Our ongoing progress

Dear Doerr School of Sustainability community,

Happy New Year and welcome to the winter quarter. I hope that everyone is staying safe and dry in the midst of this week’s storms.

The start of the academic quarter marks yet another milestone for the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, and I again take the opportunity to acknowledge the contributions you each make to this school, and to an even greater extent, the long-term prosperity of our planet. Thank you for your commitment and for being integral parts of our shared mission.

I write to you today from Singapore, where I’m joining President Marc Tessier-Lavigne and colleagues from our school and across the university for the annual Stanford Asia Economic Forum. I am pleased to report that the global interest in SDSS is truly sky high. From across all sectors — academia, government, NGO, industry — people are keenly interested in what we are doing and our efforts to educate future leaders and realize scalable solutions in sustainability. 

And as you can imagine, I have so much to share about what has happened in our first quarter as a school. Building on years of work and preparation, SDSS has hit the ground running. In the months leading up to our formal launch in September and over the course of our first official academic quarter as a new school, we’ve established the new Oceans Department, refined the vision of how our Accelerator can scale sustainability solutions for the world, expanded capacity for multiple courses to meet immense demand, and launched the Dean’s Lecture Series, with the first lecture focused on environmental justice.

Looking ahead, the current quarter and year to come promise to be just as exciting as we move forward with building a Division of Social Sciences, fund the next round of Accelerator grants, expand the SUSTAIN 101 course series, and so much more. I must admit to being particularly excited for the winter quarter, as I have the privilege of joining Kam Moler in teaching a section of SUSTAIN 101A: “Decision Making for Sustainable Energy.” Our first class was on Monday, and I feel tremendously fortunate to have yet another avenue to engage with students. 

The school and its many accomplishments only happen because of you. Thank you for making the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability a reality and for your myriad efforts to meet the greatest challenge of the 21st century. I wish you a healthy and successful quarter.

Best,
Arun

Arun Majumdar
Chester Naramore Dean, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Jay Precourt Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Energy Science and Engineering
Senior Fellow, Precourt Institute for Energy & Hoover Institution