Persis Drell

Persis S. Drell is a physicist who has served on the Stanford faculty since 2002. She is the James and Anna Marie Spilker Professor in the School of Engineering, a professor of materials science and engineering, and a professor of physics. She is the former dean of the Stanford School of Engineering and the former director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford. Persis S. Drell became provost on February 1, 2017. Soon after, she and President Marc Tessier-Lavigne launched a long-range planning process to develop a path for Stanford’s future. Unveiled in May 2018, the new vision includes initiatives to support the campus community and to advance teaching and research over the next decade and beyond. The initiatives were developed from the thousands of ideas submitted by the campus community, followed by months of discussion and synthesis. In her role as provost, Drell has focused on a range of key campus issues, including advancing diversity and inclusion; promoting the open exchange of diverse ideas; enhancing support for student communities; expanding support for efforts to eliminate sexual assault and sexual harassment; and providing new avenues for communication between university leadership and the campus community.