School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences
Showing 1-100 of 149 Results
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Kevin Arrigo
Donald and Donald M. Steel Professor of Earth Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsInvestigates role of ocean biology in gobal carbon and nutrient cycles.
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Nina Berlin Rubin
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
BioNina Berlin Rubin is a 3nd year PhD candidate in Earth System Science. Nina's research focuses on human behavior and decision-making in the face of acute climate extremes such as wildfire, wildfire smoke, and hurricanes.
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Malory Brown
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI study sterol side chain alkylation via sterol methyltransferases (SMTs), particularly in sponges and their bacterial symbionts. I aim to identify and characterize SMTs necessary for the biosynthesis of side-chain alkylated sterols in the sponge holobiont to improve our interpretation of unusual sterane biomarkers currently used to indicate demosponges, some of Earth’s earliest animals.
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Marshall Burke
Associate Professor of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, at the Woods Institute for the Environment and at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
BioMarshall Burke is an associate professor in the Department of Earth System Science, deputy director at the Center on Food Security and the Environment, and center fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University. He is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a co-founder of AtlasAI, a remote sensing start-up. His research focuses on social and economic impacts of environmental change and on measuring and understanding economic development in emerging markets. His work has appeared in both economic and scientific journals, including recent publications in Nature, Science, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, and The Lancet. He holds a PhD in agricultural and resource economics from the University of California, Berkeley and a BA in international relations from Stanford University.
Prospective students should see my personal webpage, linked at right. -
Adam Burnett
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
BioI grew up in Westmoreland, New Hampshire, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 2018 with an undergraduate degree in physics. I am broadly interested in atmospheric dynamics, idealized modeling, and climate change. My current research uses aquaplanet simulations to explore what factors determine global tropical cyclone frequency. My hobbies include hiking, birdwatching, and playing the piano.
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Karen Casciotti
Victoria and Roger Sant Director, Earth Systems Program, Professor of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAssistant Professor in EESS, focus on marine chemistry and biogeochemistry.
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Kenneth Czapla
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioMy research combines biogeochemical and molecular techniques to answer questions about how microbes transform nitrogen and carbon in the environment, and how site-specific factors and human impacts may alter these transformation processes. My research at Stanford is focused on how the microbial communities in San Francisco Bay’s benthic sediments process high levels of nitrogen primarily from wastewater sources. Findings from this work will be used to calibrate a nitrogen removal model that may inform management decisions about nitrogen inputs to the bay. Shortly before arriving at Stanford in August 2020, I completed my Ph.D. at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (William & Mary) with a dissertation on the impacts of fertilization on salt marsh carbon accumulation, nitrogen removal, and resilience to sea level rise.
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Nathan Dadap
Temp - Non-Exempt, Department of Earth System Science
BioNathan Dadap is a PhD student in Professor Alexandra Konings’ Group in the Earth System Science Department at Stanford University. He is interested in using remote sensing to better understand peatland hydrology - an important control on fire risk and carbon emissions. Currently, Nathan is working on a research project relating soil moisture and fire in Equatorial Asia. Prior to graduate school, Nathan worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on hazardous waste issues. Nathan holds a BS in Applied Physics from Columbia University.
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Anne Dekas
Assistant Professor of Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsEnvironmental microbiology, deep-sea microbial ecology, marine biogeochemistry
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Noah Diffenbaugh
Kara J Foundation Professor and Kimmelman Family Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Noah S. Diffenbaugh is an Editor of the peer-review journal Geophysical Research Letters, and a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He is a recipient of the James R. Holton Award from the American Geophysical Union, a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation, and a Terman Fellowship from Stanford University. He has also been recognized as a Kavli Fellow by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and as a Google Science Communication Fellow.
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Rob Dunbar
W.M. Keck Professor in the School of Earth Sciences and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOcean processes, biogeochemistry, climatology/paleoclimatology, isotopic chemistry, ocean policy
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Caroline Alexa Famiglietti
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
BioCaroline Famiglietti is a PhD candidate working with Prof. Alexandra Konings. She studies the terrestrial carbon cycle, focusing on understanding and reducing uncertainties in model projections of its behavior. In 2017, Caroline graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and a minor in Geography/Environmental Studies. Her prior research experience includes work in the Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems group at NASA JPL from 2017-2018 and in the UC Berkeley Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering in 2016.
