Stanford University

Holi at Sand Hill Fields 🌈

In 2018, we invited Stanford alums to write short notes to our incoming students. Here’s what Jason Collins shared. Collins, ’01, led @stanfordmbb to the 1998 Final Four as a freshman and became the second Stanford basketball player in school history to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated. He went on to a 13-year career in the @nba and was inducted into the Stanford Hall of Fame in 2017 alongside his brother Jarron. Collins became the first openly gay player in any of the four major American men’s sports leagues when he came out in 2013. Collins died Tuesday following a battle with glioblastoma. He was 47. “Jason was a trailblazer whose influence, determination, and courage far transcended the game of basketball,” said John Donahoe, the Jaquish & Kenninger Director and Chair of Athletics. “His spirit was a guiding light and he will be forever cherished by the Stanford community.” 📷: Stanford Athletics

Not your average team meeting 🃏 Watch Jake Hofman (@itsjakemagic ), ’27, transfer student and campus magician, stun @stanfordfball .

Some moments are worth slowing down for ✍️ Matthew Yu (@matthewyuart ), ’29, sketched the floating lantern ceremony at Flourish Fest as students gathered for an evening of art, music, and connection.

Celebrating 55 years of Stanford Powwow (@thestanfordpowwow ). The annual student-produced event returned to the Eucalyptus Grove this weekend as a celebration of Indigenous traditions and community.

Meet the 2026 cohort of Knight-Hennessy scholars! These 87 new scholars make up the most global Knight-Hennessy Scholars cohort to date. They will pursue degrees in 45 graduate programs across all seven graduate schools at Stanford while engaging in experiences that prepare them to be visionary, courageous, and collaborative leaders capable of taking on the world’s most difficult challenges. More about the 2026 cohort: ➡️ The 87 scholars are citizens of 31 countries, including the first scholars from Croatia, Portugal, United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan ➡️ Scholars have earned undergraduate degrees at 58 different institutions, including 23 institutions outside of the U.S. and 21 institutions represented for the first time ➡️ 21% of scholars are the first in their family to graduate from college Congratulations, and a warm KHS welcome! 🔗 in bio to learn more about the 2026 cohort

Before the red carpets and the awards, Sterling K. Brown (@sterlingkbrown ), ’98, and Ryan Michelle Bathe (@ryanmichelleb ), ’98, were just two frosh auditioning for their first play on the Farm.

Studying the therapy that saved her life. Josie Fabian (@_jo.sie ), ’27, came to Stanford interested in aerospace engineering, until a sudden health emergency in her sophomore year led to a diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. What began as fatigue and bruising quickly escalated into an induced coma in intensive care at Stanford Hospital. During her treatment, Josie underwent CAR T-cell therapy, a personalized immunotherapy that engineers a patient’s own immune cells to recognize and attack cancer. By spring 2025, she learned the treatment had been successful and she is now cancer free. “I truly believe I wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for the care I received at Stanford Hospital,” she said. “The way they cared for me meant everything during such a difficult time.” Now back on campus, Josie has returned to student life, including the @stanfordcheer team, while pursuing a new academic direction in bioengineering. She is also beginning to engage in research focused on CAR T-cell therapy, the very treatment that shaped her recovery. “This is my own path and I don’t need to be worried,” she said. “As long as you’re healthy, you can live a happy life.” Read more about her journey at the 🔗 in our bio. 📸: Andrew @brodhead / Stanford Cheer / Josie Fabian

Bioengineer Emma Lundberg is leveraging AI to map the human proteome in space and time, while reframing the way scientists think about genetic disease. #ResearchMatters 🎥: Harry Gregory

"Knowing where a protein is expressed within a cell gives you clues to its function. If it’s in the mitochondria, it’s probably involved in energy metabolism. If it’s in the nucleus, it’s probably involved in gene regulation. I sometimes compare it to a house; if I know you’re in the kitchen or the laundry room, I can make an educated guess about what you’re doing. A protein needs to be in the right place to perform its function, because most protein functions happen through interactions. A single protein expressed in the wrong place can lead to cellular dysfunction and diseases including cancer, immunological disorders, and neurological conditions. With better understanding of the protein architecture and wiring of a cell, we might be able to relocalize proteins therapeutically and restore cellular function. We trained an AI model that allows us to see 13,000 proteins inside a single human cell at once. But we want to do more than just build a map. If we remove a protein from the cell, relocalize a protein within the cell, or add a drug, what happens? That’s the next stage we’re thinking about—how we can move from baseline measurements to highly informative perturbation measurements that form the foundation for building virtual cell models. The ultimate dream is a model that you could prime with someone’s genetic background and test how it would respond to a drug treatment. I think we’re far from that right now. But we’re building lab-in-the-loop systems that use these models to guide what experiments to do, so that instead of doing 10,000 experiments we can do 1,000 highly informative ones, and then update the model. It’s changing the way we do biology. Research to understand cells, these incredibly complex systems that are the basis of all life, is not a trivial task. Most disease interventions and drugs that are developed come from basic biological discoveries. I'm a strong advocate for open science, making data available for everyone so that other researchers can do their science faster and accelerate science overall. That's why I'm in academia." - Emma Lundberg, #ResearchMatters 📸: Andrew @Brodhead

How do you catch the winds of luck? 💨⛵ Tina Seelig, executive director of @knighthennessy Scholars, shares how to catch the winds of opportunity — and why luck starts with you.

“Stanford! Oh yeah!” 🔔 During Admit Weekend, Stanford’s long-standing tradition for admitted students, attendees got an inside look at life on the Farm at the Activities Fair, where more than 200 student organizations shared how to get involved and make an impact.