For the first time in 70 years, Stanford University is opening a new school—The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, a school dedicated solely to studying the climate crisis.
The doors of Stanford’s school of sustainability will open this fall, an event made possible by generous donations of $1.69 billion, with $1.1 billion of those funds gifted by John and Ann Doerr. This is the largest gift received in the university’s history, the largest ever for the formation of a new school, and the second-largest gift to an academic institution.
“These gifts will help Stanford bring its full effort to bear on solving the most complex problems in climate and sustainability, and on training the next generation of students who are eager and driven to address these challenges,” said Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne in a press release.
“Climate and sustainability are going to be the new computer science,” John Doerr told the New York Times. “This is what the young people want to work on with their lives, for all the right reasons.”
According to Stanford, the new school will explore eight topics related to the climate crisis: climate change, Earth science, energy technology, urban sustainability, nature, food and water security, human society and behavior, and public and environmental health.
