The enthusiasm was sincere. But the ad hoc appearance as a humanities lecturer also supported his strong commitment to cross-disciplinary work and his defence of the virtues of a broad liberal arts education.
“Just as we wouldn’t want a student in engineering to graduate never having read a Shakespeare play . . . .we also don’t want a student graduating in history or English literature who doesn’t know something about technology,” he says, in his office in a corner of Stanford’s Main Quad.
The book-lined room is itself a small shrine to the university’s scope: his scientific medals sit near a wig given to him by US Supreme Court justice (and alumna) Sandra Day O’Connor; a low-cost infant-warmer developed by the university’s social entrepreneurs; and a pair of sneakers decorated with pictures of Stanford.
From outside, though, the fight to maintain Stanford’s breadth may look like an uphill battle, led by the wrong person. Many students see Stanford as a springboard into Silicon Valley and Prof Hennessy, himself a founder of two technology companies, is an example of precisely the sort of success to which they aspire.