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Scott Fendorf
Terry Huffington Professor, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsSoil and environmental biogeochemistry
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Chris Field
Melvin and Joan Lane Professor of Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Director, Woods Institute for the Environment, Professor of Earth System Science, of Biology and Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch
My field is climate-change science, and my research emphasizes human-ecological interactions across many disciplines. Most studies include aspects of ecology, but also aspects of law, sociology, medicine, or engineering. -
Christopher Francis
Professor of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMicrobial cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and metals in the environment; molecular geomicrobiology; marine microbiology; microbial diversity; meta-omics
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Paul Furumo
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioPaul R. Furumo is an interdisciplinary environmental scientist focused on sustainable land use in the tropics. His current research seeks to scale up zero-deforestation commodity production through improved governance solutions at the interface between public and private sectors. His research integrates remotely sensed data, policy analysis, and expert interviews to understand how policymaking influences land use decisions. A major goal is to enhance the temporal and spatial targeting of instruments to unlock policy synergies that advance climate and development targets.
His past and current research experiences have focused on coupled human-natural systems in Latin America, with a specialization in the Colombian palm oil sector. In Colombia, Paul has pursued his research as a Fulbright fellow and a National Geographic Explorer. His work engages a broad coalition of stakeholders including governments, businesses, civil society, and underrepresented communities. He has brought his science to these stakeholder groups through fieldwork, education and outreach in industry fora, co-development of research, and mentoring of Latin American students. -
Irene Garousi-Nejad
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioI am a hydrologist. My research is in the field of hydrology and water resources management at the interface of process-oriented hydrology science and large-scale geospatial data science. I study physical processes involved in the hydrologic cycle, incorporate the understanding of the relationship among its components into parameterizations of the critical processes, and conduct simulations and analyses of hydrologic models to answer critical questions related to the drivers, patterns, and consequences of environmental natural and human-induced changes in hydrologic response through space and time. I am currently a postdoc in Earth System Science at Stanford University, where I am involved in developing hydrological models to identify strategies for the management of both floods and droughts in heavily developed watersheds in India. I received my doctoral degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Utah Water Research Laboratory at Utah State University in 2021, where my research was centered on advancing hydrological modeling to improve flood and water supply forecasting in the western United States basins. I obtained my bachelor's and master's degrees in Agricultural Engineering – Water Resources Engineering from the University of Tehran, Iran. Outside of my office, I enjoy hiking, reading, and painting.
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Anna Gomes
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
BioMy main interests lie within anthropogenic climate change, environmental science, and agriculture. The complex system dynamics and interconnections between agriculture and the environment including nutrient cycling, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions are a few of the most critical challenges for today's soil scientists. After completing a master’s degree in Sustainability Science and Environmental Studies at Lund University in Sweden, researching farmer adoption of practices which mitigate GHGs from arable soils in the Netherlands at Wageningen University, I started a PhD in Earth System Science at Stanford University, aiming to focus on soil and environmental biogeochemistry. In parallel to my work in academia, I have been working on a start-up to address food waste and food insecurity in CA (Ugly Food Market), in addition to being a team member on several projects including a sharing library (Circle Centre), a soil science educational platform (Soil Life), and other sustainability related initiatives.
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Steven Gorelick
Cyrus Fisher Tolman Professor and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch
As a hydrogeologist and hydrologist, my research involves the study of water resources and water security with emphasis on freshwater. Using lab and field data, our aim is to develop an understanding of fundamental aspects of the transport of water and contaminants, and to investigate regional water resources systems. We have developed simulation-based planning tools to aid in sustainable agricultural and urban water management in the US, Mexico, India, and Jordan. With my colleagues, we have initiated the Global Freshwater Initiative, which studies water resources vulnerability problems throughout the world. During the past 15 years, our field investigations have focused on the interactions between groundwater and patterns of vegetation in studies of both meadow and salt-marsh ecohydrology. Scales of physical processes of interest extend from the domain of small pores to vast regional subsurface flow environments. Although driven by observations and data, we develop conceptual and quantitative models to rigorously understand physical processes, make predictions, and explore the impacts of new water management policies, such as taxes, quota, and markets. Such models enhance our understanding of groundwater flow behavior and provide the means to better manage water resources.
