Ram Shriram receives Stanford’s Gold Spike Award

Stanford University has awarded Indian American educationist Ram Shriram this year’s Gold Spike Award, the university’s highest annual honor for volunteer service with Angela Nomellini. University president Richard Saller conferred the awards at an April 20 dinner held in their honor, according to a university press release.

The Gold Spike Award is presented by Stanford Associates, an honorary organization of Stanford alumni who have demonstrated significant and long-standing volunteer service to the university.

Ram Shriram “is an intellectually curious changemaker whose far-reaching impact reflects his extraordinary generosity of spirit,” according to Stanford Associates. “A visionary leader across the university, he has been a staunch advocate and dynamic fundraiser for groundbreaking efforts including bioengineering and AI, as well as a trusted advisor on matters impacting the entire institution.”

A parent of two Stanford alumni, Shriram has served two terms on the Board of Trustees (including as vice chair), where he was known for his wide-ranging expertise and strategic counsel.

As a trustee, he led the Board’s Special Committee on Online Education; sat on committees for academic policy, planning and management, agenda, compensation, development, finance, globalization, land and buildings, and trusteeship; and was an advisor to current and past university presidents and chairs of the board.

Stanford leaders credit Shriram with helping numerous schools and initiatives reach their strategic objectives. He has co-chaired the People-Centered Computing Task Force, spent seven years on the Stanford SEED Advisory Board, and currently serves on both the Stanford Health Care Board of Directors and the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Advisory Board.

Shriram and his wife, Vijay Shriram, also served on the Parents’ Advisory Board, and the couple has been instrumental in supporting

The award is named for the gold spike that was the final link in the construction of the first transcontinental railroad, driven home by California Senator Leland Stanford in Promontory, Utah, in 1869.

A century later, the university established the Gold Spike Award as Stanford’s highest annual honor for volunteer leadership service. Stanford Associates assumed responsibility for the award in 1973.