matter, and create “a panoramic movie of how things change over time,” staff engineer Hannah Pollek told InMenlo.
More power to you.
If you charge your electric vehicle at home while you sleep, you’re doing it wrong. Or rather, you will be doing it wrong. It’s OK to charge at night now, when only 6 percent of California cars and light trucks are electric. But by 2030, it’s expected that electricity will fuel 30 percent to 40 percent of cars on the state’s roads. (Cali will ban the sale of new, gas-powered cars in 2035.) Hurrah for lower emissions! Except that if all those cars charge at night, they’ll strain the grid and waste the good stuff—solar power, baby. Saving electricity use for nighttime is an old model. These days, the Golden State is rolling in energy during late mornings and early afternoons, thanks mainly to its solar capacity. If most EVs were to charge during these times, that power would be used instead of wasted. But if the majority of EVs continue to charge at night, the state will eventually need to build more generators—likely powered by natural gas—or expensive energy storage on a large scale. And electricity that goes first to a huge battery before making it to your EV loses power from the extra stop.
That means folks need to be able to charge at work, or while out and about. Sooo, experts say serious infrastructure changes are needed, likely along with additional incentives (rubs pennies together) for drivers to charge away from home. “And it’s not just California and Western states,” Siobhan Powell, MS ’19, PhD ’22, lead author of the study, told the Stanford News Service. “All states may need to rethink electricity pricing structures as their EV charging needs increase and their grid changes.”
Physicians lead the way in impostor syndrome.
According to a Stanford Medicine study of 3,000 U.S. doctors, one in four experienced frequent or intense impostor syndrome symptoms. The study found that physicians have a 30 percent increased risk of reporting symptoms of impostor syndrome compared with nonphysician American workers, and an 80 percent increased risk relative to people with a doctoral or professional degree in another field. Stronger feelings of impostor syndrome (feeling inadequate despite a track record of competence, i.e., the way you felt your entire first quarter at Stanford) bring greater risk of occupational burnout, among other things. The study’s authors recommend ways to mitigate impostor syndrome in medical workplaces, including fostering a culture that allows physicians to express vulnerability and sharing personal stories in small-group discussions.
But wait, there’s more.
Lorry I. Lokey, ’49, founder of Business Wire, has died. A former editor in chief of the Stanford Daily, Lokey pledged his wealth to Stanford and other philanthropic causes. He established numerous Stanford graduate fellowships, professorships, and visiting professorships. His capital investments at Stanford included lead gifts to build the Lorry I. Lokey Laboratory for the Life Sciences, the Lorry I. Lokey Stanford Daily Building, and the Lorry I. Lokey Stem Cell Research Building.
Whodunit? Put the clues together while reading history professor Richard White’s new retelling of the Farm’s oldest enigma: Who Killed Jane Stanford? (TL;DR? Cliffs Notes version here.)
On a recent episode of the podcast The Future of Everything, glaciologist Dustin Schroeder, an associate professor of geophysics and of electrical engineering, explains how he’s using ice-penetrating radar to understand kilometers-thick ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland, where scientists are monitoring the planet’s biggest freshwater coffers.
Hey boss, when in doubt, overcommunicate. New Stanford Graduate School of Business studies suggest that managers are judged most harshly for too little communication, which is often interpreted as a lack of care and concern. Information overload may be “annoying and a nuisance,” but it’s not seen as a damning flaw for a leader.
Ever heard of the Foothill Thrust Belt? It’s not your fault. The San Andreas and Hayward fault lines have long played starring roles in Bay Area earthquake nightmares. But there is another, little-known actor. Stanford researchers have detailed the power of the Foothill Thrust Belt faults, which lie deep under Silicon Valley and have the potential to generate a magnitude 6.9 earthquake, which is equal to the 1989 Loma Prieta quake.
In response to the protests in Iran, Abbas Milani, director of the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Program in Iranian Studies, answered questions about the country’s nearly 150-year struggle for democracy. What’s unique about the current demonstrations, he said, is that men, women, and youth are uniting in relentless defiance of a regime that offers despotism, misogyny, and a bankrupt economy.
There are more than legislative seats at stake in this year’s election, according to director of Stanford's Rule of Law Program Erik Jensen, and others who spoke with the Stanford Daily. They say November’s midterms pose a real threat to democratic institutions.
After 27 years, Jan Barker Alexander, assistant vice provost for inclusion and community, and executive director of the Centers for Equity, Community, and Leadership, has retired from Stanford. She helped shape the Black Community Services Center and Ujamaa House theme dorm, and has overseen the university’s seven community centers, the First-Gen and/or Low Income Office, and more, leaving a legacy of community building at Stanford. Barker Alexander is heading back to her alma mater, Louisiana State University, where she will be executive associate vice president of diversity and inclusion.
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