School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences
Showing 1-100 of 127 Results
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Mathieu Ardyna
Affiliate, Department of Earth System Science
Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Earth System ScienceBioI am a biological oceanographer interested in understanding phytoplankton dynamics in polar environments. My main research focuses on how environnemental drivers and changes are altering phytoplankton phenology, productivity and structure. In both polar regions (i.e., the Arctic and Southern oceans), climate change is drastically affecting the interplay between the atmosphere, the cryosphere and the oceans. My recent work, conducted with collaborators, shows how these fragile polar ecosystems are responding to warmer, more acidic and longer sea-ice free oceans by combining satellite, field and autonomous platform observations.
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Kevin Arrigo
Donald and Donald M. Steel Professor in Earth Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsInvestigates role of ocean biology in gobal carbon and nutrient cycles.
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Marshall Burke
Assistant Professor of Earth System Science, Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and, by courtesy, at the Woods Institute for the Environment
BioMarshall Burke is assistant professor in the Department of Earth System Science, and Center Fellow at the Center on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University. His research focuses on social and economic impacts of environmental change, and on the economics of rural development in Africa. His work has appeared in both economics and scientific journals, including recent publications in Nature, Science, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. He holds a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics from UC Berkeley, and a BA in International Relations from Stanford.
Prospective students should see my personal webpage, linked at right. -
Karen Casciotti
Victoria and Roger Sant Director, Earth Systems Program, Associate 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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Nathan Dadap
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
Masters Student in Earth System ScienceBioNathan 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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Frances Davenport
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
BioFrances studies hydroclimate in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University. She is interested in how climate change will affect water availability, precipitation extremes, and flooding, as well as the impacts of extreme events on society. She also tries to understand the efficacy of various adaptation strategies for managing hydrologic extremes (for example, floods and droughts). You can visit her personal website here: https://fdavenport.github.io
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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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Bertrand Delorme
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsIn this work, I investigate how surface-generated equatorial waves could drive abyssal mixing in the ocean through a mechanism of near-bottom wave trapping as a result of the horizontal component of the Earth’s rotation.
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Kyle Delwiche
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am a USGS Powell Center fellow studying methane emissions from wetlands and coordinating the Powell-related efforts from our synthesis group.
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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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Sibyl Diver
Social Science Research Scholar, Earth System Science
BioSibyl Diver is a research scientist at Stanford University in the Department of Earth System Science. She does community-engaged research on Indigenous water governance focusing on Pacific Northwest salmon watersheds. This includes research on co-management (or collaborative management) arrangements between Indigenous communities and state agencies. She received her PhD from Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the College of Natural Resources. Sibyl completed her undergraduate work at Stanford, earning a dual degree in Human Biology and Russian. Prior to graduate school, Sibyl spent eight years with the non-profit Pacific Environment, supporting Russian grassroots environmental and indigenous leaders to have a voice in natural resource management decisions. Sibyl is a member of the Karuk-UC Berkeley Collaborative, a group supporting the Karuk Tribe's eco-cultural revitalization strategy in Northern California.
For publications and full CV, please see www.sibyldiver.com. -
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 first-year PhD student working with Prof. Alexandra Konings. She is interested in using remote sensing technologies to assess large-scale interactions between the carbon and water cycles. In 2017, Caroline graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and a minor in Geography/Environmental Studies. Prior to graduate school, Caroline worked in the Carbon Cycle & Ecosystems group at NASA JPL (with Josh Fisher) from 2017-2018 and in the UC Berkeley Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering (with Sally Thompson) 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 for 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 global ecology, and my research emphasizes ecological contributions across the range of Earth science disciplines. My colleagues and I develop diverse approaches to quantifying large-scale ecosystem processes, using satellites, atmospheric data, models, and census data, and explore global-scale patterns of vegetation-climate feedbacks, carbon cycle dynamics, primary production, forest management, and fire. At the ecosystem-scale, we conduct experiments on grassland responses to global change, which integrate approaches from molecular biology to remote sensing.
