Welcome to a new academic year

Welcome to fall quarter!

This is our first year as President and first full year as Provost of this special place. We have already enjoyed welcoming students to their dorms and faculty to their classrooms and labs. We are excited for the year ahead, and among the many ways we hope to advance research and education across the campus, we have three we’d like to share.

First, we are focused on fostering a culture of curiosity and inquiry. A university is about questions. We hope you will participate in some of Stanford’s unique offerings including the ongoing development of COLLEGE, the Stanford Civics Initiative, Democracy Day in November, and a host of classes and discussions this year that aim to spark the open, constructive exchange of ideas on which discovery and learning depend.

Second, we are eager to advance Stanford’s leadership in data-driven discovery and AI. The ability to organize vast quantities of information, make predictions, and formulate new hypotheses promises to yield extraordinary advances. We will open a new shared GPU cluster this fall as one of many steps to fuel research and innovation across fields ranging from biomedicine to education to climate modeling, the social sciences, and more.

Third, we want to ensure that Stanford provides students and faculty with the freedom and resources to achieve their potential. We believe there are many opportunities across campus to simplify our processes and decision making in areas like research contracts, reimbursements, and even fun. We will work with academic and staff leaders to this end so that the university effectively supports students and faculty.

We look forward to seeing you around campus, and wish you a wonderful year ahead,

Jon Levin
President

Jenny Martinez

Provost