Biography

As Stanford University’s 10th president, John L. Hennessy led the university’s extraordinary growth in multidisciplinary research and teaching from 2000 to 2016.

John L. Hennessy is co-founder and director of Knight-Hennessy Scholars, the largest, university-wide, fully-endowed graduate fellowship in the world. He is chairman of the Board of Alphabet and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Hennessy has been on the faculty of Stanford University since 1977 and previously served as the president of the university for 16 years after roles including chair of Computer Science, dean of the School of Engineering, and university provost. He co-founded MIPS Computer Systems and Atheros Communications. He and Dave Patterson were awarded the ACM A.M. Turing Prize for 2017 and the National Academy of Engineering Draper Prize in 2022.