Renee Li – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com Breaking news from the Farm since 1892 Fri, 20 Apr 2018 08:58:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://stanforddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-DailyIcon-CardinalRed.png?w=32 Renee Li – The Stanford Daily https://stanforddaily.com 32 32 204779320 Stanford students receive three out of 10 Hertz fellowships nationwide https://stanforddaily.com/2018/04/19/stanford-students-receive-three-out-of-10-hertz-fellowships-nationwide/ https://stanforddaily.com/2018/04/19/stanford-students-receive-three-out-of-10-hertz-fellowships-nationwide/#respond Thu, 19 Apr 2018 08:14:11 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1139642 Three Stanford students are among 10 Hertz Scholars nationwide: Sarah Hooper, a first-year PhD student, William Kuszmaul ‘18 and Ethan Sussman ‘18.

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Three Stanford students are among 10 Hertz Scholars nationwide: Sarah Hooper, a first-year Ph.D. student, William Kuszmaul ‘18 and Ethan Sussman ‘18.

Of 750 annual applicants, only 10 to 15 receive the fellowship to pursue five years of research at one of the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation’s partner institutions. Each winner receives funding to pursue research in the fields of applied physical and biological sciences, mathematics and engineering. The Hertz award is considered one of the most prestigious and selective fellowship programs in the world.

“I actually almost didn’t apply to the scholarship in the beginning,” Sussman said. “I definitely wasn’t expecting a first interview, let alone a second interview. And of course, winning in the end was a huge surprise.”

The other two Stanford Hertz fellows felt similarly and expressed their gratitude for the award.

“This is one of the only fellowships that will fund you for five years instead of three,” Kuszmaul said.“It opens up the door for you to work with anyone you want to work with because you don’t have to worry about funding.”

Hooper said she was grateful not only for the committee’s appreciation of her ideas, but also for the academic opportunities the fellowship has brought her. She plans to intern this summer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an opportunity she attributed to the Hertz award.

Moreover, Sussman said he values the Hertz Fellow community, which allows him to talk to people he would not know otherwise.

“It’s easy to have a tunnel vision when you’re doing research,” he said.

The scholars also expressed their gratitude toward professors that they have worked with at Stanford and elsewhere. All the scholars have significant accomplishments in research.

Hooper has worked on developing new medical imaging devices and computational tools for better and more accessible diagnosis in domestic and global health contexts, including a seizure prediction algorithm that helps patients with epilepsy. Kuszmaul has authored and co-authored 12 papers in mathematics and computer science; his work has won numerous research awards, including the Goldwater Scholarship and third place in the Intel Science Talent Search, a well-known competition for high school students. Sussman has been involved in both experimental and theoretical physics research at Stanford, working on topics such as quantum corrals, string similarities and black holes.

All three applicants say they will use the Hertz Fellowship to continue pursuing cutting-edge research in the coming years. Hooper “plan[s] to look into innovating technical solutions to reduce the global burden of non-communicable disease,” while Kuszmaul looks forward to collaborating with other scholars to solve algorithmic problems, using his background in mathematics and computer science. Sussman, who will pursue a Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is excited to “pivot a little bit from his focus on the physics side and string theory … to a more analytical side of the spectrum.”

According to the fellows, others interested in pursuing this fellowship should start researching early on.

“If you know you want to do research already, the most important thing is trying to get research experience during the summer instead of internships,” Kuszmaul said.

Hooper said one should not be afraid to enter new fields. This realization helped her pursue her research successfully.

New minds entering different fields can raise interesting questions and impressive answers,” Kuszmaul said. “It will feel uncomfortable initially to enter a completely new field, but you need to learn to be comfortable and confident with not necessarily knowing the answer and keep working at it.”

Beyond experience and courage, Sussman stressed the importance of persistence in pursuing research.

“It’s easy to be discouraged at research sometimes, especially when you’re always scratching the surface,” Sussman said. “However, I believe that as long as you persist long enough, you’ll at least learn something. And who knows, more good things might happen.”

 

Contact Renee Li at reneeli ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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Dallas Federal Reserve president talks Hurricane Harvey, economic growth https://stanforddaily.com/2017/10/12/dallas-federal-reserve-president-talks-hurricane-harvey-economic-growth/ https://stanforddaily.com/2017/10/12/dallas-federal-reserve-president-talks-hurricane-harvey-economic-growth/#respond Thu, 12 Oct 2017 09:22:47 +0000 https://stanforddaily.com/?p=1130970 Robert Kaplan, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, spoke Tuesday at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) on the impact of Hurricane Harvey on Texas, sluggish economic growth, monetary policy, and the importance of, migration and globalization for the US economy.

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Robert Kaplan, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, spoke Tuesday at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) on the impact of Hurricane Harvey on Texas, sluggish economic growth, monetary policy and the importance of migration and globalization for the U.S. economy.

Explaining the impact of Hurricane Harvey on Texas, Kaplan said that the Federal Reserve believes that Texas’ economy will face a reduction in GDP growth and job growth in the third quarter this year. However, he stressed that Texas will be able to rebuild itself quickly with philanthropic and governmental efforts.

Kaplan emphasized that Texas’ economy has been doing well despite recent challenges, attributing Texas’ economic success largely to migration into Texas, which has increased its population. He raised concerns that states with stagnating populations might face economic downturns in the future.

Connecting population growth to the U.S. economy generally, Kaplan said that an aging population and a slow growth in workforce are the primary reasons for sluggish economic growth.

In order to counter these problems, specifically to increase workforce participation, he emphasized the importance of improving middle-skill training, which requires education beyond high school but not a four-year degree, and increasing retention rates in the economy.

Kaplan told The Daily that he is an advocate for middle-skills training as an alternative to college education, claiming that a large percentage of college students do not graduate in six years – something that, in his opinion, “raises the question of college readiness and whether other paths might be more appropriate.” He added that the high demand for skilled jobs in conjunction with a shortage of skilled workers is a lost opportunity to the U.S. Kaplan also placed the onus of increasing the awareness and accessibility of middle skills jobs on educational institutions.

Discussing employment trends, Kaplan argued that globalization and automation-led unemployment should not be conflated in their effects on American jobs, saying that globalization is an essential part of the world economy and that “growth of economy outside of the U.S. helps the U.S. [economy].”

When asked what Stanford students could do to become more informed about the Fed, Kaplan suggested that students read publicly available speeches of Fed officials.

“It is important that people like me express what’s going on in a way that is easily accessible, in a way that my nephew, and friends of mine, and my mom and others can read and can understand,” he said.

Kaplan’s visit is one of many events at SIEPR featuring professionals from the academic, business and public spheres. In November, SIEPR will be hosting James Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase and Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO and current owner of the LA Clips.

 

 

Contact Renee Li at reneeli ‘at’ stanford.edu and Sean Chen at kxsean ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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