The synthesis of teaching and research is fundamental to Stanford. All faculty do scholarly research, most often in association with graduate students or advanced undergraduates. Stanford is noted for multidisciplinary research within its schools and departments, as well as its independent laboratories, centers and institutes. Several national research centers are located at Stanford, including the Department of Plant Biology in the Carnegie Institution of Washington and the National Bureau of Economic Research.
There are more than 5,100 externally sponsored projects throughout the university, with the total budget for sponsored projects at $1.2 billion during 2011-21, including the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC). Of these projects, the federal government sponsors approximately 84.1 percent, including SLAC. In addition, nearly $193 million in support comes from non-federal funding sources. There are nearly 1,900 postdoctoral scholars involved in research at the university.
Stanford’s Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) brings technology created at Stanford to market. In 2010–11, Stanford received more than $66.8 million in gross royalty revenue from 600 technologies. Thirty-two of the inventions generated $100,000 or more in royalties. Six inventions generated $1 million or more. In 2010–11, OTL concluded 101 new licenses and evaluated about 450 new invention disclosures.
Among the Inventions Licensed by OTL:
Digital sound synthesis: John Chowning developed FM sound synthesis for digitally generating sounds in the late 1960s, leading to the music synthesizer.
Disease management: The Stanford Patient Education Research Center develops programs for people with chronic health problems, including arthritis and HIV/AIDS. The program has been licensed to more than 500 organizations in 17 countries.
DSL: In the 1980s, John Cioffi and his students realized that traditional phone lines could be used for high-speed data transmission, resulting in patents used in asymmetric digital subscriber lines.
E-mail security: Identity-based encryption, developed by Dan Boneh and Matt Franklin, offers an efficient way to encrypt and protect e-mail.
Functional antibodies to treat disease: In the 1980s, Leonard Herzenberg, Vernon Oi and Sherie Morrison invented functional antibodies, which led to the development of many valuable medical products.
Genome sequencing: Two tools assist in the sequencing of DNA: CHEF electrophoresis, invented in 1987 by Ron Davis, Gilbert Chu and Douglas Vollrath; and Genscan software, developed by Christopher Burge.
Google: The world’s most popular search engine got its start at Stanford when Sergey Brin and Larry Page developed the page-rank algorithm while they were computer science graduate students.
Optical fiber amplifier: This invention by John Shaw and Michael J.F. Digonnet enabled the bandwidth explosion in optical communications and telecommunications essential to the Internet.
Personalized medicine: The gene chip, based on spotted microarray technology developed in the 1990s by Pat Brown and Dari Shalon, allows doctors to create genetic profiles of patients and their diseases.
Recombinant drug production: Recombinant DNA technology, developed in 1973 by Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer, laid the groundwork for modern genetic engineering by allowing scientists to combine pieces of DNA from different organisms.
Research Centers and Institutes
Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace
The Hoover Institution, devoted to the study of domestic and international affairs, was founded in 1919 by Herbert Hoover, a member of Stanford’s Pioneer Class of 1895 and the 31st U.S. president. The Hoover Institution began as a specialized collection of documents on the causes and consequences of World War I and grew to encompass one of the largest archives and libraries in the world on political, economic and social change. One of the first “think tanks” in the United States, the institution has more than 100 resident scholars/specialists.
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory operated by Stanford, explores the structure and dynamics of matter and the properties of energy, space and time—at the smallest and largest scales, in the fastest processes and at the highest energies. In 2010, the laboratory dedicated the Linac Coherent Light Source, beginning new research in physics, structural biology, energy science and chemistry, among other fields. Since 1962, six scientists have won the Nobel Prize for research carried out at the laboratory.
Other Special Stanford Research Facilities
- Hopkins Marine Station
- Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts
- Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve
- Stanford University Libraries
Independent Laboratories, Centers and Institutes
Independent laboratories, centers and institutes account for about 20 percent of Stanford research, involving about 300 faculty members and 800 students. [Complete list of research centers]
Physical Sciences
Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials (GLAM), conducting research jointly with SLAC
E. L. Ginzton Laboratory
W. W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory (HEPL)
Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC), operated jointly with SLAC
PULSE Institute for Ultrafast Energy Science, operated jointly with SLAC
Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES), operated jointly with SLAC
Environmental Sciences
Precourt Institute for Energy, including the Global Climate and Energy Project (G-CEP) and Precourt Energy Efficiency Center
Woods Institute for the Environment
Humanities and Social Sciences
Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford (FSI)
Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI)
Stanford Center on Longevity (SCL)
Stanford Humanities Center
Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR)
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
Biological and Life Sciences
Bio-X, the interdisciplinary program related to bioengineering, biosciences and biomedicine
Spectrum, formerly the Stanford Center for Clinical and Translational Education and Research
Wellspring of Innovation
Stanford’s entrepreneurial spirit, the result of its California location and the legacy of Leland and Jane Stanford, has helped spawn more than 3,000 companies in high technology and other fields.
Frederick Terman, provost from 1955 to 1965, is called the “academic architect” of the high-technology region known as Silicon Valley. He is credited with creating the university-industry partnerships that led to the establishment of companies key to the high-technology revolution.
Terman encouraged entrepreneurship among his students, created opportunities in California for Stanford-educated engineers, established continuing education programs for engineers in local companies and helped found the university industrial park where companies such as Hewlett-Packard could take root. Terman created an entrepreneurial culture that, today, extends to every academic discipline.
Among the companies Stanford faculty and alumni have helped create:
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