phd scholarship stanford university

SGF: Stanford Graduate Fellowship in Science & Engineering

Fellowships & Funding

Each year, SGF awards approximately 100 fellowships providing stipends and tuition support to outstanding students pursuing doctoral degrees in science and engineering. Since the first fellowships were awarded in 1997, over 2000 Stanford Graduate Fellows have received their PhDs from Stanford. 

The program was initiated by Gerhard Casper, then President of Stanford University, and is designed to support the University's commitment to attracting the very best graduate students while reducing its dependence on federal funding for PhD training. These fellowships are available to students in the natural sciences, mathematics, statistics, engineering, the basic sciences in the School of Medicine, and those social sciences, including education, which are now dependent on federal assistantship support for their doctoral students.

Nominations Process:

Students must be nominated for the SGF by their degree program. Most nominees are students who are newly admitted to an eligible science or engineering doctoral program. Other nominees are promising students who have already completed a year or more of graduate study at Stanford or elsewhere, and have demonstrated excellence in doctoral level research and study. 

Fellows are selected each year by the Graduate Fellowships Faculty Advisory Committee, made up of faculty from many eligible degree programs.

Fellowship Terms

To complement the academic requirements and recruitment needs of different disciplines, several configurations of the Stanford Graduate Fellowship have been approved. The most common configurations are listed below, however, on occasion, students may be offered a fellowship configuration that differs from the examples provided and this would be noted in the student's offer letter.

Standard Three-Year SGF

The standard three-year (12 quarter) SGF provides support for four quarters each year. Fellows receive a stipend and tuition support for minimum full-time enrollment (8 to 10 units).  The 2024-25 annual stipend is set at $54,800 annually, $13,700 per quarter.

Modified Three-Year SGF (Graduate School of Education, School of Engineering)

All newly admitted Graduate School of Education (GSE) SGFs are offered an 11-quarter modified configuration of the award. Engineering degree programs decide locally whether to offer newly admitted students the 11-quarter modified SGF as an alternative to, or, in place of, the standard 12-quarter configuration. All GSE and Engineering SGFs who are offered or who select the modified SGF configuration receive maximum tuition (11-18 units) for the first three quarters and minimum full-time tuition (8-10 units) for the next eight quarters of the SGF. They receive the SGF stipend for all 11 quarters. Any student in Engineering whose fellowship offer includes the option to select the modified SGF must do so by the Final Study List Deadline of their first quarter of enrollment.

Standard Two-Year SGF

The standard two-year (8 quarter) SGF provides support for four quarters each year. Fellows receive a stipend and tuition support for minimum full-time enrollment (8 to 10 units). The 2024-25 annual stipend is set at $54,800 annually, $13,700 per quarter.

FIND OUT WHICH DEPARTMENTS ARE ELIGIBLE FOR SGF  SEE THE GRADUATE FELLOWSHIPS FACULTY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Related Events

Students must be nominated by an eligible degree program to be considered for a SGF. Most nominees are newly admitted students in the sciences or engineering.

Contact [email protected] with any questions.

Departments that are eligible for SGF

Funding Your PhD

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All School of Engineering students who are in good standing relative to their PhD program requirements should be funded to the department’s standard. Often, our PhD students apply for and may receive individual fellowships that can reduce the department’s or advisor’s cost of funding.

In these cases, the guarantee of funding to the student will include the fellowship award and additional support from the department/advisor to reach the department-standard level.

The Equity and Inclusion team has compiled a list of resources below. Please refer to department websites for more information. 

Fellowships & Other Programs

Stanford Engineering belongs to several national consortia that recruit and finance graduate students underrepresented in the field.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program

Each year this program awards up to 100 high-achieving students with full funding to pursue a graduate education at Stanford. Learn More

GEM Fellowship Program

GEM is an award that may bring industry connections, mentorship, and sometimes provides internships. The GEM funding can range from $0 to the maximum one-time $20,000 award for graduate students.

Step 1:  Review the information below. Step 2:  Complete this  Qualtrics  form. The form contains 3 pages and will ask you to upload a copy of your offer of admission and funding letter.  Step 3:  The form information will be sent to your department for verification and consideration.  Step 4:  Once verified by the admitting department, the certifying officer will update the GEM portal.

Doctoral (Ph.D) Admits Stanford Engineering commits to full funding for all PhDs. Departments will decide how to utilize GEM’s maximum contribution (up to $20,000 total) in funding allocations.

