Stanford University

10/16/2026

"We live in a chemical world."

Nina Zhao, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, is working to map the drugs, pesticides, and pollutants we encounter in daily life – often unknowingly – and to understand how they shape human and ecosystem health.

Read more at the link: https://stanford.io/47k9mPn

📸: Andrew Brodhead

10/15/2026

Say hello to our fall creator cohort 👋

Sarah Chen, ’30, Diego Garcia, ’30, Ieva Bagdonaviciute, MS ’28, Brandon Bao, ’29, Alvin Villarosa, MD ’30, and Lysez Santos, ’28, will be sharing what student life looks like on the Farm, from Democracy Day to Big Game.

For more student-produced content, follow Stanford on TikTok.

10/14/2026

How do you flourish on the Farm? 🌱

At a wellness event in White Plaza on Friday, students got to hang out with barnyard buddies, get their seasonal flu shots, and connect with staff who support the community’s physical and mental health.

10/12/2026

Robert E. Hall, Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences professor of economics and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, emeritus, celebrated with his sons Jonathan and Andy on campus after winning the 2026 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

“This is a wonderful surprise,” he wrote in a statement earlier Monday.

“I’ve spent my career trying to understand how the economy works, following interesting questions wherever they led. When I thought I had a new idea, the next step was to find out whether it was actually new, whether it was right, and whether it mattered. I’ve been fortunate to have extraordinary colleagues and coauthors to help me sort that out, and working with them has been the greatest pleasure of my career.

Stanford’s Economics Department and the Hoover Institution gave me a dream job: the freedom and time to do the research I wanted to do.

The taxpayers of California gave me an excellent education in the public schools and at UC Berkeley, and the federal government paid for my graduate education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

I hope they will regard this as a satisfactory return on their investment.

I thank my family, especially my wonderful wife and coauthor, Susan, and congratulate Michael Woodford, whose work has taught me a great deal.”

10/12/2026

Robert E. Hall has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

The Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences professor of economics and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, emeritus, was honored for his joint work with Michael Woodford on the “micro foundations” that form the basis of macroeconomic stability.

The Nobel Committee recognized the pair “for demonstrating how economic models could be reconstructed to revitalize stabilization policy.” Rather than relying on statistical links between variables like inflation and production, they built their models on how individual households and businesses actually make decisions. These models are now used by central banks and governments around the world to address fluctuations in the economy and to deal with shocks like energy crises or sudden changes in consumption.

“Bob Hall’s creative and impactful work ... [has] changed how governments and central banks respond to economic volatility,” said Stanford President Jon Levin. ”I’m thrilled that he has been honored with this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics.”

“This great honor is a well deserved recognition of a remarkable career,” said Hoover institution Director Condoleezza Rice.

🗞️: https://stanford.io/4hI01XC
📸: Patrick Beaudouin

10/12/2026

Congratulations to Robert E. Hall, winner of the 2026 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. The Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences professor emeritus of economics and Hoover Institution senior fellow emeritus shares the prize with Michael Woodford for developing macroeconomic models built on how households and businesses actually make decisions. Those models have helped governments and central banks time their policies to soften economic shocks.

BREAKING NEWS
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2026 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel to Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford “for microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilisation.”

This year’s laureates in economic sciences, Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford, have developed new macroeconomic models that have significantly improved our ability to implement effective stabilisation policy. On the basis of these models, well-timed fiscal and monetary policy measures can reduce the economy’s peaks and troughs.

The economy is characterised by alternating downturns and upturns. Ever since the economist John Maynard Keynes launched his theories almost a century ago, stabilisation policy has been important for tackling these fluctuations. During recessions, the economy is boosted by reducing interest rates and increasing the budget deficit, while the opposite should be done to slow a booming economy.

However, during the oil crises of the 1970s, it seemed that the Keynesian models that govern when and how measures should be implemented no longer worked. They did not reduce unemployment, but led to uncontrolled inflation instead. The West experienced a decade of low growth, high unemployment and high inflation. Many people believed that stabilisation policy had done more harm than good and that it should be retired.

Robert E. Hall and Michael Woodford have been awarded this year’s prize in economic sciences for demonstrating how economic models could be reconstructed to revitalise stabilisation policy. Rather than basing the models on statistical links between macroeconomic variables, such as inflation, production and consumption, they chose to build them on a microeconomic foundation. This encompasses an understanding for how the total mass of individual households and businesses affect the economy through their actions.

A central component in these models is that households and businesses are forward looking when making decisions about savings or product prices. When governments and central banks communicate their plans for economic policy, they can influence this view of the future and move the economy in the right direction. Since the new models’ introduction, they have been extremely helpful in dealing with the economic downturns that have affected us.

Learn more
Press release: https://bit.ly/3UTT6S3
Popular information: https://bit.ly/4j2LJSg
Advanced information: https://bit.ly/4gSu6TY

10/09/2026

They're on record-breaking streaks and national watch lists. Check out the Cardinal athletes setting the tone this fall:

1: Lex Young, a former Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, is gearing up to be a postseason factor for men’s cross country.

2: Charlotte Kohler leads women’s soccer in goals, points, and shots and has been named to the Hermann Trophy watch list.

3: Alex Gheorghe leads men’s water polo in earned exclusions and is on the watch list for the Cutino Award, collegiate water polo’s top honor.

4: Ipar Kurt, an All-ACC selection and Turkish national team member, is a steady force for women’s volleyball.

5: Davis Warren has energized football fans in his first season, tying Davis Mills’ school record with 167 pass attempts before his first interception.

6: Julia Flynn has two individual titles for women’s cross country in the season’s first three meets.

7: Jahsiah Galvan brings a tackling presence to the football defense, with more than 20 tackles in his first three starts at linebacker.

8: Star Horlock is back from international competition and leading field hockey in scoring, with four game-winning goals during Stanford’s best start since 2021.

9: Rowan Schnebly anchors men’s soccer as a four-year starter who holds Stanford records in shutouts and career goals-against average.

Read more about these 9 Stanford athletes to watch at the link: https://stanford.io/4y8dm0l

10/08/2026

More than 300 of Stanford’s 600+ student organizations filled White Plaza for TREEFEST, the university’s annual fall student organization fair.

Emmeline McLean, ‘29, asked each club to pitch itself in just five words.

10/07/2026

On Tuesday, the entire Stanford Bioengineering community gathered at the Shriram Center to celebrate Karl Deisseroth, winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, before he headed off to teach his undergraduate class: "Principles and Practice of Optogenetics for Optical Control of Biological Tissues."

“We love you. We love your work,” said fellow faculty member Russ Altman, who’s known the laureate since 1992.

“Wisdom, devotion to your work, seriousness of purpose, sense of humor, and then your status as a father, husband, physician. What a model.”

10/06/2026

“In many ways, we’re just getting going.”

Karl Deisseroth reflects on his Nobel moment, the discoveries ahead, and the collaborations that make Stanford special. “There’s a freedom of movement, a free diffusion of ideas, of people, that I haven’t encountered anywhere else.”

The professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences shares the 2026 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with two other researchers for their work in optogenetics, which makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain.

🎥: Kurt Hickman