Teaching
I teach courses for graduate and undergraduate students involving principles and methods used in physical and contaminant hydrogeology. In addition, I run a seminar series that exposes students to a variety of multidisciplinary topics involving hydrology.
Professional Activities
2020-2021 von Humboldt Fellow -Germany, 2019-2020 Fulbright Fellow - Distinguished Chair in Science, Technology and Innovation, Australian-American Program, 2016 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2014 Best Paper in Environmental Research Letters in 2014 (Padowski and Gorelick, (2014), 2013 Editor's Choice Award, Water Resources Research for paper Srinivasan et al., (2012), Member, US National Academy of Engineering (2012), International Fellow, Institute for Environmental Science and Research (ESR) (2011), New Zealand, Fulbright Senior Scholar (2008-09); Chester C. Keisel Memorial Lecturer, University of Arizona (2008); Best Paper Award in Computers and Geosciences, International Association for Mathematical Geology (2006); fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2005); Stanford representative to the Consortium of Universities for Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences (2005-2008); M. King Hubbert Science Award, NGWA (2004); Ineson Distinguished Lecturer (1998); Fulbright Senior Scholar (1997); O.E. Meinzer Award, GSA (1994) James B. Macelwane medal, AGU (1990); Fellow, GSA (1988) and AGU (1990); Editorial Board, Optimization and Engineering Journal (1990-present); visiting professor, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Ecological Engineering Laboratory (2006); visiting professor, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, jointly at the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (2005); visiting scholar, University of Cambridge, Zoology (2007); visiting scientist, CSIRO, Perth, Australia (2009); Member AGU Water and Society Technical Committee (2011-present) visiting professor, University of Western Australia Centre for Ecohydrology (2012); visiting professor, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich (2013, 2019), Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Science, Technology and Innovation, Australian-American Program (2019-2020). -
Carlos Gould
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioCarlos F. Gould is a 2021-2023 Stanford Earth Postdoctoral Fellow. Carlos is working to understand the drivers of unequal health risks and under what circumstances environmental health interventions and policies can improve health and well-being. His research has combined epidemiology, exposure science, and survey data collection to enhance our understanding of how to reduce household air pollution by promoting the use of clean cooking technologies. Carlos holds a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from Columbia University and a BA in Environmental Studies from Yale University.
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Brian Green
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy current research is on the dynamics and circulation of the stratosphere, focusing on quantifying the sources and effects of gravity waves. More broadly, I'm interested in and curious about a large range of topics relating to tropical climate, clouds, and the general circulation of the atmosphere and ocean.
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Andrew Hennig
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
BioAntarctic ice sheet, both of which have exhibited significant mass loss over the past few decades. If the two ice sheets were to fully collapse, they could be responsible for up to 15m of global sea level rise (roughly equal parts from both). This sea level rise would not only pose serious problems for coastal settlements, but cause serious changes to ecosystems, and could profoundly alter the Earth’s ocean circulation.
Current estimates of the mass balance for ice sheets are based primarily on satellite data. This data has become more accurate and more available than ever before, since the 1990s. While estimates can be provided by satellite data, satellites are limited by virtue of the fact that they can only evaluate the surface of the ice shelf. Recent research has shown that a significant amount of the mass loss from the West Antarctic ice sheet is happening underwater, along grounding lines, where deep waters, warmed by global warming, enter the area underneath the ice shelf, and melt the shelves from the bottom. This not only results in mass loss directly, but increases calving of glaciers into the ocean, further accelerating their loss. This melting, below the surface of the ice shelves, cannot be estimated by satellites.