Graduate Fellowships for STEM Diversity (GFSD)

With the most diverse applicant pool of any national STEM fellowship program, GFSD is a partnership between government agencies and laboratories, industry, and higher education. Learn More 

DARE Fellowship

The Diversifying Academia, Recruiting Excellence (DARE) Fellowship objectives are to prepare the student for a successful faculty career and to support their commitment to using diversity as a resource to enrich the education of others. Learn More

Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship (SIGF)

SIGF supports incoming and current doctoral students, nominated by their departments. Learn More 

Teaching & Course Assistantships

Fund your PhD and help students – from grade school to undergraduate – expand their knowledge in STEM. 

School of Engineering Teaching and Course Assistantships

This program has the dual goal of providing funding and teaching opportunities to graduate students, while enriching the undergraduate curriculum. Learn More

Additional Calculus for Engineers (ACE)

Earn additional funding by teaching weekly small group sessions for undergraduates needing additional support in introductory courses in math, computational and mathematical engineering, and computer science. Learn More

STEM K-12 Education Initiatives

Help young students underrepresented in STEM build confidence in math, science, and engineering, as you earn funding as a teacher, tutor, graduate lecturer, or workshop leader. Learn More

Other Resources

For fee waivers and further financial aid information, visit the following pages and programs:

Fee Waivers

If you are considering Stanford graduate programs and need assistance with the application fees, consider applying for a fee waiver. Learn More

SEED Funding

The Stanford SEED Funding website aims to simplify the search for seed and other forms of internal university funding that support the critical early stage work of Stanford faculty and students. Learn More 

Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education (VPGE)

The Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Education (VPGE) supports graduate students, student groups, and department-based projects through funding and professional development opportunities. Learn More

Graduate Life Office (GLO)

Stanford’s Graduate Life Office is committed to supporting students’ well-being and offers a broad variety of resources on campus, including financial aid. Learn More 

Explore Graduate Programs

5 Simple Ways to Manage Your Graduate Funding

Grad funding questions? Check out our microlearning course and interactive action checklist.

Funding and Scholarships

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Stanford offers many resources to help fund your education, including scholarships and other financial support programs. Here are some suggested resources as you navigate your student financial journey on the Farm.

Our Mind Over Money program and First-Gen and/or Low Income (FLI) Office can help you grow your financial wellness and build meaningful community. Visit these websites for support, resources, and to browse workshops and other events:

• Mind Over Money (M/M)
• First-Gen and/or Low-Income (FLI Office)

Undergraduate Funding 

The Stanford Financial Aid Office manages undergraduate aid and funding. You can find all details, including eligibility, application, student budget, types of available aid and policies on the Financial Aid Office website. 

Graduate Funding

• Microlearning + interactive checklist
• FAQs for grad students with funding
• Financial Aid Office
• Graduate cash advance
• Payroll deduction

Additional Resources for Undergraduate & Graduate Students

• Department and research stipends
• StanfordCardPlan (SCP)  

Apply to join KHS's 2025 cohort

Inspiring leaders.

Knight-Hennessy Scholars cultivates and supports a multidisciplinary and multicultural community of graduate students from across Stanford University, and delivers engaging experiences that prepare graduates to be visionary, courageous, and collaborative leaders who address complex challenges facing the world.

Discover the Knight-Hennessy scholar journey

Stanford University 

All scholars are Stanford University graduate students, who join Knight-Hennessy Scholars in addition to enrolling in a graduate degree program at any of  Stanford's seven schools . 

Leadership Development

Scholars participate in up to three years of programming that complements their graduate studies and prepares them to take on leadership roles in academia, industry, government, nonprofits, and the community at large.

Knight-Hennessy Community

A new cohort of scholars joins each year, adding to a  diverse community of scholars  from across disciplines, nationalities, perspectives, and backgrounds. Scholars learn together, collaborate on impactful projects, and develop lifelong friendships. 

Knight-Hennessy Funding

Scholars receive a fellowship for up to three years of tuition , depending upon their degree length. In addition, scholars receive a stipend for living and academic expenses, and a travel stipend for one annual trip to and from Stanford. 

What characterizes a Knight-Hennessy scholar?

