School of Engineering
Showing 201-300 of 424 Results
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Mathieu Lapôtre
Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and, by courtesy, of Geophysics and of Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioProf. Lapôtre leads the Earth & Planetary Surface Processes group. His research focuses on the physics behind sedimentary and geomorphic processes that shape planetary surfaces (including Earth's), and aims to untangle what sedimentary rocks tell us about the past hydrology, climate, and habitability of planets.
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Kincho Law
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioProf. Law’s professional and research interests focus on the application of computational and information science in engineering. His work has dealt with various aspects of computational mechanics and structural dynamics, AI and machine learning, large scale database management, Internet and cloud computing, numerical methods and high performance computing. His research application areas include computer aided engineering, legal and engineering informatics, engineering enterprise integration, web services and supply chain management, monitoring and control of engineering systems, smart infrastructures, and smart manufacturing.
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James Leckie
C.L. Peck, Class of 1906 Professor in the School of Engineering, Emeritus
BioLeckie investigates chemical pollutant behavior in natural aquatic systems and engineered processes, specifically the environmental aspects of surface and colloid chemistry and the geochemistry of trace elements. New research efforts are focused on the development of techniques and models for assessment of exposure of humans to toxic chemicals. Specific attention has been paid to the evaluation of exposure of young children to toxic chemicals. Other interests include technology transfer and the development of environmental science programs in developing nations.
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Michael Lepech
C. L. Peck, Class of 1906, Professor and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
BioUnsustainable energy and material consumption, waste production, and emissions are some of today’s most pressing global concerns. To address these concerns, civil engineers are now designing facilities that, for example, passively generate power, reuse waste, and are carbon neutral. These designs are based foremost on longstanding engineering theory. Yet woven within this basic knowledge must be new science and new technologies, which advance the field of civil engineering to the forefront of sustainability-focused design.
My research develops fundamental engineering design concepts, models, and tools that are tightly integrated with quantitative sustainability assessment and service life modeling across length scales, from material scales to system scales, and throughout the early design, project engineering, construction, and operation life cycle phases of constructed facilities. My research follows the Sustainable Integrated Materials, Structures, Systems (SIMSS) framework. SIMSS is a tool to guide the multi-scale design of sustainable built environments, including multi-physics modeling informed by infrastructure sensing data and computational learning and feedback algorithms to support advanced digital-twinning of engineered systems. Thus, my research applies SIMMS through two complementary research thrusts; (1) developing high-fidelity quantitative sustainability assessment methods that enable civil engineers to quickly and probabilistically measure sustainability indicators, and (2) creating multi-scale, fundamental engineering tools that integrate with sustainability assessment and facilitate setting and meeting sustainability targets throughout the life cycle of constructed facilities.
Most recently, my research forms the foundation of the newly created Stanford Center at the Incheon Global Campus (SCIGC) in South Korea, a university-wide research center examining the potential for smart city technologies to enhance the sustainability of urban areas. Located in the smart city of Songdo, Incheon, South Korea, SCIGC is a unique global platform to (i) advance research on the multi-scale design, construction, and operation of sustainable built environments, (ii) demonstrate to cities worldwide the scalable opportunities for new urban technologies (e.g., dense urban sensing networks, dynamic traffic management, autonomous vehicles), and (iii) improve the sustainability and innovative capacity of increasingly smarter cities globally.
With an engineering background in civil and environmental engineering and material science (BSE, MSE, PhD), and business training in strategy and finance (MBA), I continue to explore to the intersection of entrepreneurship education, innovation capital training, and the potential of startups to more rapidly transfer and scale technologies to solve some of the world's most challenging problems. -
Jerker Lessing
Adjunct Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioI earned my PhD at Lund University, Sweden, focused on strategic aspects of industrialized construction. I am the CEO and founder of Lessing Innovation, an advisory and consultancy firm within construction industrialization, innovation and sustainability. Between 2015-2023 I had the role as Director of Research & Development at BoKlok, Sweden’s leading housing company within industrialized construction. Before joining BoKlok, I worked for one of Sweden's leading engineering firms, Tyréns AB, where I led a team of Consultants focusing on Construction innovation. I was also engaged by leading Construction and housing companies as a consultant and advisor for numerous innovation- and development projects aimed at industrialized construction.
I am frequently engaged as a lecturer and moderator in both academia and industry, have co-authored a book about industrialized construction and I publish research in international Journals.
