John Hennessy, dean of the
School of Engineering, named next provost
BY JAMES ROBINSON AND
DAVID SALISBURY
President Gerhard Casper
has chosen Engineering Dean John Hennessy as Stanford's
next provost.
Hennessy, 46, will succeed
Provost Condoleezza Rice on July 1. Rice announced late
last year that she would step down in June.
Hennessy came to Stanford
in 1977 as an assistant professor of electrical
engineering and became dean of the School of Engineering
in 1996. His selection caps a three-month process that
began with the naming of a search committee of faculty,
staff and students in late January. In February, Casper
sought nominations for the post from the university
community, and the search committee presented its views
to the president in a meeting on April 2.
Related
Information:
"I have had three
years to observe John as dean and I have found him to be
an outstanding contributor to university endeavors,"
Casper said. "John cares deeply about undergraduate
education at the Engineering School and its relationship
to the broader curriculum. I'm sure he'll continue that
in his new role.
"The School of
Engineering is a model of academic excellence and good
management, and John will bring his talent and experience
in sustaining that to the provost's office. And he brings
the perspective of science and engineering to the
Stanford provostship for the first time in almost 20
years.
"The president and
the provost must be a team. I am confident that John and
I will have the same close working relationship that I
have enjoyed with Condi."
Rice called Hennessy an
"outstanding dean" and said he would provide
top-notch leadership for Stanford.
"He knows the
university extremely well and has great intellectual
curiosity," she said. "That is evident in the
fact that he is both a beloved teacher and outstanding
scientist."
Hennessy said he believes
his many years of teaching, his two years as chairman of
the computer science department and three years leading
the School of Engineering will serve him well in his new
post.
"I think I've tried
to encourage the departments to put an emphasis on their
broad role in the teaching of undergraduates, as well as
their service role to the rest of the university,"
he said.
In addition to maintaining
an active research program, Hennessy still teaches and
does undergraduate advising -- as well as advising
graduate students. During his tenure as dean, he has
tried to encourage more multidisciplinary and
interdisciplinary activities at the school while
maintaining a first-rate academic profile and financial
stability in the quickly evolving worlds of engineering
and technology.
"President Casper's
vision that technology is going to change the way we
teach the way students learn is absolutely right,"
Hennessy said. "I think the question is, how do we
leverage that technology in a way that appreciates and
reflects the unique position Stanford is in."
Hennessy has gained broad
experience in fiscal management and fundraising as dean
and during his time in private industry.
"If you meet the
financial challenges, you can achieve the ends that the
faculty and students want to achieve," he said.
"When a professor or a department chair has a great
idea, my first response is 'How can we make this happen?'
"
Hennessy received his B.E.
in electrical engineering from Villanova University in
1973, his master's degree in computer science from the
State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1975, and
his Ph.D. in computer science from SUNY-Stony Brook in
1977.
In the fall of 1977 he
joined Stanford as assistant professor of electrical
engineering, rising to the level of associate professor
in 1983 and full professor in 1986. In the 1980s,
Hennessy earned a worldwide reputation for his
breakthrough work on a simpler computer architecture
known as RISC (reduced instruction set computer).
In 1984, he took a leave
from the university to help found MIPS Computer Systems,
now known as MIPS Technologies. In recent years, his
research has focused on building high-performance
machines and exploring ways to use massive amounts of
computer power for problem-solving in a range of
circumstances, including scientific simulations.
He credits his time at
MIPS with giving him an appreciation for the world of
business and the significance of leadership.
"It taught me about
the importance of the people you work with and the
importance of leadership, about being able to achieve
things that do justice to the people on the front
lines," he said. "I think of leaders as
servants of their constituents."
Although he said his
outside business experience has been of exceptional
value, he has always returned to the university. "In
my heart of hearts, I like being an academic and I like
working with students," he said.
From 1994 to 1996, he
served as chairman of Stanford's Department of Computer
Science. In 1996, Casper appointed Hennessy dean of the
School of Engineering. Soon after taking the helm of the
school, Hennessy oversaw the development of a five-year
plan. The planning process resulted in a major new thrust
in bioengineering and biomedical engineering.
At the School of
Engineering, Hennessy also pledged to encourage the
spread of computer technology as an instructional and
design tool.
Last fall, the school
offered Stanford's first completely online degree
program, a master's in electrical engineering. Stanford
is believed to be the first major research university in
the country to offer a master's degree totally online.
In civil engineering, a
new set of courses has been based around
"project-based learning," giving students a
realistic experience in design and construction of
buildings. Hennessy said such courses reflect a "big
push" in hands-on learning, both virtual and actual.
Lucille Shapiro, the
Virginia and D. K. Ludwig Professor of Developmental
Biology and co-chair of the search committee with Casper,
praised Hennessy's selection.
"We encountered
nothing but superlatives about Dean Hennessy from
students and faculty alike," Shapiro said.
In addition to Casper and
Shapiro, members of the search committee were Emily R.
Bender (graduate student, linguistics); Linda
Darling-Hammond (professor of education); Harry J. Elam
(associate professor of drama); Deborah Hensler
(professor of law); Peggy Hiraoka (director of Human
Resources); Maren R. Norton (senior, political science,
president of the Associated Students); Amos M. Nur,
(professor and chair of geophysics); George G. C. Parker
(associate dean, Graduate School of Business); M.
Elisabeth Paté-Cornell (professor of industrial
engineering); John B. Taylor (professor of economics);
and Robert M. Waymouth (professor of chemistry).
Hennessy and his wife,
Andrea, and their two teen-aged sons live in Atherton.
The family enjoys camping and has traveled together
throughout the eastern United States and Europe. SR
|
