Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice presented the 2011 Goff Smith lecture on March 30 in Rackham Auditorium. The lecture enables the College of Engineering to bring to campus individuals of significant stature and give recognition for their contribution to society.

During her lecture, titled "The Interface of Energy and Geopolitics", Rice discussed the ways she'd found oil to affect international diplomacy and foreign affairs, referring to the period in 2008 when oil prices rose to $140 a barrel.

"I said to my colleagues at the time, I have never seen anything warp diplomacy like high oil prices," Rice told the crowd at Rackham Auditorium. She went on to discuss the specific cases, including Russia, China, Venezuela and the Middle East. 

The lecture was followed by a question-and-answer session with James Duderstadt, U-M president emeritus and University Professor of Science and Engineering. 

About Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice is a professor of Political Economy in the Graduate School of Business, the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution and a professor of Political Science at Stanford University.

From 2005-2009, she served as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States. Prior to serving as America’s chief diplomat, she served as President George W. Bush’s Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (National Security Advisor) from 2001-2005.

From 1993-1999, she served as Stanford University’s Provost. In that role, she was responsible for a $1.5 billion annual budget and an academic program involving 1,400 faculty members and 14,000 students. Prior to becoming Provost, she was a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution from 1991- 1993. She returned to the Hoover Institution (1999-2001) after serving as Provost, and while serving as a foreign policy advisor to then-Governor George W. Bush’s presidential campaign. From 1989 through March 1991, the period of German reunification and the final days of the Soviet Union, she served on President George H.W. Bush’s National Security Council staff as Director, and then Senior Director of Soviet and East European Affairs, and Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.

Professor Rice has been on the Stanford faculty since 1981, and has won two of its highest teaching honors – the 1984 Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching.

She has authored and co-authored several books, served on various boards and has been involved in a number of humanitarian pursuits, most notably to increase aid to developing countries and the world's poorest, most disadvantaged populations.

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, she earned her bachelor's degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974; her master's from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her PhD from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded ten honorary doctorates.

About Goff Smith

Goff Smith served his College and University with distinction for over 70 years. As president of the Class of '38E, he was instrumental in creating the 1938E Award, bestowed annually to an outstanding junior faculty member.

Smith spent his entire business career with Amsted Industries of Chicago, rising from sales representative in 1946, to chairman and chief executive officer in 1980. He established and served as a trustee of the Amsted Industries Foundation. He was influential in directing support toward many educational institutions, including the University of Michigan.

He received a bachelor of science in engineering degree in 1938 and a master’s degree in business administration in 1939 from the University of Michigan. He also received a master’s degree in industrial management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Smith made many contributions to the University of Michigan and was recognized with a Sesquicentennial Award in 1967, a Presidential Societies Leadership Medal in 1989 and the College of Engineering Alumni Society Distinguished Service Award in 2000. He died in December 2008.

Past Goff Smith Lectures

Bill Joy (BSE CompE '75, D. Eng Hon. '04) presented the 2009 Goff Smith lecture on Thursday, October 15, 2009. Watch Joy's lecture video.