Dressed in baggy sweatpants, untied tennis shoes and a mustard-colored polo, Cliff Nass sits in an unkempt Resident Fellow (RF) apartment surrounded by dishes and papers. One might never suspect that a genius lies behind those large glasses and the unshaven, beaming face beneath.

If you were a Thomas M. Storke Professor in Communication, as well as a professor in the Computer Science, Sociology, Science and Technology in Society and Symbolic Systems departments — not to mention director of Stanford’s Communication between Humans and Interactive Media (CHIMe) Lab, and co-director of the Kozmetsky Global Collaboratory — appearance might be the last thing on your mind, too.

“Cliff’s one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met,” said Jonathan Jourdane ‘08, former Otero Resident Assistant (RA) where Nass is an RF. “And not just when it comes to his research. We can discuss everything from calculus to matrix algebra to politics to computer science to life. He listens really attentively to any issue that people are having and always has some profound insight.”

It seems impossible that Nass can be a professor, research director, RF and advisor all at the same time. Perhaps it’s his training as a magician that allows him to vanish from one place to the next, arriving just in the nick of time with a half tucked-in, mis-buttoned dress shirt, sweatpants, high socks and tennis shoes.

His research and theories have been applied to over 250 media products for companies like Microsoft, Toyota, BMW, Sony, Time-Warner and Hewlett-Packard. One of his more famous theories, “The Media Equation,” explains that humans interact socially with computers just as they would with other humans — this theory of computers as social actors is heavily referenced in many social-psychological papers today.

But the ever-humble Nass is quick to shift the spotlight to his students. Eager to share his passion, Nass encourages all students to conduct their own research through his Communication 268 class, “Experimental Research in Advanced User Interfaces.”

“It’s the only class of its kind in the nation,” Nass explains. “We need more courses like this to capture the joy of discovery, not just the ‘right’ answer.”

His main philosophy, as he puts it, is that “the joy of research is to know something that no one else knows, then tell everyone about it.”

“That’s my reason for researching,” he added. “It’s good motivation, and I really do believe that’s the magic. That’s what gets students excited.”

Nass manages to inspire his students, regardless of what class he may be teaching.

“Cliff is an incredibly gifted teacher, one who can make everyday lessons come to life and get students excited about learning,” said Communication coterm student Matt Vassar. “More than that, though, he’s a caring man — one who has always been willing to help me in any of my academic struggles.”

But it’s not these endless accolades that he cites as his most important accomplishments; it took hard work to get to where he is. After graduating cum laude from Princeton — a difficult journey both socially and academically — he almost threw in the towel.

Rejected by 15 professional journals, Nass was ready to resign to being a professional magician, but he gave academia one more chance. His perseverance was rewarded when the International Journal for Computer Science published his theory.

The entire social-psychology field has benefited from his over 100 published papers and two books, “The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places” (Cambridge University Press) and “Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the Human-Computer Relationship” (MIT Press), which won the International Communication Association Outstanding Book Award for 2007.

Despite his fame, being an RF is the job at which Nass truly thrives.

“Cliff just brought this energy to the dorm,” said former resident Lovie Hutson ‘10. “He made people happy just by being around them. And he was always concerned about the well-being of his students. He helped me realize things about myself as a person and as a student.”

“Cliff has been an absolutely amazing RF and I can’t imagine freshman year without him,” added Amelia Herrera ‘11.

Wanting to provide a solid environment for his 16-year-old son, Matthew, Nass began his first year as an RF last year in Otero.

“I was feeling really disconnected with undergrads, and I thought this would be a great way to reconnect,” he said. “And it’s certainly been that. I’ve learned more about undergrads in one year as an RF than in my previous 21 years as a professor.”

“These kids are unbelievably energetic and amazingly, stunningly sophisticated,” he says, as his voice squeaks with enthusiasm. “They’re kids, and as an RF, it’s a great, noble thing to help transition kids to adulthood.”

As an academic, Nass believes fostering a safe, secure environment can help students mature and take academic risks.

“You need kids to feel like the dorm is their home,” he said. “They need to feel that they’re not going to be yelled at or fall through the cracks.”

He creates this environment by searching his vast rolodex of speakers and inviting them to the Otero lounge, holding Math 51 tutoring sessions for his residents or hosting a Thanksgiving feast in his RF cottage.

“He takes on so much but he never does anything less than his best,” Jourdane said. “And through it all, he has a genuine care for every single person that he’s encountered, from residents to random people he meets on the street. I don’t know how he does it, but he does.”