(April 28, 2023) The JE Wallace Sterling Award, named after Stanford University’s former president and chancellor, is awarded each year to an exceptional graduating senior whose leadership and service have made an impact on the Stanford community. The selection for the award is made through faculty and staff nomination. Indian-origin Stanford scholar Adam Nayak is the latest recipient of the award.
However, it is not the maiden award for the bright youngster.As a high schooler, he had won the Patrick H Hurd Sustainability Award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair – one of the top prizes in the world’s largest high school science fair, it was a first for his district Oregon in United States.
The bright scholar
At Stanford, Adam has been pursuing a co-term degree in engineering and management science after finishing his bachelor’s in civil and environmental engineering. During his undergraduate, he served the Stanford community through multiple roles.
Adam Nayak
He was a peer advisor at the Haas Center for Public Service, a co-president for the Stanford chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World, leader for Student Worker Rights, and campus resident assistant for the 576 Alvarado co-op, where students do the cleaning and cooking. “It’s fun. Sometimes it is hard to get food out to people daily, but not only have I made my best friends here, I have been able to really think what community means,” he said. The place has a rich tradition of bringing together queer and BIPOC communities.
The youngster also served as a student representative in the inaugural dean search committee for Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
“I came to Stanford feeling a little overwhelmed. Just a day after I started, I went on a long run, all around the campus – the smell of the eucalyptus, the sun, I just loved it all. I remember thinking, ‘wow’ there just cannot be a better place to be at,” said the youngster adding, “Stanford University and the pandemic taught me to be grateful.”
Adam plans to pursue a PhD with a sustainability and social impact focus after completing his co-term degree at the renowned institution.
Mindful since childhood
As a child, Adam was fascinated with water, so much so that he would spend hours, exploring Johnson Creek, a tributary of the Willamette River which ran through his neighbourhood in Portland, Oregon. Moreover, he loved being engaged in the world of organisms and plants around the tributary.
His fascination for the world around water was so strong that at just nine years of age, he joined the local watershed council, assisting in surveys of organisms living in the creek, and identifying birds in the area. In the process, the sharp and observant youngster made friends with like-minded people, much older to him.
While studying the impact of urban development on watershed hydrology, Adam realised that flooding from the creek impacted the neighbourhoods around. A strong urge emerged to find a solution for it to make his beloved neighbourhood a better place for all living beings.
Claiming a lofty prize
A few years later, in 2017 as a high schooler he got the opportunity to participate in Intel International Science and Engineering Fair organised by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of United States. Adam won one of the top prizes of the competition, a first for his district Oregon, for his project titled, ‘Modelling the effects of land use change on flooding in Pacific Northwest streams to promote green practices.’
Adam Nayak during Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
His project was one of the 1,800 entrees from students representing 78 countries. Emerging as one of the winners was a big achievement. Apart from the prize money, the award funded travel for Adam and a chaperone to display his project at the EPA’s National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington D.C. That was a big motivation for him to keep on researching solutions for problems that can positively impact communities.
Interspersing science and art for better outcomes
After high school, Adam joined the Stanford chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World as a freshman, taking up civil and environmental engineering as a major and comparative studies in race and ethnicity as a minor. For his senior thesis, Adam did his research on how California droughts, driven by climate change, tend to reduce water bills for higher-income residents while it gets increased for lower-income people resulting in further disparity.
Sustainability and equity are two causes that Adam deeply cares about and is a believer of the notion that science is important, but there are significant social and cultural implications to every solution that gets devised through studies in arts. His choice of major and minor subjects beautifully interspersed with the developments he wants to see in the world for it to become a more equal place. He believes that the combination makes a great contribution to the whole idea of sustainability.
“I don’t think of my major and minor as separate entities because together they tell a more complete story about people, and the ways in which we can build and improve our systems to meet the needs of all our communities,” he said.
Happy childhood
The youngster is a second-generation Indian immigrant in the US. During his birth, his parents were still medical school students. “I was kind of bouncing between my neighbours’ houses, my grandma’s house, and my aunt’s house who lived in the area,” Adam shared.
He would just play in the backyards and spend time amid nature, learning about it and falling in love with it from a tender age. He did his schooling from Cleveland High School and has been passionate about empowering communities and applying research to promote conservation locally.
- Follow Adam Nayak on LinkedIn
