hree years ago we established the Stanford Graduate Fellowships program with three goals in mind: to bring even more of the very best students to Stanford, to relieve the pressures and constraints associated with federal funding in the sciences and engineering, and to provide students increased flexibility in research. Today we can survey our achievements with satisfaction.

The responses from students and faculty to this program have been uniformly positive. SGF clearly has the strongest support from faculty of any activity that I can remember since I have been at Stanford. SGF sends the message to faculty and students everywhere that Stanford is committed to creating a high-quality environment in which to pursue graduate studies. Even our graduate students who are not fellows welcome Stanford’s recognition of the importance of graduate education.

The quality of graduate students Stanford is attracting is already amazing and is continually better. Recently I read a letter of recommendation declaring a student not only the best the referee had ever had in the lab, but better than most faculty. And it remains true that the very best people are the best in everything. Most SGF candidates excel in more than science or engineering; they are also athletes, musicians, and artists.

I am especially pleased with the interactions among fellows in different fields. Graduate studies tend to be insular: students spending a lot of time on their projects in their labs. Activities such as the SGF Symposium give fellows a chance to meet and talk with one another about science and engineering, and also about the future of education. These are the next generation of leaders in science and engineering; it is important that they communicate with each other.

Stanford derives a high percentage of its research funding from the government and is intent upon maintaining this strong relationship. Although the university’s concern about diminishing federal grants has not materialized in the last few years, there remains uncertainty surrounding the future of federal funding. Reducing graduate students’ dependence on these funds is unquestionably wise. What we have done at Stanford will be increasingly supportive of graduate education nationally.

The Stanford Graduate Fellowships program shifts the focus for graduate students from where the funding lies to what they are interested in pursuing. The goal was to give these bright, often brilliant, students the freedom to decide what they think is important, be it established fields or brand new visions, and to encourage them to apply their creativity and insight to their intrigue. We now have 318 fellows doing exactly that.