Persis Drell, 1955 -

SLAC Professor and Director Emerita 
James and Anna Marie Spilker Professor in the Stanford University School of Engineering
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering; Professor of Physics, Stanford

Professional and Biographical Information

• B.A., Mathematics and Physics, Wellesley College, 1977
• Ph. D., Atomic Physics, University of California, Berkeley, 1983
• Persis Drell: The 'Accidental' Lab Director by Lyn Hunter, Today at Berkeley Lab [undated]
• Persis Drell '77 P'16 Takes Office as Stanford University Provost Wellesley News, 2017
• Stanford Provost Persis Drell January 31, 2017
• Persis Drell on Life and Physics, interviewed by Pau Guinart, November 21, 2017
• Persis Drell: A life-long Education and Contributor to the Field of Physics, March 18, 2020
• Interview with American Institute of Physics (AIP) Oral Historian, 2020
• Opening Address Persis Drell: Women in Data Science, WiDS 2020
• The Luminaries Series: Persis S. Drell, Stanford University Provost, August 11, 2021

Academic Appointments

• Post-Doctoral Research Associate Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1983-1987
• Department of Physics, Cornell University, 1988-2002
  • Assistant Professor of Physics, 1988-1992
  • Associate Professor of Physics, 1993-1997
  • Professor of Physics, 1998-2002
• Stanford Linear Accelerator Center / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
  • Professor, 2002-2014
  • Director, Particle Physics and Astrophysics, 2002-2007
  • Deputy Project Manager, Gamma Ray Large Area Space Telescope, 2004-2005
  • Deputy Director, 2005-2007
  • Director, 2007-2012
  • Director Emerita, 2012-2014
• Dean, Stanford School of Engineering, 2014-2017
• Provost, Stanford University, 2017- 2023 

Honors and Awards

• National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigators Award, 1988
• Fellow, American Physical Society, 1997
• Guggenheim Fellowship, 1997
• Wellesley Alumnae Achievement Award, 2006
• Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2007
• Member, National Academy of Sciences, 2010

Publications

Lists of Persis Drell's publications can be found on inSpire HEP and Google Scholar.

Archival Materials

Persis Drell papers held by the SLAC Archives, History & Records Office are not yet open for research. 
Use this link to access descriptions of her papers in the archives of Stanford University. 

Note: Some links on this page open pdf files, which require the free Acrobat Reader.