Dr. Seung K. Kim to Deliver Commencement Address

The Ethel Walker School is delighted to announce that Stanford University Professor Seung K. Kim, M.D., Ph.D. will deliver the Commencement address at its 113th Commencement.

Seung Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, and immigrated to the U.S. at age three. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1981, then received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1985, and his M.D. and Ph.D. from the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Stanford University School of Medicine in 1992. While training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, he met his wife, Dr. Nancy Plauth. They have three daughters and a son. Dr. Kim was a Medical Oncology Fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute from 1994-98, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Fellow at Harvard University from 1995-1998.

Dr. Kim has been a faculty member at Stanford University School of Medicine since 1998 and holds the KM Mulberry endowed chair. He is a Professor in the Department of Developmental Biology, in the Department of Medicine (Endocrinology), and by courtesy in Pediatrics (Endocrinology). His laboratory has discovered genes, signals, and cell interactions governing development and function of pancreatic islets. These discoveries have led to new approaches for creating, expanding, and replacing pancreatic islets in diabetes. In 2016, together with his colleagues, he founded the Stanford Diabetes Research Center (SDRC), and since that time has directed it. He also co-directs the Stanford Pancreas Cancer Research Group, and the Breakthrough T1D Northern California Center of Excellence at Stanford. From 2000 to 2013, he served as co-director or director of the Stanford MSTP. He also founded Stan-X in 2011, a unique program for creating experiential science curricula in schools worldwide, including at The Ethel Walker School. In addition to multiple teaching awards, Dr. Kim has received honors for his scientific achievements, including selection as an Investigator in the HHMI in 2008, the Gerald and Kayla Grodsky Award for Basic Research Excellence from Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF) in 2013, the Ho-Am Prize in Medicine in 2014, and election to the Association of American Physicians (AAP) in 2021.

Dr. Kim’s Stan-X program serves as the basis for The Ethel Walker School’s Advanced Research in Molecular Genetics course, which offers our students a chance to engage in true laboratory research in genetics by developing and studying new strains of fruit flies.Head of School Dr. Meera Viswanathan comments: “Dr. Kim is that rare individual whose brilliance of mind parallels his brilliance of heart. His groundbreaking research as part of the Diabetes Research program at Stanford University’s School of Medicine has been highly impactful for future improved health outcomes for the world and his birthing and nurturing of Stan-X has generated hundreds, if not thousands, of budding researchers and scientists across scores of secondary schools nationally and internationally.”