What Matters to Me and Why is a presentation and discussion series featuring Stanford Faculty and Administrators addressing life questions. The purpose of What Matters to Me and Why is to encourage reflection within the Stanford community on matters of personal values, beliefs, and motivations in order to better understand the lives and inspirations of those who shape the University. The presenter is encouraged to share how s/he has chosen to live her/his life, the core values s/he has adopted, and the personal choices s/he has made. We also encourage the presenter to choose any other topic that fits her/his definition of “what matters to me and why.”
Program History | Past WMMW Speakers
Select Wednesdays, 12 noon – 1:00 pm, CIRCLE Common Room, Old Union 3rd floor (Map)
May 10, 2017: Mehran Sahami, Professor and Associate Chair for Education, Department of Computer Science
The fourth talk of this year's series features Professor Mehran Sahami, who is also the Robert and Ruth Halperin University Fellow in Undergraduate Education. He received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty in 2007, he was a Senior Research Scientist at Google for several years.
His research interests include computer science education, machine learning, and web search. He has over 20 patent filings on a variety of topics including machine learning, web search, recommendation engines in social networks, and email spam filtering that have been deployed in commercial applications. He co-chaired the ACM/IEEE-CS joint task force on Computer Science Curricula 2013, which was responsible for creating curricular guidelines for college programs in Computer Science at an international level. In 2014, he received the ACM Presidential Award for this work.
May 24, 2017: Alexander Nemerov, Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor of Arts and Humanities, Department of Art and Art History
The fifth talk of this year's series features Professor Alexander Nemerov, a celebrated author, public speaker, curator, and professor of art history. His close readings of visual artworks open pathways of personal understanding and meaning-making for his students and readers, underscoring the relevance of the humanities in our civic and personal lives. Over the course of his twenty-year career, he has published seven highly regarded books and authored more than thirty articles and essays for peer-reviewed journals. Leading his audiences to a rich and nuanced understanding of historic eras through analysis and appreciation of aesthetic expressions in a wide range of genres, his work encourages us to look for those connections ourselves. His teaching, writing, and curating reflect a profound belief in the enduring importance of the arts and humanities to a thoughtful and deeply felt life.
Fall Quarter 2016
October 5: Lloyd Minor, Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine
October 26: Nicole Taylor, Associate Vice Provost and the Dean of Community Engagement and Diversity
Winter Quarter 2017
February 22*: Marc Tessier-Lavigne, President
Spring Quarter 2017
May 10: Mehran Sahami, Professor and Associate Chair for Education, Computer Science
May 24: Alexander Nemerov, Carl and Marilynn Thoma Provostial Professor in the Arts and Humanities, Department of Art and Art History