Independence of Thought

Knight-Hennessy scholars are visionary thinkers who are curious, open-minded, analytical, eager for cross-cultural perspective, and genuinely excited to boldly and creatively address our world’s important challenges

See eligibility

Purposeful Leadership

Knight-Hennessy scholars are courageous leaders who are ethical, decisive, resilient, driven to achieve meaningful results, and motivated to inspire others to effect positive change at scale.

See criteria

Civic Mindset

Knight-Hennessy scholars are collaborative community members who are humble, empathetic, trustworthy, oriented to act in service of others, and deeply passionate about contributing to the greater good.

See admission

See the 2022-2023 Annual Report (pdf)  

Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program

Join dozens of Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences students who gain valuable leadership skills in a multidisciplinary, multicultural community as Knight-Hennessy Scholars (KHS). KHS admits up to 100 select applicants each year from across Stanford’s seven graduate schools and delivers engaging experiences that prepare them to be visionary, courageous, and collaborative leaders ready to address complex global challenges. As a scholar, you join a distinguished cohort, participate in up to three years of leadership programming, and receive full funding for up to three years of your Ph.D. studies at Stanford. Candidates from any country may apply. KHS applicants must have earned their first undergraduate degree within the last seven years and must apply to both a Stanford graduate program and to KHS. Stanford Ph.D. students may also apply to KHS during their first year of Ph.D. enrollment. If you aspire to be a leader in your field, we invite you to apply. The KHS application deadline is October 9, 2024. Learn more about KHS admission .

Index of Scholarship Opportunities

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Having trouble viewing a scholarship? Download a CSV file instead.

• American India Foundation AIF Banyan Impact Fellowship
• Presidential Associates Program - American University in Cairo
• American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellowship
• Blakemore Freeman Fellowships
• Boren Fellowship
• Boren Scholarship
• Bridging Scholarships – Study Abroad in Japan
• Cambridge Trust Scholarship
• Churchill Scholarship
• Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals (CBYX)
• Critical Language Scholarship (CLS)
• DAAD Graduate Awards
• DAAD - (RISE) Research Internships in Science & Engineering
• DAAD Undergraduate Awards
• Eisenhower Global Scholars Program
• Ellison Scholars Program
• Ertegun Graduate Scholarship
• Frederick Douglass Global Fellowship
• Freeman-ASIA (Freeman Awards for Study in Asia)
• Freie University Berlin Graduate Exchange Fellowship
• Fulbright Grants
• Fulbright Roving Scholars
• Fulbright UK Summer Institutes
• Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship
• Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship
• Fund for Education Abroad (FEA) Scholarship
• Gates Cambridge Scholarship
• German Bundestag Internship Program (International Parliamentary Scholarship)
• German Chancellor Fellowship
• Gilman Scholarship
• Global Undergraduate Awards
• Humanity in Action Fellowship
• IAESTE Internship Program
• Italy Sister-County Study Abroad Scholarship
• Japanese Government (MEXT) Graduate/Research Student Scholarship Program
• Killam Undergraduate Fellowship
• Luce Scholars Program
• Marshall Scholarship
• McCall MacBain Scholarships
• Michel David-Weill Scholarship
• Mitchell Scholarship
• NIH Oxford-Cambridge Scholars Program
• NYU Shanghai Writing and Speaking Fellowship
• Oxford Clarendon Graduate Scholarship
• Oxford Pershing Square Graduate Scholarship
• Payne International Development Graduate Fellowship
• Quad Fellowship
• Rangel International Affairs Graduate Fellowship Program
• Rhodes Scholarship
• Rhodes Global Scholarship
• Rotary Foundation Awards
• Schwarzman Scholars Program
• ThinkSwiss Research Scholarship
• Tortuga Backpacks Study Abroad Scholarship
• Turkish Coalition of America Awards
• Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship
• William Jefferson Clinton Scholarship at American University Dubai
• Yenching Academy of Peking University Fellowship

Ph.D. Program

Grad student, Tamkinat Rauf, with Sociologist, William Julius Wilson, at a CASBS event. Image credit: Jerry Wang, courtesy of CASBS at Stanford

The Ph.D. program is defined by a commitment to highly analytical sociology

The program trains graduate students to use a range of methods – quantitative and qualitative – and data – survey, administrative, experimental, interview, direct observation, and more – to answer pressing empirical questions and to advance important theoretical and policy debates.

