Stanford University

Leland and Jane Stanford founded the university in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who died of typhoid fever at fifteen in 1884.⁠[2]

The founding grant was executed on November 11, 1885.⁠[3]

Its legal name is Leland Stanford Junior University.⁠[4]

The university opened on October 1, 1891, as a coeducational, non-denominational institution.⁠[2]

Its first year enrolled 555 students.⁠[3]

The San Francisco earthquake extensively damaged the campus.⁠[3]

William Hewlett and David Packard developed their audio-oscillator work into HP. Stanford Research Park followed in 1951, with Varian Associates among its first tenants.⁠[4]

John McCarthy and Les Earnest founded the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.⁠[4]

Graduate students Larry PageLarry PageLarry Page is a computer scientist and co-founder of Google who helped develop PageRank. He previously served as chief executive of Google and Alphabet and remains an Alphabet director.Open the full entry and Sergey Brin developed PageRank and founded GoogleGoogleGoogle is an American technology company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and incorporated in 1998. It became an Alphabet subsidiary in 2015. Its businesses include internet search, advertising, software platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry in 1998.⁠[4]

The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability opened on September 1, 2022, becoming one of the university’s seven schools and bringing together research and education on environment, energy and sustainability.⁠[3][1]

Jenny Martinez became provost, the chief academic and budgetary officer, in October 2023. Jonathan Levin became the thirteenth president in August 2024.⁠[5]

For the fiscal year ending August 31, 2025, externally sponsored research support totaled $2.3 billion, including SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, across more than 7,500 sponsored awards.⁠[6]