In 2018, Stanford announced a new solar initiative to meet its clean-energy goals, scientists made advances in therapies for stroke and in vision for autonomous cars, scholars launched a data-driven initiative to help journalists fight misinformation, among many other advances. For students, the year brought athletic titles and opportunities to interact with visiting scholars, artists and other leaders and to travel worldwide for educational and public service purposes. The year also saw a Stanford senior named a Rhodes Scholar, and faculty earning the Fields Medal, the Turing Award and other honors. Here’s a roundup of those and other highlights from the year.

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Teaching & Students

Learning through fieldwork on Pacific coral reefs

Stanford undergraduates study links between human and natural systems through an interdisciplinary seminar in Palau.

Science & Technology

Comparing hovering bats and hummingbirds

Engineers carted their extremely sensitive lab equipment to the forests of Costa Rica, where they teamed up with ecologists to meticulously record over 100 different bats and hummingbirds to learn more about hovering flight.

Awards

Stanford senior Kristina Correa named 2019 Rhodes Scholar

The prestigious scholarship provides all expenses for two or three years of study at the University of Oxford in England.

Campus Life

Stanford welcomes inaugural cohort of Knight-Hennessy Scholars

The Knight-Hennessy Scholars program develops a community of future global leaders to address complex challenges through collaboration and innovation.

University Affairs

Stanford moves forward with vision for the future

Leadership appointed for 19 university teams to develop initiatives in the areas of values, research, education and community.  

Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

Activating T cells in tumors eliminated even distant metastases in mice, Stanford researchers found.

Campus Life

Stanford Commencement 2018

Stanford University’s 127th Commencement weekend, June 15-17, 2018, featured an inspiring speech by Sterling K. Brown, Stanford alumnus and award-winning actor. He told the graduates to think of perfection like an asymptote. “The journey toward it is infinite, but the destination can never be reached.”

University Affairs

Stanford to go 100 percent solar by 2021

A second solar-generating plant, to be built in the next three years, will complete the university’s transition to clean power and further shrink campus greenhouse gas emissions.

Social Sciences

Helping journalists use data for investigative reporting

Stanford University scholars are launching a data-driven initiative to help journalists find stories at a lower cost, to support local newsrooms explore public interest issues and fight against misinformation.

Awards

Akshay Venkatesh wins Fields Medal

Mathematics Professor Akshay Venkatesh won the Fields Medal, the most prestigious prize in mathematics. He is known as someone with broad expertise who has contributed to many areas of math.

Retired Stanford Trees have found a home in Green Library

The Stanford Tree, which began life as a spoof on mascots by the Stanford Band, made its first appearance during a Big Game halftime program in 1975.

Stanford won its second straight women’s swimming and diving NCAA team title

The Cardinal had 16 different All-Americans combine for 56 All-America honors, five American records, eight individual national championships and five relay titles during the four-day NCAA championship meet.

Science & Technology

Brain stethoscope listens for silent seizures

By converting brain waves into sound, even non-specialists can detect “silent seizures” – epileptic seizures without the convulsions most of us expect.

Stanford students become part of a living score

In anticipation of the Stanford Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Concerto for Violin and Orchestra: Eleven Eleven, students had the rare opportunity to work closely with its prominent composer Danny Elfman.

Humanities

Benjamin Franklin, social genius of the 18th century?

Stanford American historian Caroline Winterer examined thousands of Benjamin Franklin’s letters as part of her research on the 18th century, which she argues was the first age of extensive social networks.

Law & Policy

Pompeo, Mattis talk Indo-Pacific security at Stanford’s Hoover Institution

A free and open Indo-Pacific region was described as important to the strategic and economic interests of the United States, Australia and other countries in the area.

NCAA volleyball champs

The Cardinal won an unprecedented eighth NCAA women's volleyball championship.

Science & Technology

Technique can see objects hidden around corners

Someday your self-driving car could react to hazards before you even see them, thanks to a laser-based imaging technology being developed by Stanford researchers that can peek around corners.

Teaching & Students

Stanford’s free online classes expand education opportunities

Stanford University has put extensive efforts into providing free online courses over the past several years in an effort to promote lifelong learning and share knowledge with the general public worldwide.

Campus Life

A brief history of fake news

Journalist and Stanford alum Ted Koppel talks about how the democratization of media has undermined the freedom of the press and democracy itself.

Awards

Hennessy wins Turing Award for contributions to computing

Virtually all tablets, phones and smart devices run on a computer architecture developed by former Stanford President John Hennessy and his collaborator David Patterson. They won the 2017 Turing Award for their contribution.

Stanford Athletics

Stanford tops Pittsburgh 14-13 in Sun Bowl

Cameron Scarlett scored on a 1-yard run and recovered a fumble in the end zone for a second score to lead Stanford to a 14-13 victory against Pittsburgh in the Sun Bowl on Monday.

Four-peat complete

The Intercollegiate Rowing Association awarded the team points trophy to Stanford, giving the Cardinal its fourth consecutive team championship.

Science & Technology

Small flying robots haul heavy loads

Small flying robots can perch and move objects 40 times their weight with the help of powerful winches and two previous inventions – gecko adhesives and microspines.

Science & Technology

Global Energy Forum to explore the future of energy

The co-directors of the Precourt Institute for Energy discuss why leaders from around the world are meeting to discuss the future of energy at Stanford’s Global Energy Forum.

Stanford-led clinical trial shows broader benefits of acute-stroke therapy

In a multicenter study led by Stanford researchers, the number of stroke patients who died or required confinement to nursing homes was nearly cut in half, the biggest improvement seen in any stroke-related trial to date.

Awards

Two Stanford seniors named 2019 Marshall Scholars

Seniors Deepti Kannan and Aneesh Pappu have been named Marshall Scholars and will use the scholarships for graduate study in the United Kingdom.