The Ph.D. curriculum and degree requirements provide students with the methodological skills, substantive knowledge, and mentorship to make important and impactful contributions to sociological knowledge. The program guides Ph.D. students to work on ambitious, independent research projects about which students are passionate. Graduates finish the program well-positioned to be leaders in the field of sociology.

• Stanford Data Science Scholars Program

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Stanford Data Science Scholars make up a diverse group of early-career researchers and trainees from all parts of the University who are using and developing data science methods in their research. They share a keen interest in solving problems while sharing and exchanging knowledge with others. A primary goal of the program is to create a community of data science researchers, who are representative of the wide array of disciplines, and who can share methods and applications while creating a stimulating, innovative, and supportive environment.

The Scholars program has space next to the Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA) in Wallenberg Hall.

View current Stanford Data Science Scholars

More Information

For more information on the program, this year's eligibility requirements, and how to apply, please see our  program detail  page.

Related News

Welcome to the 2025-2026 cohort of data science scholars.

September 13, 2024

• In the News

From Law to Data Science: A Journey of Interdisciplinary Passion

August 19, 2024

From the Great Speeches of History to Data Operations within Political Campaigns: A Conversation with Ross Dahlke

July 12, 2024

The Spark for Research Reproducibility & Leading Data Science for Social Good

June 25, 2024

• Open and Reproducible Science
• Data Science for Social Good

Diving into Ocean Ecology: Data Science and Marine Conservation Converge

April 15, 2024

• Sustainability Data Science

Welcome to the 2024-2025 cohort of Data Science Scholars

September 13, 2023

• Announcements

Research Note: Knowing Unknowns in an Age of Incomplete Information

Stanford Data Science Scholar, Saurabh Khanna, discusses misinformation in his Oct 27, 2022 research note

November 20, 2022

• Research Notes

Research Note: X-ray polarimetry of Relativistic Jets

Stanford Data Science Scholar, Lawrence Peirson, discusses astronomy plus data science in his Oct 23, 2022 research note

Welcome to the 2024 cohort of Data Science Scholars

September 07, 2022

Introduction to spatial data analysis

January 20, 2022

• Data Science Topics

Data snooping

January 07, 2022

Splitting data randomly can ruin your model

Paying attention to autocorrelation in data can help you build better predictive models

November 15, 2021

Welcome to the 2023 cohort of Data Science Scholars

September 28, 2021

Fixing non-uniform colormaps with fixthejet

June 01, 2021

Welcome to the 2022 cohort of Data Science Scholars

Stanford Data Science congratulates the 2022 Cohort of Data Science Scholars

October 06, 2020

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Stanford GSB PhD Program

Discover a focus and intensity greater than you may have thought possible. As a PhD student at Stanford Graduate School of Business, you will be inspired and challenged to explore novel ideas and complex questions.

Fall 2025 applications  are now open. The application deadline is December 1, 2024 at 5:00 PM PST.

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Our PhD Program is designed to develop outstanding scholars for careers in research and teaching at leading academic institutions throughout the world. You will embark on a challenging and meaningful experience, focusing your academic study in one of seven distinct fields within the PhD degree program.

Is a PhD Right for You?

Strong PhD candidates are full of ideas and curiosity, with a passion and aptitude for research. If you’re prepared to embark on a rigorous career in research and develop your full potential, we invite you to explore the possibilities of a PhD in business. Admitted students receive full fellowships for their doctoral studies.

Faculty Publications

Strategy theory using analogy: rationale, tools and examples, dollar safety and the global financial cycle, valuing long-term property rights with anticipated political regime shifts, phd student voices.

Benjamin Tremblay-Auger

Pauline Liang

Mohamed Hussein

Lina Lukyantseva

School news, stanford economist guido imbens wins nobel in economic sciences, susan athey named president of american economic association, teaching through a pandemic: students recognize two faculty members for their efforts, diversifying the pool of phd students will require systemic change.

Gain valuable research experience and training in a two-year, pre-doctoral opportunity at Stanford University.

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Researchers have found that inversions, which cause a physical flip of a segment of DNA and change an organism’s genetic identity, can occur within a single gene. Emily Moskal and  Alexander Raths - stock.adobe.com

Imagine being one cartwheel away from changing your appearance. One flip, and your brunette locks are platinum blond. That’s not too far from what happens in some prokaryotes, or single-cell organisms, such as bacteria, that undergo something called inversions.

