Mechanical engineering professor Kenneth Goodson will assume the role of Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (VPGE) on April 1.
Goodson, who currently serves as Senior Associate Dean for Research and Faculty, succeeds Stacey Bent Ph.D. ’92. Bent announced last summer she would be returning to teaching and research after a five-year term in the position.
Bent told the Stanford Report that she was “so pleased” to hear Goodson would be fulfilling the role.
“On a personal level,” she said, “Ken is extremely thoughtful and caring.”
Provost Jenny Martinez, who chaired the committee that selected Goodson, told the Report that Goodson is an “excellent mentor who truly cares about graduate students and postdocs.”
In an email to The Daily, Goodson wrote that he was “honored” to be invited to an interview by this committee.
As the hiring process ensued, he said he “grew very excited about serving the graduate community in this way.”
Goodson’s research focuses on heat transfer and energy conversion. He studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctoral degree. He joined Stanford’s faculty in 1994 and has since mentored about a dozen postdocs and more than 55 graduate students.
Mentoring these students “has been the highlight of [his] professional career,” he wrote. “In my early [teaching] days, they taught me to be a better mentor and, in the various administrative positions that followed over the years, they guided me to steps in policy that aimed to enhance the experience of students.”
Goodson holds 35 patents and is a baritone soloist, cyclist and woodworker.
Part of his new role will include helping graduate students as they deal with impacts of federal cuts to research funding as the Trump administration slashes the National Institute of Health (NIH) and other vital federal funding sources.
Stanford could lose around $160 million dollars in funding as a result of the cuts.
“We need to help graduate students and postdoctoral scholars navigate the many associated challenges and uncertainties,” Goodson wrote.
Goodson’s term as VPGE also follows a year of tense negotiations between the University and the Stanford Graduate Workers Union (SGWU) that ended with the ratification of a contract that included modest pay raises and other guarantees.
“In the wake of this tremendous effort, I’ll be working with others to help cultivate a productive working relationship between the University and the union,” he wrote.
This article was updated with comment from Goodson.