This volume contains the proceedings of the Stanford Symposium on Algebraic Topology: Applications and New Directions, held from July 23-27, 2012, at Stanford University, Stanford, California. The symposium was held in honor of Gunnar Carlsson, Ralph Cohen and Ib Madsen, who celebrated their 60th and 70th birthdays that year. It showcased current research in Algebraic Topology reflecting the celebrants' broad interests and profound influence on the subject.

The topics varied broadly from stable equivariant homotopy theory to persistent homology and application in data analysis, covering topological aspects of quantum physics such as string topology and geometric quantization, examining homology stability in algebraic and geometric contexts, including algebraic $K$-theory and the theory of operads.