A study led by scientists at Stanford Medicine has shown that inversions, which cause a physical flip of a segment of DNA and change an organism’s genetic identity, can occur within a single gene, challenging a central dogma of biology — that one gene can code for only one protein.

“Bacteria are even cooler than I originally thought, and I’m a microbiologist, so I already thought they were pretty cool,” said Rachael Chanin , PhD, a postdoctoral scholar in hematology. Microbiologists have known for decades that bacteria can flip small sections of their DNA to activate or deactivate genes, Chanin said. To the team’s knowledge, however, those somersaulting pieces have never been found within the confines of a single gene.

In the same way that reversing the order of the letters in the word “dog” could entirely change the meaning of a sentence (“I’m a dog.” versus “I’m a god.”), the within-gene inversion essentially recodes the bacterium’s genetics using the same material. That could result in the activation of a gene, a halt in gene activity or a sequence that codes for the creation of a different protein when inverted.

“I remember seeing the data, and I thought, ‘No way, this can’t be right, because it’s too crazy to be true,’” said Ami Bhatt , PhD, professor of genetics and of medicine. “We then spent the next several years trying to convince ourselves that we had made a mistake. But as far as we can tell, we have not.”

A study detailing the scientists’ findings was published Sept. 25 in Nature . Chanin and former postdoctoral scholar Patrick West, PhD, co-led the study. Bhatt is the senior author.

Flip-flopping

In the 1920s, scientists encountered the first hint of inversions when they were searching for a salmonella treatment. They tried collecting antibodies from animals infected by the bacteria in the hopes that the immune molecules could be transferred to other animals and stave off infection. But it never worked — even the bacterial strains they knew to be genetically identical were able to fight back. Scientists now know that evasion was thanks to an inversion recoding the bacterium in a way that allowed it to escape the animals’ immunity.

Microbiologists have since found inversions occurring in small DNA segments of various kinds of prokaryotes. But Bhatt and her team wondered if they could also happen within a single gene. West created an algorithm, called PhaVa, that identified possible inversions within bacterial genomes.

The software essentially downloads thousands of genome sequence segments from various prokaryotes and scans for regions that look “flippable” — segments with something called inverted repeats, which have a redundant palindromic quality (for instance, ATTCC and CCTTA) — on other side of the potential inversion. The algorithm creates a catalog of what these sequences would look like if they flipped, and it makes comparisons between the made-up genomes and the true sequence. Then it counts the regions where both the flipped and unflipped sequences are present within an organism’s genome, with every match indicating a likely inversion.

The software identified thousands of inversions that exist in bacterial and other prokaryotic species, revealing for the first time that inversions occur within genes. That sparked the idea that not only do single-gene inversions occur, but that they may be relatively common, Bhatt said.

“This was really surprising to us,” Bhatt said. “To our knowledge, this has never been seen before.”

One big question remains: What causes an inversion? The team suspects there are specific enzymes that mediate the flip, as well as certain environmental cues that drive the change.

“That’s a to-do now,” Bhatt said. “One of our next steps is to try to decode the molecular grammar so we can build a database of enzymes and a database of the inverted repeats that they flip.”

Interpreting inversions

While there’s still much more to understand about inversions, Bhatt sees potential for numerous applications. “This is effectively a heritable, reversible type of genetic regulation,” she said.

She posits that scientists may eventually be able to use inversions to create a toggleable bacterial system to control their gene expression, something that could behoove synthetic biology research. Or perhaps there are links between certain diseases and the state of bacterial inversions, in which case there may be a way to switch the bacteria’s state and regulate a disease.

“This type of adaptation has just been hiding in front of us, waiting for the right tool and the right technology and biological question to be asked,” Chanin said. “And it makes me wonder, how many more bacterial secrets are just waiting for us to uncover them?”

Researchers from Princeton University contributed to this study.

This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (grants R01 AI148623, R01 AI143757, R01 AI174515, HG000044, HL120824, TL1TR003019, 1S10OD02014101), the AP Giannini Foundation, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the Stanford DARE fellowship and the Stand Up 2 Cancer Foundation.

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• Hanae Armitage Tel 650-725-5376 [email protected]

Congrats to our newest Ph.D. recipients!

Please join us in congratulating our latest Ph.D. alumni: Lewis Esposito , Alexia Hernandez, Zion Mengesha , and Robert Xu. 

Lewis’s dissertation was titled “Linguistic and stylistic change through indexical growth: Covariation in Sacramento, California”. Lewis is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of South Carolina.