To get a better understanding of the impact of warmer deep waters on glacial retreat in Western Antarctica, we need to measure the melt more directly. Using highly precise measurements of salinity and isotopic composition of seawater in coastal regions of Western Antarctica, we can estimate the amount of glacial meltwater present in the oceanic adjacent to ice sheets. Gaining a greater understanding of the rates and locations of West Antarctic melting will be crucial to developing our understanding of future sea level rise, and other wider impacts. -
Natalie Herbert
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioNATALIE HERBERT is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Behavioral Science in the Department of Earth Systems Science and at the Woods Institute for the Environment. Her research investigates decision-making in the face of environmental risk. She completed her Ph.D. in 2020 at the Annenberg School for Communication, where she researched health and science communication with a focus on communicating scientific uncertainty. In 2020, Natalie was a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; she was the Rosenblith Fellow in Policy and Global Affairs and the InterAcademy Partnership.
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Juan Sebastian Hernandez-Suarez
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioJ. Sebastian Hernandez-Suarez is a recent PhD graduate in Biosystems Engineering from Michigan State University. He is now a postdoctoral scholar working with Dr. Steven Gorelick in water rights markets modeling in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Originally from Bogota, Colombia, he showed an early interest in humans' relationship with natural resources, especially water. This interest motivated him to obtain a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and then a master's in Water Resources Engineering. Before pursuing his PhD, Sebastian worked for the Colombian government in environmental policy-making related to ecological flows and watershed management. His research interests include numerical modeling, artificial intelligence, and multi-objective optimization to support multicriteria decision-making.
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Natan Holtzman
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
BioNatan Holtzman is a fourth-year PhD student in the Earth System Science department working with Prof. Alexandra Konings. He uses remote sensing and modeling to study how water moves between the atmosphere, plants, and soil. Natan graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2016 with a B.S. with honors in Geological Sciences and minors in Mathematics and Biology.
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Alison Hoyt
Assistant Professor of Earth System Science
BioAlison Hoyt is an Assistant Professor of Earth System Science at Stanford. Her work focuses on understanding how biogeochemical cycles respond to human impacts, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable and least understood carbon stocks in the tropics and the Arctic. For more information, please visit her group website here: https://carboncycle.stanford.edu/
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Rob Jackson
Michelle and Kevin Douglas Provostial Professor and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and at the Precourt Institute for Energy
BioRob Jackson and his lab examine the many ways people affect the Earth. They seek basic scientific knowledge and use it to help shape policies and reduce the environmental footprint of global warming, energy extraction, and other issues. They're currently examining the effects of climate change and droughts on forest mortality and grassland ecosystems. They are also working to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the Global Carbon Project (globalcarbonproject.org), which Jackson chairs; examples of new research Rob leads include establishing a global network of methane tower measurements at more than 80 sites worldwide and measuring and reducing methane emissions from oil and gas wells, city streets, and homes and buildings.
As an author and photographer, Rob has published a trade book about the environment (The Earth Remains Forever, University of Texas Press), two books of children’s poems, Animal Mischief and Weekend Mischief (Highlights Magazine and Boyds Mills Press), and recent or forthcoming poems in the journals Southwest Review, Cortland Review, Cold Mountain Review, Atlanta Review, LitHub, and more. His photographs have appeared in many media outlets, including the NY Times, Washington Post, USA Today, US News and World Report, Science, Nature, and National Geographic News.
Rob is a current Guggenheim Fellow and sabbatical visitor in the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He is also a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Geophysical Union, and Ecological Society of America. He received a Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering from the National Science Foundation, awarded at the White House. -
Elizabeth Johnston
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
Graduate Learning Consultant, Student Learning SupportBioI am a strategic researcher with a passion for developing creative solutions to complex problems across scales. My 10+ years of research experience and academic training have allowed me to develop a broad background in climate science, geological science, marine science, and applied statistics. My current research rigorously quantifies climate change impacts to human and natural systems using data science, statistical learning, and high performance computing.
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James Holland Jones
Associate Professor of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am a biological anthropologist with primary research interests in evolutionary demography and life history theory. In addition these fundamental interests in the evolution of human life histories, I work at the intersection of disease ecology, the analysis of dynamical systems, and social network analysis. My work combines the formalisms of population biology, statistics, and social network analysis to address fundamental problems in biodemography, epidemiology, and human decision-making in variable environments.
