The 2026 Stanford Geothermal Workshop is the 51st time that the workshop has been held. This short overview will describe the background and the recent history of the workshop. The first Stanford Geothermal Workshop was held in December 1975, as the brainchild of Prof. Paul Kruger. Paul Kruger was one of the three founders of the Stanford Geothermal Program, the other two being Prof. Henry J. Ramey, Jr., and Prof. Lou London (Figure 1). In 1975, geothermal energy development was in its infancy in the US, but expanding rapidly as a response to the 1973 Energy Crisis. The Department of Energy was just being formed, out of the ashes of ERDA, the Energy Research and Development Agency. Given the large number of new projects and new researchers turning their expertise to the new field of geothermal energy, Paul Kruger’s concept was for a meeting at which researchers and developers could share their nascent ideas and learn from discussions with others while the projects were still in progress. Stanford Workshop papers were intended to be “work in progress” discussions, rather than completed scientific papers. The Stanford Geothermal Workshop was intended to be a proving ground for testing new ideas. It is called a workshop and not a conference for that reason. The informal style and organization of the Workshop follows this pattern to the present day. The focus on fostering innovative ideas and fruitful discussion is reflected in the “just in time” paper submission and collation process that is used. The Stanford Geothermal Workshop has served as a prototype for several other annual geothermal meetings around the world.

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