Alexia’s dissertation was titled “The Role of Experience on the Cognitive Underpinnings of Linguistic Bias: An interdisciplinary investigation of Miami-based Cuban American speech”. Alexia is now an MBA student in the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Zion’s dissertation was titled “Indexing Respectability”. Zion is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA.

Robert’s dissertation was titled “Prosodic Packages and Social Meaning”. Robert is now a lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at Harvard University.

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Frances Conley, formidable neurosurgeon who broke gender barriers, dies at 83

Conley used her prominent position to advocate for women in medicine.

September 23, 2024 - By Nina Bai

Frances Conley was the first female tenured neurosurgery professor in the United States. Stanford Medicine

Frances Krauskopf Conley, MD, a trailblazing neurosurgeon at Stanford Medicine, who, in 1982, became the country’s first female tenured professor in neurosurgery and later made national headlines for speaking out against sexism in medicine, died Aug. 5, 2024, in Sea Ranch, California, after a long illness. She was 83.

She was a highly skilled and innovative surgeon, specializing in spinal surgeries and carotid artery blockages; an accomplished researcher, studying how the immune system might be harnessed to fight brain tumors; and a compelling educator whose legacy continues to inspire new generations entering the profession. She also served as chief of staff at the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Health System from 1998 to 2000.

“Dr. Conley was an outstanding neurosurgeon who was driven to pursue both excellence and equality in her work,” said Lloyd Minor , MD, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine and vice president of medical affairs at Stanford University. “Her fight for her own dignity and the dignity of others facing discrimination left an indelible impact on the Stanford Medicine community and beyond.”

Conley possessed the confidence and fearlessness not uncommon among surgeons in a highly competitive field, but she was singular among her peers in having to apply those qualities to navigate ingrained prejudices throughout her career.

“She was very much a fighter, and she probably needed to be a fighter,” said John Adler , MD, emeritus professor of neurosurgery, who became friends with Conley after she recruited him to Stanford in 1987. “Being one of the first women in the specialty, she faced more skepticism than most.”

As a medical student in the early 1990s and later as a neurosurgery resident, Odette Harris , MD, encountered Conley in operating rooms and in lecture halls.

“Her visibility, her accomplishments blazed a path for us all,” said Harris, the Paralyzed Veterans of America Professor in Spinal Cord Injury Medicine and one of the first Black female professors of neurosurgery in the country. “We could look to her. There was nobody else in the country that had a woman neurosurgeon on faculty.”

Harris remembers attending a neuroscience lecture in which Conley talked about how high heels contributed to back pain and posture problems, yet women had tolerated wearing shoes designed by men who would never wear them. “As a back surgeon, she was on a campaign against them,” Harris said. “She actually wore trainers.”

“She stood for something, and she was unapologetic about it, regardless of how popular or unpopular it was.”

After Harris graduated from medical school and started her career, once in a while she would receive an unsolicited letter of encouragement from Conley. “She went out of her way to reach out to me and to provide me with what I call stealth support,” Harris said. “She always wrote at a time when I felt like the support was powerful. The fact that she celebrated in my accomplishments was incredibly meaningful to me.”

Joining an exclusive group

Frances Krauskopf was born Aug. 12, 1940, in Palo Alto, California. Her father was a professor of geochemistry at Stanford University. Her mother raised four kids, then returned to work as a teacher and counselor. Her parents encouraged her career aspirations, but she recalled that “even in my wonderful, egalitarian, liberal, academic family,” her brother was given a life insurance policy for his 16th birthday, whereas she and her sisters were given sewing machines for theirs.

She attended Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania for two years before transferring to Stanford University. She applied to the Stanford School of Medicine after her junior year and began medical school in 1961, part of a class with an unusually high number of women for the time — 12 out of 60. She recalled that nearly everything they were taught, from physiology to biochemistry, was “from the ‘normal’ perspective of the 70-kilogram man, the paradigm upon which all traditional medical education was based.” Women’s health focused almost entirely on their reproductive function.

Between her first and second years of medical school, she met Philip Conley, a tall, handsome California Institute of Technology graduate with an MBA from Harvard. They were both gifted athletes, she as a runner, and he in javelin — he represented the United States at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. They were married the following summer.