Teaching
I am one of five professors who teach the Earth Systems field studies course for advanced undergrads and co-terms at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve. I also teach an introductory seminar on climate change for freshmen.
Professional Activities
Director, Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution; Faculty Director, Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve; Professor, Department of Environmental Earth System Science, Stanford University; Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University; Senior Fellow, Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford University; Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Stanford University -
Etienne Fluet Chouinard
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Earth System Science
BioI am a freshwater ecologist drawing from geoscience tools to study rivers, lakes and wetlands at the global scale.
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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
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Katerina Gonzales
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
BioKaterina studies climate dynamics in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University. She is interested in climate change in the atmosphere, extreme precipitation events, and climate impacts. Her dissertation analyzes the characteristics of West Coast atmospheric rivers in a warming climate. Learn more about her research at her website: https://sites.google.com/view/katerina-r-gonzales
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Steven Gorelick
Cyrus Fisher Tolman Professor in the School of Earth Sciences and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch
As a hydrogeologist, my research involves the study of water resources and water security with emphasis on groundwater. 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 14 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
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). -
Michael Goss
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMichael studies the large-scale extratropical circulation response to tropical convection, the tropospheric signal associated with sudden stratospheric warming events, and teleconnections more generally. Additionally, he has recently researched the role of anthropogenic global warming on increasing the risk of wildfires in California, such as the destructive and deadly wildfire seasons of 2017 and 2018.
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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. -
Nataniel Moishe Holtzman
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
BioNatan Holtzman is a first-year PhD student in the Earth System Science department working with Prof. Alexandra Konings. He is interested in using 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. From 2017 to 2018, he worked as a research associate at UNC with Prof. Tamlin Pavelsky on improving the representation of snowmelt-driven runoff in a regional climate and land surface model.
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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 many 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 is leading include establishing a global network of methane tower measurements at more than 50 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
BioAs a PhD Student in the Department of Earth System Science, Elizabeth investigates the response of Earth surface processes to climate. She is interested in coupling high resolution satellite imagery, field observations, and/or geochemical data with empirical models to answer research questions related to the response of landscapes and other surface processes to climate change. She is currently conducting research that examines the relative impacts of antecedent rainfall and urbanization on landslides using a data-driven statistical learning approach.
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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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Bennett Kapili
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
BioBennett Kapili is a Ph.D. student in the Dekas Laboratory. He is interested in studying the microbial ecology and biogeochemistry of environments that push the limits of life. Through developing our understanding of how microbes function in extreme environments, he seeks to advance our search for life within our solar system. He holds a BS in Science of Earth Systems from Cornell University.
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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, Center Fellow, by courtesy, at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Assistant Professor, by courtesy, of Geophysics
BioAlexandra Konings is a ecohydrologist - she is interested in how ecosystems and the carbon cycle respond to variations in water availability at large scales (and vice versa). Research questions in the Konings lab span a range of ecosystem properties, but many of them surround the role of vegetation water content in predicting plant health and its associated fluxes and growth. She holds SB and PhD degrees from MIT (working with Dara Entekhabi), and a M.S. from Duke University (working with Gaby Katul). She joined the Department of Earth System Science as an assistant professor in 2016 after two short postdoctoral stints at Columbia University (working with Pierre Gentine) and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (working with Dave Schimel, Sassan Saatchi, and others).
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Eric Lambin
George and Setsuko Ishiyama Provostial Professor and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current 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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David Lobell
Professor of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute, 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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Kate Lowry
Visiting Scholar, Department of Earth System Science
BioKate Lowry received her PhD from Stanford University in the Ocean Biogeochemistry Laboratory led by Professor Kevin R. Arrigo. Prior to beginning her doctoral work, Kate received her B.S. and M.S. in the interdisciplinary Earth Systems Program at Stanford University. Kate's dissertation focused on the influence of sea ice and hydrography on phytoplankton bloom dynamics in the Chukchi Sea. Her methods include oceanographic fieldwork and satellite remote sensing. Since 2010, Kate has participated in seven polar expeditions in both the Arctic (Chukchi and Beaufort Seas) and Antarctic (Amundsen Sea, Ross Sea, and Western Antarctic Peninsula) aboard research icebreakers USCGC Healy and RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer.
