Stanford University

To protest the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, Stanford University will divest any direct stock investments it holds in four international energy companies with business ties to the government of the African nation, officials announced Thursday. The businesses are the Chinese companies PetroChina and Sinopec, the Russian company Tatneft, and Swiss-based ABB. The university did not disclose how much it had invested in the companies.

Stanford volleyball player Samantha Wopat died Sunday. She was 19. Wopat was admitted to Stanford Hospital's intensive care unit on March 17 after having an undisclosed medical emergency at her residence. She died eight days later, surrounded by family and friends. The cause of her death has not been released. "We are deeply saddened by the passing of Sam Wopat," Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby said. "On behalf of our administration, coaches and students I extend my condolences to Sam's siblings, parents, relatives and friends.

Stanford University has acquired thousands of pieces of memorabilia and artifacts that chronicle the unique 21-year history of Apple Computer Inc. The donation, which filled about 2,000 boxes, comprises documents, hardware, software and other items, and portrays the culture and history of the Cupertino-based company that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started in a garage in 1976. The items range from rare to quirky to cheeky, including items that never made it to the production line.

The student's admissions essay for Boston University's MBA program was about persevering in the business world. "I have worked for organizations in which the culture has been open and nurturing, and for others that have been elitist. In the latter case, arrogance becomes pervasive, straining external partnerships. " Another applicant's essay for UCLA's Anderson School of Management was about his father. He "worked for organizations in which the culture has been open and nurturing, and for others that have been elitist.

Arturo Islas, 52, Stanford University professor of English who wrote two novels about the Chicano experience in the American Southwest. His first novel, "The Rain God," was published in 1984 and won the best fiction prize from the Border Regional Library Conference. "Migrant Souls" in 1990 was the second novel in his planned trilogy, and he was working on the third at the time of his death. A native of El Paso, Islas earned three degrees from Stanford and then joined the faculty in 1971.

Stanford University sued Roche Holding over a diagnostic kit that tests how well treatments for AIDS are working. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, alleges that Roche's Amplicor test infringes two patents owned by the university. The suit grew out of a years-long dispute between Roche and Stanford over who owns the technology for polymerase chain reaction assays that test blood to determine the quantity of HIV, the virus the causes AIDS.

Joe Ruetz, 86, former athletic director at Stanford University credited with launching Bill Walsh's career as a head football coach, died Jan. 2 at Stanford Hospital of an apparent heart attack. One of seven children, Ruetz was born in Wisconsin but grew up in South Bend, Ind. He attended Notre Dame, where he played guard and one season of quarterback on the football team. During World War II, he was a physical education instructor and pilot in the Navy.

Stanford University officials proposed to ban alcohol consumption at all Stanford athletic events. The proposal was prompted in part by the 27 alcohol-related arrests at the Stanford-UC Berkeley football game in November. Stanford has been the only school in the Pacific-10 athletic conference to allow spectators to bring alcohol inside a stadium. Three years ago, Stanford banned hard liquor at games and limited each person over 21 to carrying in one six-pack of beer.

Robert W. "Bob" Beyers, veteran spokesman for Stanford University who was both controversial and admired for his candor, has died. He was 71. Beyers, who was director of the Stanford University News Service from 1961 until the end of 1989, died Friday at his Palo Alto home of pancreatic cancer.

At Stanford University the other day, Jonah Bokaer stood in a medical lab wearing nothing but a loose diaper and 50 small electronic sensors glued to his body. Eight cameras recorded his every move in a process called motion capture that Hollywood relies on to turn actors into mummies and monsters. At Stanford, the technology is most often used to help doctors diagnose children's muscular and orthopedic disabilities. But not this time.

In the mid-1950s mathematician John McCarthy issued a call for research on "Automata Studies," but the phrase was so bland that few people understood what he meant. So he came up with a more provocative description of the idea he was promoting. He called it artificial intelligence. McCarthy, who died at his home in Stanford on Monday at 84, became known as the father of artificial intelligence for his seminal role in defining the field devoted to the development of intelligent machines.

Sunspots, those dark regions on the surface of the sun whose high magnetic activity has ripple effects for Earthlings, seem to emerge and fade without warning. But now, by listening to the sounds the sun makes, scientists have managed to predict when a sunspot will appear up to two days beforehand. The findings, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, could help solar physicists understand how to better predict solar flares and other space weather events that can harm astronauts and damage power and electronics systems on Earth.

Stem cells, and their potential to help scientists understand and cure ills including diabetes, cancer and heart disease — have been capturing attention among researchers, not to mention the general public, for years. Now they're beginning to enjoy special status at American universities, too. On April 29, the faculty senate at Stanford University voted to approve the creation of what university officials believe is the first PhD program devoted completely to stem cells. Part of the Stanford Medical School, the doctoral program in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine will encourage students to pursue coursework in a number of disciplines — everything from biology to engineering to business, said Theo Palmer, an associate professor of neurosurgery and co-director of the new program, in a news release.

Dr. Margaret Billingham, a Stanford University pathologist who developed criteria by which surgeons could tell if a transplanted heart was thriving or being rejected, died of kidney cancer July 14 at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital in Grass Valley, Calif. She was 78. "Her contributions were the key to advancing the care and survival of heart transplant patients," said Dr. Robert Robbins, director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. Billingham joined Stanford in 1966, two years before Dr.

Federal authorities said they have arrested a former employee of a national laboratory who is suspected of slipping past security guards and destroying a research project. Silvya Oommachen, 32, of Palo Alto was charged Monday with destroying government property. Investigators say she removed more than 4,000 cryogenically frozen crystal protein samples from cold storage on July 18. The samples thawed over that weekend and were ruined.

California charter schools outperform traditional public schools in reading but significantly lag in math, according to a national study released Monday by researchers at Stanford University.

It was a sunny Saturday morning, the beginning of a two-day exploration of Stanford and neighboring Palo Alto. Although the university is one of the state's great academic institutions--and I say that as a loyal son of Westwood--like many Californians, neither I nor my companion, Mac, had ever had a good look at the campus. It was laid out at the turn of the century by the designer of New York's Central Park, Frederick Law Olmsted.

Stanford volleyball player Samantha Wopat died Sunday. She was 19. Wopat was admitted to Stanford Hospital's intensive care unit on March 17 after having an undisclosed medical emergency at her residence. She died eight days later, surrounded by family and friends. The cause of her death has not been released. "We are deeply saddened by the passing of Sam Wopat," Stanford athletic director Bob Bowlsby said. "On behalf of our administration, coaches and students I extend my condolences to Sam's siblings, parents, relatives and friends.

This page has never been a fan of the three-strikes law. When it appeared on a California ballot in 1994, we warned that this capricious measure (why three strikes and not two or four? would our criminal justice system be fundamentally different if baseball had different rules?) would lock the state into a rigid sentencing system that would overwhelm prisons.

A Stanford law school graduate who allegedly boasted online that she paid off her student loans by working as a high-priced call girl pleaded guilty Monday to tax evasion and agreed to pay $313,134 in penalties. Cristina Warthen, 35, who went by the name Brazil and advertised on a website called TouchofBrazil, traveled across the country to provide her services from 2001 to 2003, according to court documents filed by federal prosecutors in Northern California. She now lives in Los Angeles.