Persis S. Drell was appointed chief budgetary officer, chief academic officer, and provost at Stanford University in California, effective February 1.
Since 2014, Dr. Drell has been serving a dean of the School of Engineering at Stanford. Earlier, she was the director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, California. SLAC, formerly known as the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is operated by Stanford University for the U.S. Department of Energy. It is a multipurpose facility conducting research in astrophysics, photon science, and particle physics. Professor Drell joined the staff at SLAC in 2002 as director of research and served as director from 2007 to 2011. She was on the faculty of Cornell University from 1988 to 2002.
Marc Tessier-Lavigne, president of Stanford University, stated that Dr. Drell “is a bold, visionary, inclusive and collaborative leader who has demonstrated the capacity and versatility to quickly master complex leadership roles. She brings a strong moral compass and a direct, transparent style. She operates equally effectively at the broad, strategic level and the detailed, tactical level. She is an enthusiastic and dedicated citizen of the Stanford community, widely known for her warmth and spirit.”
Dr. Drell is a graduate of Wellesley College. She holds a Ph.D. in atomic physics from the University of California at Berkeley.