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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, impacts of extreme precipitation events, and human-climate interactions. Her current work explores climate impacts on food security and commodity values in developing regions.
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Katharine (Kate) Maher
Associate Professor of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch
Chemical reactions between fluids and minerals create the environments that are uniquely characteristic of Earth’s surface. For example, chemical weathering reactions support the growth of soils and organisms and regulate the flow of elements to the oceans. The rates of these reactions also control the release and storage of natural and human-derived contaminants. Over geologic timescales, mineral-fluid reactions have helped to maintain a mostly habitable planet. Over human timescales, these reactions will regulate our ability to use Earth’s resources, such as soils, waters, and minerals.
My research focuses on the rates of reactions in different environments using a combination of geochemical tools, including isotope geochemistry, geochemical and hydrologic modeling, and geochronology in order to address the following themes: (1) defining the controls on mineral-fluid reactions rates in the environment (2) finding new approaches to use mineral-fluid reactions to safely store carbon dioxide in the subsurface; and (3) development of isotopic approaches to study mineral-fluid reactions in the environments of Earth’s past. To support these research themes, I have constructed a new mass spectrometer and clean lab facility capable of high precision geochemical and isotopic measurements, and teach a number of classes and short courses on reactive transport.
Teaching
My teaching focuses on introducing students to the questions and major challenges in low-temperature and environmental geochemistry, and the application of isotope geochemistry to environmental and geologic problems. In order to introduce incoming students to Earth surface processes, materials and geochemistry, I am also teaching a freshman seminar on forensic geoscience. At the graduate level, I offer classes on isotope geochemistry and modeling of environmental transformations and mass transfer processes (i.e., subsurface reactive transport). -
Avni Malhotra
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Earth System Science
BioMy research focuses on multi-scale effects of disturbance on ecosystem structure and function. In the past, I have investigated the influence of drought, permafrost thaw or warming on above and belowground plant dynamics, greenhouse gas fluxes and litter decomposition. I am also interested in regional to global-scale drivers of carbon sequestration. My toolkit draws from ecosystem ecology, biogeochemistry, plant ecology and systems thinking and I specialize in carbon-rich systems such as northern peatlands and permafrost features.
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Pamela Matson
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor in Environmental Studies, Director, Change Leadership for Sustainability and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute
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 on the boards of the World Wildlife Fund – International and the ClimateWorks Foundation, 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 transtion 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 rcognitions, 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, and a Doctorate in Forest Ecology from Oregon State University. 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. -
Gavin McNicol
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Earth System Science
BioI work at Stanford Earth with Prof. Robert Jackson, the Global Carbon Project, and the international community of eddy-covariance scientists (FLUXNET), on a global synthesis of wetland methane emissions. My background is in terrestrial and wetland biogeochemistry, with a focus on trace gas flux measurement and isotope analyses. More recently, I've become interested in the use of machine learning applied to predictive modeling of the global carbon cycle.
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Nicolette Meyer
Ph.D. Student in 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 colonise 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 Marta 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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David Mucciarone
Lecturer, School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences
Lab Manager, Department of Earth System ScienceCurrent Role at StanfordAs a Research and Development Scientist and Engineer I take on many roles in the support of research. My role as Lab and Field Expedition Manager allows me to work closely with students, faculty, and post-docs in an effort to forward their research objectives. When at Stanford, I am responsible for the Stable Isotope Lab operation which includes the maintenance and repair of instrumentation, method development, training users, and management and synthesis of data. Field research is an important aspect of my work, I participate in field logistics and operations involving underwater, land, and vessel based research which include activities such as: coral drilling with underwater hydraulic systems, mooring deployment/recovery, water chemistry, sediment coring, deployment/recovery of underwater sensors, and perform marine/lacustrine seismic acquisition. I'm also a research scuba diver, dive master, and serve as a member on the Stanford Dive Control Board. Our research group has a 38' research vessel that I maintain and operate for our coastal/fjord and lake projects. When necessary, I design and build lab instrumentation and autonomous underwater systems for our research projects. I co-lead Bing Overseas Program Seminars in Patagonia and assist with the science diving course at Hopkins Marine Station.
