Stanford to Launch New Climate Change School This Fall

The launch of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability—the first new school at the university in 70 years—comes thanks to a $1.1 billion gift from a venture capitalist and his wife.

Written byAmanda Heidt

| 3 min read

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The venture capitalist John Doerr and his wife Ann have donated more than a billion dollars to fund a new school at Stanford University, the university announced yesterday (May 4). The Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability will launch in September of this year and focus on addressing interdisciplinary solutions to climate change. Several other donors contributed a combined $590 million, giving the school a starting endowment of $1.69 billion.

The $1.1 billion gift is the largest amount ever given to found a single school, and the second largest gift ever awarded to an academic institution, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which tracks philanthropic donations in academia. Only former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg’s 2018 endowment of $1.8 billion for student financial aid to Johns Hopkins University exceeds it.

“Climate and sustainability is going to be the new computer science,” John Doerr tells The New York Times. “This is ...

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Meet the Author

Amanda Heidt
Amanda first began dabbling in scicom as a master’s student studying marine science at Moss Landing Marine Labs, where she edited the student blog and interned at a local NPR station. She enjoyed that process of demystifying science so much that after receiving her degree in 2019, she went straight into a second master’s program in science communication at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Formerly an intern at The Scientist, Amanda joined the team as a staff reporter and editor in 2021 and oversaw the publication’s internship program, assigned and edited the Foundations, Scientist to Watch, and Short Lit columns, and contributed original reporting across the publication. Amanda’s stories often focus on issues of equity and representation in academia, and she brings this same commitment to DEI to the Science Writers Association of the Rocky Mountains and to the board of the National Association of Science Writers, which she has served on since 2022. She is currently based in the outdoor playground that is Moab, Utah. Read more of her work at www.amandaheidt.com.
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