In 1966, she became the first female surgical resident at Stanford University Hospital. “As with acceptance to medical school, I was so happy to just be included I would have walked on my hands for the entire year if that was what it took to belong and be part of this exclusive group,” she wrote.

Frances Conley wrote a book about her experiences as a woman in a male-dominated field. Stanford Medicine

After initially considering plastic surgery, the most acceptable surgical specialty for women at the time, Conley decided on neurosurgery, enthralled by the ability to turn around patients’ lives. “A paralyzed patient walks, a mute stroke patient talks, a tumor patient borrows extra time. I knew then this was what I wanted to do with my life.”

In 1975, she joined the faculty as an assistant professor and chief of neurosurgery at the Palo Alto VA hospital. She also established a research lab at the VA, focusing on the development of an immunotherapy for brain tumors using rodent models.

In the operating room, she brought new procedures to neurosurgery — including lumbar spine fusion, which connected vertebrae to ease pain and had been primarily performed by orthopaedic surgeons; and carotid endarterectomies, which cleared plaque from arteries supplying blood to the brain. Both treated conditions prevalent among patients who were veterans.

“She was an excellent neurosurgeon and took outstanding care of her patients,” said  Lawrence Shuer , MD, professor of neurosurgery who served as acting chair of the department from 1992 to 1995. “I think her patients were appreciative of the innovative care she brought to them.”

Changing the world

In 1982, she became the first woman in America to be awarded tenure in neurosurgery. (That same year, she was among the women featured in a  Time  magazine article titled, “The New Ideal of Beauty,” including a photo of her holding a javelin.)

She took a sabbatical year in 1985 to complete a master’s in management science at the Stanford Graduate School of Business where she studied cost-benefit analyses, organizational behavior and power dynamics.

“Her aspiration was that she really wanted to change the world,” said Ron Sann, her nephew-in-law. “And she had a belief that she could do anything that a guy could do, which today may not be a revolutionary concept, but at the time, it was considered an avant-garde perspective.”

In 1991, Conley made a bold stand against a colleague’s promotion to chair of the neurosurgery department, voicing her concerns about equity and standards of leadership conduct. Her public protest sparked a national conversation about sexism in academic medicine. After the Stanford School of Medicine’s dean committed to addressing the issues she raised, Conley decided to stay on as tenured faculty. Her protest inspired many to advocate for a more equitable future in medicine.

Conley was invited for public speaking engagements around the country, including three commencement addresses. It seemed that at every medical school she visited, students and faculty told her stories of unequal and abusive treatment toward women. She also heard from nurses and clerical staff who risked their more vulnerable careers to tell their stories.

In 1998, Conley published a  book ,  Walking Out on the Boys , chronicling the episode from her perspective.

“She felt that this was an important thing for her to do,” Adler said, “that if someone didn’t wage this fight, young women neurosurgeons would be at a disadvantage in years to come.”

Winning the race

Her drive and conviction extended beyond medicine.

In 1971, the first year that women were allowed to enter the 7-mile Bay to Breakers race in San Francisco, Conley was the first woman to cross the finish line, where a reporter asked if she was married. The next day, the newspaper announced that a “Palo Alto housewife” had won the women’s race. Few people knew that this was technically her second win — several years prior she had entered the race as “Francis” and finished the race in an overcoat.

“I think women’s rights as a whole was the metric she was really interested in,” Sann said.

In 1997, she was appointed acting chief of staff at the Palo Alto VA Health Care System and elected chair of the university’s faculty senate. She served on the editorial boards of the journals  Neurosurgery  and  American Family Physician , and as chair of public relations for both the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.

Conley retired from Stanford Medicine in 2000. She, her husband and their beloved dogs moved to Sea Ranch, a tranquil coastal community in Sonoma County. They ran together, and she volunteered at a local clinic.

Though they did not have children, the Conleys built a family among the Stanford community. They funded scholarships and took many Stanford University undergraduates, usually student-athletes, under their wing.

Conley is survived by her sisters, Karen Hyde of Belvedere, California, and Marion Forester of Oceanside, California; her brother, Karl Krauskopf of Jacksonville, Oregon; and eight nieces and nephews. Her husband died in 2014.

About Stanford Medicine

Stanford Medicine is an integrated academic health system comprising the Stanford School of Medicine and adult and pediatric health care delivery systems. Together, they harness the full potential of biomedicine through collaborative research, education and clinical care for patients. For more information, please visit med.stanford.edu .

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