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Hannah Naughton
Ph.D. Student in Environmental Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsGeneral research interests: How environmental chemistry influences soil and sediment microbial community dynamics and carbon cycling. Microbial activity plays a large role in carbon storage, greenhouse gas release, and the transport of toxic metals. However, microbial processes differ vastly depending on local environmental conditions. I study how the availability of substrates microbes use to generate energy affect microbial ecology and the processes and rates controlling carbon cycling.
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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 Earth System Science at Stanford University and a Conservation Scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society's Climate Adaptation Program. 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 understand how people adapt to climate change impacts. 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.
Oakes is the lead author of peer-reviewed publications in the sciences, but she also writes for popular media outlets. She has written about her research for the New York Times and contributed to the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times. Her work 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. -
Adam Pellegrini
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Earth System Science
BioNOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow working on how fire-plant-nutrient interactions determine the carbon cycle in tropical savannas and forests.
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Sai Prasanth
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Earth System Science
BioI am currently a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University. I work with Prof. Morgan O'Neill and my research lies at the crossroads of Tropical Cyclones, Geofluid Dynamics, Monsoon Dynamics, and Complex Systems. I seek to address fundamental, trans-disciplinary research questions pertaining to these areas.
Prior to joining Stanford, I was a NASA Earth Science Doctoral Fellow at Purdue University. My Ph.D. advisors were Prof. Dan Chavas (Purdue) and Dr. Frank Marks (Hurricane Research Division, NOAA). My doctoral research characterized the impact of vortex-scale and sub-vortex-scale azimuthal asymmetries (eddies) during periods of rapid intensity changes in tropical cyclones (TCs). I investigated the spatial, spectral, and temporal aspects of these asymmetries; developed novel techniques to model the scale-specific stochasticity and cross-scale feedbacks across the vortex-scale and sub-vortex scale eddies within a TC vortex; computed the relative roles of the external and intrinsic drivers of TC rapid intensity changes; and developed a new approach to compute the non-stationary probabilities of TC intensity transitions. From a forecasting perspective, these advancements drive the development of diagnostics or early warning signals that allow us to examine and characterize an asymmetric TC vortex and predict if it is going to rapidly intensify or weaken with x% probability.
I obtained an M.Sc. in Computational Fluid Mechanics from Imperial College London. For my Master's thesis, I worked under the supervision of Prof. Spencer Sherwin and used High-Order Spectral element techniques to understand the multi-scale transfer of energy in decaying homogeneous turbulence. I have a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from SASTRA University, India. I visited MIT to pursue my Bachelor's thesis under the supervision of Prof. Sanjay Sarma. At MIT, I designed, developed, and tested a Contact type, Pressure Difference - based leak detector, that was to be deployed in Public Water Distribution Systems. Prior to that, I was as an Indian Academy of Sciences Research Fellow and I worked with Prof. Gautam Biswas on Computational Vortex-Dynamics and self-sustained oscillatory flows in Heat Exchangers.
Apart from being a researcher, I am a musician (composer/arranger/producer and a keyboardist), and an avid sports fan (basketball, cricket, soccer). Conversations are my tonic, so please get in touch if you are interested in what I do. -
Krishna Rao
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research focuses on developing machine learning algorithms to remotely monitor vegetation health by using microwave remote sensing. I am interested in answering questions such as:
- How can we leverage the vast amounts of data our satellites are capturing to understand the health of our forests?
- How can we obtain information about hydraulic health of vegetation with little or no ground-collected data -
Anna Rasmussen
Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am a microbial ecologist, generally interested in the connections between microbes and biogeochemical cycling. I use DNA-based and biogeochemical techniques to understand the ecology of nitrogen-cycling bacteria and archaea in the San Francisco Estuary.
