Just got this digitized. One of my proudest moments. In 1997 I received the Walter J. Gores Award for excellence in teaching for my work on the “SME Core” at Stanford. The SME Core was a new way to teach Science, Math and Engineering for non science majors.
The SME Core was an initiative coordinated in part by then Stanford Provost Condoleezza Rice. I worked with her office on and off for 3 years to help get the SME Core program up and running. (I note – whatever you think of her now – at the time I really really liked her – she was great to interact with, brilliant, and I think inspired in pushing this SME program).
- The Science Core experiment – Stanford News – Stanford University
- Stanford Magazine: March/April 1999: A New Spin on Science
- Stanford University: Cares of the University
It seems the SME Core may have gone away after I left Stanford. But I think it was a great program – full year integrated courses that covered science, math and engineering on a specific topic. I ended up helping design a course on Heart Disease (and was head TA). And the faculty in the course changed my life – in particular interactions with David Botstein, Rick Myers and David Cox who were three of the four instructors – that is what got me into genomics. But also – working on designing the course – and helping run it for two years – was an amazing experience. By tracking / interacting with undergrads for a full year I got to know students at a level not possible in single quarter courses. I will try to write more about the SME Core at some point but I was very proud to have received Stanford’s biggest teaching award – the Walter J. Gores Award for my work on the program. So I am posting the video of the presentation because – well – I like it …
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