Hoover senior fellow and professor of political science at Stanford University (on one-year leave of absence); senior foreign policy adviser to the Bush campaign.

Age: 45

Education: Bachelor's degree from the University of Denver; master's degree from the University of Notre Dame; Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

Family: Single.

Career: Joined the Stanford faculty in 1981; recently completed a six-year tenure as provost, overseeing a $1.5 billion annual budget. Served under President George Bush as director and senior director of Soviet and East European affairs in the National Security Council, and as special assistant to the president for national security affairs. In 1986, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, served as special assistant to the director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In academia: A specialist in the politics of East-Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, as well as an expert on international security policy and the military, Rice has won several awards, including the 1984 Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching. At Stanford, she has been a member of the Center for International Security and Arms Control, a senior fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a fellow of the Hoover Institution.

Did you know?
Rice has written several books, among them "Germany Unified and Europe Transformed" (1995) with Philip Zelikow; "The Gorbachev Era" (1986) with Alexander Dallin; and "Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army" (1984).