Stanford is creating its first new school in more than 70 years dedicated to creating a future where humans and nature thrive in concert and in perpetuity.
Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, the university’s first new school in 70 years, will accelerate solutions to global climate crisis
Investments of $1.1 billion from John and Ann Doerr, along with gifts from other philanthropists, catalyze interdisciplinary efforts to tackle urgent climate and sustainability challenges facing people and ecosystems worldwide.
Inaugural dean: Arun Majumdar
A professor of mechanical engineering and former co-director of the Precourt Institute for Energy, Majumdar has expertise in energy solutions and policies through his research on sustainable grid technologies and his experience in both industry and government. Read the announcement
Majumdar recently sent a message to the community looking ahead to next steps and launching a several month listening tour with the community. Read his message
Organized for impact
The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability is organized to drive impact with a novel three-part structure that includes academic departments, institutes and initiatives, and a Sustainability Accelerator.
Creating knowledge
Scholarship within the school's departments creates new knowledge about the natural world and its linkages with human society, and the threats we all face.
Bridging disciplines
The school's institutes focus interdisciplinary expertise around critical challenges in energy, the environment, and sustainable societies, and foster emerging areas of scholarship.
Driving impact
The Sustainability Accelerator will draw expertise from across the university and outside partners to co-create and scale solutions for urgent climate and sustainability challenges.
Academics
Our school offers degrees and research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as professional certificates.
Our scholarship and impact
Faculty and students in the departments, institutes, and centers seeding the school are already expanding our understanding and generating impact worldwide. When the school launches in September, these existing research programs will be augmented by faculty hires in extended areas of scholarship, and their impact will be broadened with a new Institute for Sustainable Societies and Sustainability Accelerator.
New model offers potential solutions for next-generation battery challenges
A new mathematical model has brought together the physics and chemistry of highly promising lithium-metal batteries, providing researchers with plausible, fresh solutions to a problem known to cause degradation and failure.
Climate change and air pollution impacts on children’s health
Children are more likely than adults to suffer health impacts due to environmental impacts. Kari Nadeau of Stanford’s Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy & Asthma Research discusses related risks, as well as what caregivers and health care workers can do about them.
Small modular reactors produce high levels of nuclear waste
Small modular reactors, long touted as the future of nuclear energy, will actually generate more radioactive waste than conventional nuclear power plants, according to research from Stanford and the University of British Columbia.
Meet our community
Be part of the change
The DEI office aspires to build a community that reflects the demographics of our society and is attuned to the environmental justice and social issues that are fundamental to fruitful learning and lead to better scientific solutions for our planet.
Celebrating diversity
This interview series illuminates how our many identities intersect with our work in sustainability. Black, Indigenous, Latinx, LGBTQIA+, Asian American Pacific Islander, women, and other groups among faculty, staff, students, and alumni share their experiences.
New minor offered
Evan Baldonado, a third-year student in the School of Engineering, is the first student to adopt a minor in environmental justice, offered through the Earth Systems program. The minor will also be part of the new school.
What excites me is...
Here, faculty share what excites them about the new school, including forming new research collaborations, amplifying the global impact of their work and helping students contribute to a sustainable future.
Gabrielle Wong-Parodi
"This is an opportunity to draw across disciplines to think about strategies from engineering to behavioral sciences to environmental scientists and really come together to tackle the really big sustainability issues that we face today as a society."
Watch the video
Campus commitment to sustainability
Stanford campus acts as a living laboratory for sustainability solutions, with ambitious goals for reducing emissions and waste and for scaling our learnings through other campuses, businesses, or governments.