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Colette Kelly
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMarine nitrogen biogeochemistry: field studies, isotope analysis, and vertical modeling of nitrous oxide production, consumption, and flux in the eastern tropical North Pacific Ocean.
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Julie Kennedy
Professor (Teaching) of Earth System Science, Emerita
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch
For the past 21 years I have been active in designing and running the school's interdisciplinary environmental science and policy undergraduate major, the Earth Systems Program. I have specific interest in interdisciplinary teaching and learning, and in the effective communication of complex interdisciplinary problem descriptions, analysis methods, and solutions to expert and non-expert audiences. I advise and work on research projects with undergraduate and master's level students whose interests include ecology, energy, land systems management, ocean science and policy, sustainability, environmental education, and science communication.
Teaching
I teach classes in interdisciplinary problem analysis and in critical reading and review of environmental literature. I also am one of a number of faculty who co-teach the Earth Systems gateway course, Introduction to Earth Systems.
Professional Activities
My professional activities center on undergraduate education. I have been active for decades on Stanford committees that examine standards and policies, the review of general education requirements, undergraduate advising programs, student mental health, and student diversity. -
Alexandra Konings
Assistant Professor of Earth System Science and, by courtesy, of Geophysics & Center Fellow, by courtesy, at the Woods Institute for the Environment
BioAlexandra Konings leads the Remote Sensing Ecohydrology group, which studies interactions between the global carbon and water cycles. That is, her research studies how changes in hydrological conditions change ecosystems, and how this in turn feeds back to weather and climate. These interactions include studies of transpiration and root water uptake, photosynthesis, mortality, and fire processes, among others. To address these topics, the groups primarily uses the tools of model development and remote sensing (satellite) data, especially microwave remote sensing data of vegetation water content. Alex believes that a deep understanding of remote sensing techniques and how they can be used to create environmental datasets enables new opportunities for scientific insight and vice versa.
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Jack Lamb
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
BioJack Lamb is a PhD student working under Professor Alison Hoyt in the Earth System Science department. He is interested in developing low-cost instrumentation networks for effective ground-truthing and upscaling of satellite imagery.
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Eric Lambin
George and Setsuko Ishiyama Provostial Professor and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
On Leave from 07/01/2022 To 12/31/2022Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI study human-environment interactions in land systems by linking remote sensing, GIS and socio-economic data. I aim at better understanding causes and impacts of changes in tropical forests, drylands, and farming systems. I currently focus on land use transitions – i.e., the shift from deforestation (or land degradation) to reforestation (or land sparing for nature), – the influence of globalization on land use decisions, and the interactions between public and private governance of land use.
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Elena Litchman
Professor (By Courtesy), Earth System Science
BioElena Litchman is a faculty member in the Department of Global Ecology of the Carnegie Institution for Science and a Professor (by courtesy) in the Department of Earth System Science. Prior to joining Carnegie and Stanford, she was an MSU Foundation Professor at Michigan State University. She received her undergraduate degree from Moscow State University, Russia, and Ph.D. in Ecology from University of Minnesota.
Dr. Litchman is an ecologist, interested in community assembly, resilience, and eco-evolutionary responses of microbial communities to changing environments, including anthropogenic global change, and the consequences of community changes for biodiversity, biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystem functioning. She works on a wide range of systems, from freshwater lakes, to oceans, gut microbiota and algal biofuel communities. She uses experiments, field work, data analyses and models to investigate fundamental and applied questions in ecology and environmental science.
She received the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award from the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), and the Petersen Foundation Excellence Professorship Award from the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research, Germany. She is the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) and the NSF CAREER Award. -
David Lobell
Benjamin M. Page Professor, William Wrigley Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study the interactions between food production, food security, and the environment using a range of modern tools.
