America’s First Woman In Space To Be One Of First Two Women To Receive The Honor

The Stanford School of Engineering has named Sally Ride as one of six people selected as this year’s Stanford Engineering Heroes, an honor recognizing Stanford scientists who have advanced the course of human, social and economic progress through engineering and science.

Dr. Ride, a Stanford-trained physicist and founder of Sally Ride Science, is being honored for her passionate advocacy for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. She is one of the first two women to be named a Stanford Engineering Hero, the other being Irmgard Flugge-Lotz, Stanford’s first female professor of engineering, also selected to receive the award posthumously this year.
 
In addition to Dr. Ride and Professor Flugge-Lotz, this year’s recipients include: Kenneth Arrow, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who taught in what is now Stanford’s Department of Management Science & Engineering; Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founders of Google, who turned a student project at Stanford into what is now one of the world’s pre-eminent technology companies; and Ed Ginzton (posthumous), an electrical engineer who co-founded Varian Associates, one of the early Silicon Valley companies, and worked on radar technology in World War II.
 
“These Heroes are a testament to the breadth of possibilities in science and engineering,” said Jim Plummer, Frederick Emmons Terman Dean of the Stanford School of Engineering. “By celebrating the work and lives of our heroes, we hope to inspire our students and to underscore the many ways they can use their engineering skills to benefit our world.”
 
“All of us at Sally Ride Science are honored by our company’s founder being named a Stanford Engineering Hero,” said Sally Ride Science CEO Sheryle Bolton. “As one of the first women to receive this honor, she would have been gratified to be included among so many illustrious names. This honor from her alma mater fits perfectly.”
 
The six new Heroes join a select group that includes Internet pioneer Vincent Cerf, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Bill Perry, Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo, GPS creator Brad Parkinson, Hewlett-Packard founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, and Fred Terman, former dean of the Stanford School of Engineering.

Twenty-nine people – selected from among alumni and former faculty by a panel of distinguished subject-matter experts and technology historians – have been named as Heroes since the program began in 2010.

(Sally Ride pictured in NASA file photo)

FMI: http://engineering.stanford.edu