Researcher Mark Skylar-Scott, in a white lab coat, holds a clear cube containing a 3D-printed structure that glows red under the blue UV flashlight he shines on it.

Research

In the lab and around the world, Stanford scholars are developing life-changing technologies and advancing the frontiers of knowledge.

Building for Breakthroughs

Stanford researchers work across boundaries to expand what’s known, and what’s possible.

Chemist Carolyn Bertozzi draws chemical structures in purple marker on a glass board while a colleague in safety glasses watches and smiles in a research lab.
A technician in a white cleanroom suit stands beside a massive cylindrical telescope camera with a large lens, inspecting it with a flashlight in a lab.

The world’s largest digital camera

Researchers at Stanford and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory built a 3.2-gigapixel camera. Now installed at the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, it ceaselessly snaps photos of the southern night sky to create an ultrawide, ultrahigh-definition time-lapse movie of the universe.

Learn about the camera Visit the Stanford Report website to read the article.

A Legacy of Impact

The internet. Artificial intelligence. MRI. Beating heart transplants. Stanford is where many of the world’s most consequential discoveries have been made, supported by a decades-long research partnership between universities and the federal government.

Research Matters Visit Stanford Report to learn more about research at Stanford.
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    Private investment in companies that grew out of federally funded Stanford research

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    Jobs created by companies that grew out of federally funded Stanford research

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    New companies based on federally funded Stanford research

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    Inventions created by federally funded Stanford research

Invented at Stanford

  • Antibody therapies made cancer and autoimmune disease treatments possible.

  • Recombinant DNA technology laid the foundation for the biotech industry.

  • Google’s PageRank algorithm revolutionized searching the web.

  • Internet protocols (TCP/IP) formed the backbone of the modern internet.

  • Microwave technology made military radar detection, commercial air navigation, and satellite communications possible.

  • Neural networks and reinforcement learning laid the groundwork for the AI revolution.

Felix Bloch, Stanford's first Nobel laureate in Physics being photographed by multiple cameras at once, 1952.

Felix Bloch, Stanford's first Nobel laureate in Physics, 1952.

Professor John McCarthy shows off computer chess in 1966, sitting in front of a furniture-sized computer with reel to reel tapes.

Professor John McCarthy shows off computer chess in 1966.

Fueling economic growth

Many of the world’s most innovative and influential companies got their start on the Farm. Companies founded by Stanford alumni boost the U.S. economy, drive job growth, and promote national security and competitiveness.

  • LinkedIn

    Communications companies founded by Stanford alums include Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Yahoo!

  • Netflix

    Entertainment companies founded by Stanford alums include Netflix and YouTube.

  • Nike

    Retail companies founded by Stanford alums include Gap and Nike.

  • Intuit

    Commerce companies founded by Stanford alums include Intuit and PayPal.

  • Gilead

    Health Sciences companies founded by Stanford alums include Genentech and Gilead.

  • Google

    Technology companies founded by Stanford alums include Cisco Systems, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Nvidia, and Tableau.

Researcher Renee Zhao leans over a glowing light table in a dark lab, examining a tangle of clear and blue 3D-printed tubing with both hands.

Call it Practical Alchemy

With seven schools and experts from nearly every field of human inquiry together on one campus, unexpected connections at Stanford are, well, expected.

A researcher in a lab coat, face shield, mask, and blue gloves kneels to adjust a gold-colored quantum cryostat instrument in a physics lab.
A researcher crouches in a brightly lit cold-storage room lined with shelves of yellow-capped culture containers, examining a fungal sample he holds in both hands.
Burn bot leaves a trail of blackened grass amid California summer golden grass. Two men look on.

A national research laboratory

At the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy lab operated by Stanford, researchers probe how the universe works at the biggest, smallest, and fastest scales.

A group of four people studies data on multiple computer screens in an office setting, with an observatory visible in the background.
NewsScience & Engineering

How the Rubin Observatory maps the universe every night

NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory will run the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and build a 10-year time-lapse of the entire southern sky. Find out what goes into unlocking the cosmic data.

1 min read

An independent public policy think tank

The Hoover Institution, established at Stanford in 1959, seeks to improve the human condition by advancing ideas that promote economic opportunity and prosperity. Its world-renowned Library and Archives, founded in 1919 by Stanford alumnus Herbert Hoover, holds more than a million volumes and nearly 7,000 collections pertaining to war, revolution, and peace.

A discussion panel at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, with speakers and an audience in a modern auditorium setting.
NewsEvents

Event kicks off commemoration of America’s founding

The Hoover Institution began its yearlong celebration of America’s 250th anniversary with a discussion on how Enlightenment principles influenced the nation’s beginnings and continue to shape debates today.

6 min read

World-class libraries and archives


Stanford is home to 21 libraries, each with a vast and easily accessible collection. Holdings encompass hundreds of thousands of rare books, dozens of medieval and early modern manuscripts, hundreds of thousands of photos from Silicon Valley and the Civil Rights Movement, half a million recordings in the Archive of Recorded Sound, well over ten thousand rare maps, globes, and atlases, the archives of Buckminster Fuller, Allen Ginsberg, and Apple Inc., and much more.

Kene Nzelu, a junior majoring in history, pores over items from the Stanford University Archives for her final project that looks at the role of women in Stanford’s history.
NewsAcademics

Teaching Stanford’s history

A new spring quarter course examined Stanford’s past, including the people, personalities, and politics that have made the university what it is today.

7 min read

Meet our faculty

Stanford researchers are laying the foundation for longer, healthier lives and a thriving future for humanity and the planet.

Global Impact

Research collaborations don’t stop at the edge of campus. Students and faculty partner with communities across the Bay Area and around the world to put innovation to work where it’s needed most.

Solutions around the world

Public health

Whether addressing maternal and child mortality, pollutants in air and water, communicable disease, or the survival of populations in conflict zones, Stanford researchers connect the local and global to forge solutions.

National security

Stanford research in areas from political science to history to public health bears deeply on national security. So does Stanford innovation: Stanford programs partner with the federal government and with industry to develop new technologies and understand their implications.

Sustainability

Complex problems require radical collaboration. At Stanford, researchers come together across disciplines to understand Earth’s processes and to innovate for human and planetary health.

Education

Learning is a social act, a cognitive feat, and a policy challenge. Stanford scholars work with schools, technologists, and community organizations to understand the contexts and drivers of learning – and to measure and improve educational methods and systems.