Tech Support

In a remote Mexican village, second-grade dropout Juan Quezada rediscovered the secret of fashioning exquisite pottery -- and shared it with his neighbors. Walt Parks helped introduce the rest of the world to this extraordinary art.

by Susan Lowell

For more than two decades, he has grappled with waste and absurdity as a Third World development expert. Now the author wonders why he bothered—and why he can't quit.

by Robert L. Strauss

Haunted by the sudden death of her beloved son, Jane Stanford tried séances as a way to reach him.

by Theresa Johnston

The Global Positioning System changed navigation forever. Now GPS pioneer Brad Parkinson and his band of graduate students are harnessing the technology to track the precise location of almost anything.

by Joan O’C. Hamilton

From sportscaster to CEO, from ranger to webmaster, we profile the coolest jobs at Stanford -- and the students who do them.

Provost and engineering professor John Hennessy spent 22 years teaching, researching and rising through the academic ranks. And, like every self-respecting computer scientist, he took a year's sabbatical to start a company. In September, he becomes the University's 10th president.

by Doug Swanson

As a law student, Cory Booker, ’91, MA ’92, wanted to help Newark, N.J.’s inner-city residents fight for their rights. No one expected him to move into the neighborhood.

by Marc Peyser

These robotic hands can actually feel what they touch -- and they're smart enough to learn from the experience.

by Marina Chicurel

by Theresa Donovan Brown

Fresh out of Stanford, Herbert Hoover went Down Under in 1897 to scout Australia's goldfields. When he left the following yera, he was a rich man -- and a local legend

by William Coughlin