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Amina Ly
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
BioAmina is a PhD student in the Earth Systems Science Department at Stanford University. Her work is primarily focused on understanding climate change risks, and the impacts of extreme temperatures on human systems. Her current work explores the influence of extreme heat events on small-scale mobility patterns, as well as global mapping projects of protected mountainous biodiversity hotspots
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Katharine (Kate) Maher
Professor of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsHydrology, reactive transport modeling and environmental geochemistry
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Laura Mansfield
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioI am interested in how machine learning and Bayesian statistics can assist our understanding of the climate and weather. While at Stanford, I will explore how these tools can improve gravity wave parameterisations in atmospheric models. I recently completed my PhD at the University of Reading, which focused on emulating climate models to estimate the surface temperature response to changes in anthropogenic forcings, including both long-lived greenhouse gases and short-lived aerosol pollutants. This research took a Bayesian perspective to learn relationships between climate change patterns and forcings. Prior to this, I studied dynamical systems and fluid dynamics in my MRes, after coming from an undergraduate degree in Physics at Imperial College London. Outside of work, my interests include dancing, running and cycling.
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Pamela Matson
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute, Emerita
BioPAMELA MATSON is an interdisciplinary sustainability scientist, academic leader, and organizational strategist. She served as dean of Stanford University’s School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences from 2002-2017, building interdisciplinary departments and educational programs focused on resources, environment and sustainability, as well as co-leading university-wide interdisciplinary initiatives. In her current role as the Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies and Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment, she leads the graduate program on Sustainability Science and Practice. Her research addresses a range of environment and sustainability issues, including sustainability of agricultural systems, vulnerability and resilience of particular people and places to climate change, and characteristics of science that can contribute to sustainability transitions at scale.
Dr. Matson serves as chair of the board of the World Wildlife Fund-US and as a board member of the World Wildlife Fund-International and several university advisory boards. She served on the US National Academy of Science Board on Sustainable Development and co-wrote the National Research Council’s volume Our Common Journey: A transition toward sustainability (1999); she also led the NRC committee on America’s Climate Choices: Advancing the Science of Climate Change. She was the founding chair of the National Academies Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability, and founding editor for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources. She is a past President of the Ecological Society of America. Her recent publications (among around 200) include Seeds of Sustainability: Lessons from the Birthplace of the Green Revolution (2012) and Pursuing Sustainability (2016).
Pam is an elected member of the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a AAAS Fellow. She received a MacArthur Foundation Award, contributed to the award of the Nobel Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, among other awards and recognitions, and is an Einstein Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Matson holds a Bachelor of Science degree with double majors in Biology and Literature from the University of Wisconsin (Eau Claire), a Master degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Doctorate in Forest Ecology from Oregon State University, and honorary doctorates from Princeton, McGill and Arizona State Universities. She spent ten years as a research scientist with NASA-Ames Research Center before moving to a professorship at the University of California Berkeley and, in 1997, to Stanford University. -
Nicolette Meyer
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioThe deep-sea is the Earth’s last frontier of exploration; thus, my research interests are examining the activity and ecology of archaea and bacteria that colonize marine sediments. Deep-sea microbial communities play an important role in the biogeochemical cycling of major elements (such as carbon, nitrogen and sulphur). By investigating the activity and diversity of deep-sea microbes, and the variables that affect community structure, we can begin to predict how these ecosystems may shift in the face of climate change, and whether they will act in positive or negative feedbacks to rising ocean temperatures. Furthermore, examining the ecology and metabolic activity of modern deep-sea ecosystems, we can begin to untangle the complex interactions between marine microbes and their environments, and extrapolate these relationships into the geological past to understand the co-evolution of life and Earth’s surficial environment.
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Anna M. Michalak
Professor (By Courtesy), Earth System Science
BioDr. Anna M. Michalak is a faculty member in the Department of Global Ecology of the Carnegie Institution for Science and a Professor in the Department of Earth System Science. Her lab's research interests lie in understanding the cycling and emissions of greenhouse gases at the Earth surface at urban to global scales – scales directly relevant to informing climate and policy – primarily through the use of atmospheric observations that provide the clearest constraints at these critical scales. Her group is also interested in climate change impacts on freshwater and coastal water quality via influences on nutrient delivery to, and on conditions within, water bodies. Her approach is highly data-driven, with a common methodological thread being the development and application of spatiotemporal statistical data fusion methods for optimizing the use of limited in situ and remote sensing environmental data. She co-led the development of the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan, is the Chair of the Integrated Carbon Observation System European Research Infrastructure Consortium Scientific Advisory Board, and is a Member of the NASA Earth Science Advisory Committee, among other appointments. She is a Leopold Environmental Leadership Fellow, and a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers.
