The Moment: September 2026

New academic year! Syllabi drop, dining halls reopen, and a frosh confidently walks the wrong way down Palm Drive. 

In this season of change, we come to celebrate a heroic Stanford constant: the PhD student. Some 7,500 research projects are underway here at any moment, and guess who’s the tireless (aka periodically exhausted) engine behind almost all of them? You got it. But what exactly does a PhD student do all day? And what happens when their research hits obstacles? 

This month we bring you the stories of three students, plus a fun new video that illuminates the grad school universe. By the end you’ll have a PhD in PhD. 

While you’re in movie mode, we also bring you a cinematic dive into the powerful reinvention of a recent grad. Stephanie Contreras, '25, had already lived a remarkable life before she set foot on the Farm. But when she heard of a new pilot program from the GSB—something called Pathfinder—her life bent in a new direction entirely. 

We also profile bioengineer Polly Fordyce, who's building a global engine for protein discovery: technology that gathers data on how proteins function, up to 1,000 times faster than traditional methods. The goal is to train AI to design proteins that fight disease, clean up pollution, and more. "It's hard for me to think of a field it wouldn't transform," Fordyce says.

Finally, you might notice that our stories now live under a new address. It’s still us! We just wanted a place with better light. (If you’re not already a subscriber, join our cozy community of readers here. We do not barrage!)