Hoover Institution (Stanford, CA) – Sir Niall Ferguson, the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, is the 2026 recipient of the George F. Will Award for the Advancement of Liberty and the Free Society.
The Liberty Fund announced that Ferguson, who is the author of 16 books including a multivolume biography of Henry Kissinger, received the award because of his “significant contributions to our understanding of the free society, individual liberty, and the human condition.”
Ferguson received the award April 13 from the Liberty Fund at a ceremony in Washington, DC, from George F. Will and Liberty Fund senior adviser Mitch Daniels, a former governor of Indiana.
“It is an immense honor and a privilege to receive an award named after a man who has become one of the great institutions of American journalism, and who has consistently upheld the principles of liberty on which this nation was founded,” Ferguson said.
The George F. Will Award for the Advancement of Liberty and the Free Society was inspired by the Liberty Fund’s founder, Pierre F. Goodrich, and his dedication to enriching our understanding and appreciation of the complex nature of a society of free and responsible individuals.
It honors “original thinkers who have made exceptional contributions to the public's understanding of individual liberty, markets, self-government, constitutional order, and the rule of law,” according to the Liberty Fund
At Hoover, Ferguson chairs the Applied History Working Group and co-leads the Hoover History Lab. He also participates in a range of other Hoover working groups and research projects concerning global finance, military history, and geopolitics. He also co-hosts the popular Hoover podcast GoodFellows.
He has also taught at universities including Harvard, the London School of Economics, New York University, Jesus College, and Tsinghua University. He also co-founded the University of Austin.
For his service to literature and higher education, King Charles III knighted Ferguson in June 2024.
Now in its third year, the George F. Will award previously honored Hoover’s Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow (adjunct) Richard A. Epstein in 2025.
For more information, contact Jeffrey Marschner at 202-760-3187, jmarsch@stanford.edu.
