Meet Persis Drell
Persis S. Drell, former director of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, became the ninth dean of the School of Engineering on Sept. 1.
Drell led the 1,600‐employee U.S. Department of Energy SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford from 2007 through 2012. During her tenure as director, SLAC transitioned from being a laboratory dedicated primarily to research in high‐energy physics to one that is now seen as a leader in a number of scientific disciplines.
Drell is the first woman to hold the post of dean at the school. She succeeds Jim Plummer, who stepped down after 15 years, making him the longest-serving dean in Stanford Engineering history.
Drell is the Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the School of Engineering and the James and Anna Marie Spilker Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and of Physics at Stanford University.
She recently sat down with Jamie Beckett, Stanford Engineering director of communications and alumni relations, to discuss her life, her perspective on the school and what brought her to Stanford Engineering.
Persis S. Drell, dean of Stanford Engineering, speaks at the Stanford Photonics Research Center's Women in Science Seminar in October. (Photo: Saul Bromberger and Sandra Hoover)
What attracted you to the School of Engineering?
The School of Engineering is made up of an extraordinary group of people. That became especially clear to me when I met members of the search committee – they were the best recruiting tool imaginable. They were an extraordinary group of people, and that was the moment when, for me, it got very serious.
What is your vision for the school? How would you like to see it evolve? What challenges does it face?
I am extremely ambitious for the school. Engineering at Stanford, in partnership with Silicon Valley, has changed the world. I have no intention of backing away from similar ambition for our future.
The biggest challenge we have is that we are so successful. And that is a challenge. We must avoid becoming complacent and continue to move forward. I don’t know what the school will be like in 15 years; I just know it will be different.
The great thing is that the school is incredibly forward-looking. The people here are not afraid of change. In not a single conversation has someone said that we have to do things a certain way because we’ve always done them that way. Here, you get measured by what you get done, and I like that. Everyone is focused on making an impact.
When you stepped down as director of SLAC you cited a strong desire to return to teaching and research. But here you are – dean of the School of Engineering. What changed?
This was a great example of Yogi Berra’s famous advice “When you come to a fork in the road, take it!” I was very happy doing research and teaching when this opportunity came along – and I took it!
Most deans continue teaching and continue to engage in research. I’ll teach one quarter a year as Jim [Plummer] has done. In the winter quarter, I’ll again be teaching a companion course to Physics 41 [Mechanics], the largest class in the physics department, with some 600 students. My course, 41A [Mechanics Concepts, Calculations and Context], is for students who did not come with great preparation from high school. I love that class. They are terrific students.
My research is with the X-ray laser up at SLAC, and there is a very well-established infrastructure there with a team of superb scientists. It’s a team I can be part of, rather than leading an individual lab. I think that will be manageable. In fact, I think that will help keep me grounded.
How did you become interested in science?
I got “tracked low” in math in seventh grade. And I didn’t like that. I started working very hard in math, and they moved me up, and that got me focused on math. I had a horrendous physics class in high school. But then I went to Wellesley, and I had a spectacular physics professor, Phyllis Fleming, and she made me a physicist.
You’re the daughter of Stanford faculty member Sidney Drell. How did having a father who was a prominent physicist affect your career choice?
In the late 1960s and 1970s when my father was head of the theory group at SLAC, and later on deputy director, SLAC was the center of the universe for particle physics. People would come by the house, and there would be conversations late into the night. I wasn’t interested in the physics, but the people were fascinating – Hans Bethe, Richard Feynman, T.D. Lee – you name it.
However, having a father in the field was also a challenge. When I took physics in high school and wanted help with my homework, my father would want to explain everything to me. I just wanted the answer to Problem Three.
What are the key influences that have shaped your life and career so far?
In addition to my family, there were two teachers who were phenomenally influential. One was my Latin teacher for six years at Terman [Middle School] and Gunn High School – Marian McNamara. And the other was Phyllis Fleming at Wellesley. They were strong personalities, and they were absolutely dedicated teachers. I learned so much from them. The Latin teacher didn’t just teach us Latin. She taught us cultural history. It was everything about the Roman Empire and Roman culture, so I’m a total Italophile.
Another thing that made her so gifted – and I think it’s a lesson I carried with me – is that she judged each of her students as individuals. We were a diverse class in terms of abilities, and she set the expectations for each student depending upon what she thought that student could deliver. She demanded a lot from all of us, but we felt we were working toward clear expectations that were realistic for us. The students responded amazingly well.
Which of your accomplishments has been the most satisfying?
I’m proud of raising three great kids. My youngest daughter recently turned 20, so I’ve had a teenager, sometimes three teenagers, in the house for 14 years. And finally, the youngest one is no longer a teenager! It’s been wonderful to see them emerge from the teenage years as terrific young adults.
Another thing is the continuing success of SLAC under the new leadership of Chi-Chang Kao. That is deeply, deeply satisfying to me because it’s a great institution with great people.
Something else that’s been satisfying is the feeling of being able to make my own choices along the way to live life in the way that I wanted to lead it. There have been a lot of things that I’ve had to choose not to do. But I felt like the choices were under my control – that I had choices that were good choices.
What do you consider to be the qualities of an effective leader?
The greatest leaders that I have worked for have been able to really inspire me to take risks. But then they were also able to protect me from my weaknesses. There is a great man I worked for at Cornell – Maury Tigner – who knew how to inspire me to do things beyond what I thought I was capable of, but who at the same time protected me by not asking me to do things that I wasn’t well constituted to do.
What role do engineers have in helping to solve the challenges facing the world?
I think engineers will contribute to solving health care problems, they’ll contribute to energy solutions and they’ll contribute to climate change solutions. They’ll contribute to – and are contributing to – one of the great challenges we face, which is sustainable water.
My sense of the school is this: The faculty, students and staff in this school want to make a significant impact and change the world, making it a better place. And that’s hard to do, but it’s what we ought to be striving for.
Is there something about you that most people don’t know?
I’ve played chamber music for decades, but last year I started taking cello lessons again. My teacher is Chris Costanza of the St. Lawrence String Quartet – the quartet in residence at Stanford. I will work very hard as the dean, but I will not give up practicing my cello and taking cello lessons.
My husband [Jim Welch, a SLAC accelerator physicist] plays viola and I’m a cellist, and we’re always looking for good violinists [to make a string quartet]. Chamber music is an enormous source of pleasure for us.
Another thing most people don’t know is that I grew up on the Stanford campus. My [old] house is sitting nearby. They picked it up and moved it to make way for the Munger dorms. And it’s now the Sexual Harassment Policy Office and the Housing Office.
It was one of the original 12 houses that Sen. Stanford built for his faculty. The hitching post is still out front. My dad bought the house, sight unseen, when nobody wanted it. My parents moved here when I was 6 months old. So I’m about as Stanford as you can get.