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Rosamond Naylor
William Wrigley Professor, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Professor, by courtesy, of Economics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch Activities:
My research focuses on the environmental and equity dimensions of intensive food production systems, and the food security dimensions of low-input systems. I have been involved in a number of field-level research projects around the world and have published widely on issues related to climate impacts on agriculture, distributed irrigation systems for diversified cropping, nutrient use and loss in agriculture, biotechnology, aquaculture and livestock production, biofuels development, food price volatility, and food policy analysis.
Teaching Activities:
I teach courses on the world food economy, food and security, aquaculture science and policy, human society and environmental change, and food-water-health linkages. These courses are offered to graduate and undergraduate students through the departments of Earth System Science, Economics, History, and International Relations.
Professional Activities:
William Wrigley Professor of Earth Science (2015 - Present); Professor in Earth System Science (2009-present); Director, Stanford Center on Food Security and the Environment (2005-2018); Associate Professor of Economics by courtesy (2000-present); William Wrigley Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Woods Institute for the Environment (2007-2015); Trustee, The Nature Conservancy CA program (2012-present); Member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Beijer Institute for Ecological Economics in Stockholm (2011-present), for the Aspen Global Change Institute (2011-present), and for the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program (2012-present); Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow in Environmental Science and Public Policy (1999); Pew Fellow in Conservation and the Environment (1994). Associate Editor for the Journal on Food Security (2012-present). Editorial board member for Aquaculture-Environment Interactions (2009-present) and Global Food Security (2012-present). -
Lauren Oakes
Adjunct Professor, Department of Earth System Science
BioLauren E. Oakes is an ecologist and human-natural systems scientist. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University and a Conservation Scientist on the Forests and Climate Change team at the Wildlife Conservation Society. Lauren teaches workshops and short-courses in narrative science writing and interdisciplinary environmental sciences, and she combines ecological research with methods from the social sciences to help people adapt to climate change impacts. Her work focuses on understanding the impacts of climate change to forest ecosystems and advancing best practices in adaptation and implementation of nature based solutions. She earned her PhD from Stanford University’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (2015) and her bachelor’s degree from Brown University (2004) in Environmental Studies and Visual Art, studying film and photography. Her first book, In Search of the Canary Tree (Basic Books, Hachette Book Group), is a narrative science memoir about finding faith in the ability of people to cope with a rapidly changing planet. Science Friday selected the Canary as one of the Best Science Books of 2018.
For nearly 20 years, Dr. Oakes has worked on a suite of environmental issues as a researcher, scholar, advocate, and documentarian (Alaska Gold 2012; Red Gold 2008). During that time, she confronted changes in rural communities and challenges in conservation, such as mining development in pristine watersheds in Alaska or road development through the temperate forests of Chile. She witnessed whole communities transformed by oil and gas development in the American West. She spent six years studying climate change impacts to forest ecosystems in the Alexander Archipelago, Alaska. At the core of her passions for research, teaching, and communicating issues of environmental change is the desire to improve resource management and conservation practices.
In addition to publishing her climate- and forest-related research in peer-reviewed journals, Lauren has contributed to National Geographic, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Scientific American, and Anthropocene Magazine, Emergence Magazine, and Lit Hub.. Her research has been profiled by The Atlantic, Scientific American, Smithsonian, Outside Magazine, National Geographic, The Christian Science Monitor, Adventure Kayak Magazine, and ClimateWire, among other outlets. With years of experience in professional outdoor guiding, she has also lead multi-day expeditions for National Geographic Expeditions and co-designed/co-taught Stanford field courses in Alaska and the Grand Canyon. -
Emily R. Paris
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMicrobial Biogeochemistry, Microbial Life in Extreme Environments, Astrobiology