I have been a visiting researcher and lecturer at Stanford University since 2013 and since 2017 I am adjunct Professor here. At Stanford I have established and taught the course CEE324 Industrialized Construction, organized study trips for Stanford students and faculty to Sweden, as well as organized the Industrialized Construction Forum which is a industry-academia conference, held annually.
In my research I developed a framework describing contemporary industrialized construction, which has served as a foundation for academic research, as well as a guide for the industry’s development, in Sweden and internationally. -
Raymond Levitt
Kumagai Professor in the School of Engineering, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Levitt founded and directs Stanford’s Global Projects Center (GPC), which conducts research, education and outreach to enhance financing, governance and sustainability of global building and infrastructure projects. Dr. Levitt's research focuses on developing enhanced governance of infrastructure projects procured via Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) delivery, and alternative project delivery approaches for complex buildings like full-service hospitals or data centers.
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Christian Linder
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioChristian Linder is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and, by courtesy, of Mechanical Engineering. Through the development of novel and efficient in-house computational methods based on a sound mathematical foundation, the research goal of the Computational Mechanics of Materials (CM2) Lab at Stanford University, led by Dr. Linder, is to understand micromechanically originated multi-scale and multi-physics mechanisms in solid materials undergoing large deformations and fracture. Applications include sustainable energy storage materials, flexible electronics, and granular materials.
Dr. Linder received his Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley, an MA in Mathematics from UC Berkeley, an M.Sc. in Computational Mechanics from the University of Stuttgart, and a Dipl.-Ing. degree in Civil Engineering from TU Graz. Before joining Stanford in 2013 he was a Junior-Professor of Micromechanics of Materials at the Applied Mechanics Institute of Stuttgart University where he also obtained his Habilitation in Mechanics. Notable honors include a Fulbright scholarship, the 2013 Richard-von-Mises Prize, the 2016 ICCM International Computational Method Young Investigator Award, the 2016 NSF CAREER Award, and the 2019 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). -
Dr Kelvin Liu
Research Scientist, Center for Sustainable Development and Global Competitiveness
BioDr. Kelvin Liu is a Research Scientist at Stanford University. He holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Cambridge and completed his postdoctoral research at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He also obtained dual master’s degrees from the University of Cambridge and Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Liu has previously served as an Industrial Associate at the Institute for Manufacturing, University of Cambridge. He has also served as a Partner Expert with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), a lecturer in UNIDO’s Eco-Design Leadership Program.
Dr. Kelvin Liu has led and participated in over 15 major research projects funded by the European Union, the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). His research spans artificial intelligence, technology innovation, strategic management, and industrial sustainability. He has published more than 20 papers in SCI/SSCI-indexed journals, holds three invention patents, serves as a reviewer for multiple international journals, and has delivered over 20 invited talks at international conferences and university seminars. -
Michael LoCascio
Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioMichael's work focuses on wind energy at the intersection of computational fluid dynamics, controls, and optimization. He is interested in wake modeling, wind farm layout optimization, and large eddy simulations of wind farm flows. He is currently working on a low-cost model for the annual energy production of wind farms. Michael is also a graduate researcher at the National Wind Technology Center, a research facility of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He received his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford in 2023 and his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA in 2020.
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Michael Lyons
Adjunct Lecturer, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Bio-Co-founded Zilkha Venture Partners; sourced investments that returned 5.8x ; rated Top 5% by Cambridge Associates
-Venture Partner at four other Funds including DFJ/ePlanet I & II, Paladin Capital Group- Deals created $50B+ in market value
-Co-founder, CEO or Chairman or C-Suite of 12 Companies including Integrated Systems (INTS, merged with WIND, acq. by Intel), Shadow Networks acq. by Alcalvio), and CypherPath
(acq. by ManTech); co-founding CEO, SafeView (Acq. By L3-Harris then Leidos) Returned 78% IRR for Series A and 163% IRR for Series B investors
-Currently Chairman PrecisionOSTech (Surgical VR Training); and Turbo Protocol (Web 3 Blockchain ); co-founder & CEO (emeritus), RapidAscent (Cyber Ed); Director RTI, global
leader in IIoT; General Partner, NativeFirst Capital
-Co-founder, Numerous SCPD exec Ed Programs, Idea to Market online program, Price-Babson Fellow in eShip Education
He is also a Managing Director of NewLine Ventures, LLC, a management consulting firm. From 2008 to 2011, he also served as a Venture Partner with the Paladin Capital Group in Washington, D.C., and as a Venture Partner for ePlanet Ventures I and II. He founded SafeView, Inc. in 2002, a Government Laboratory (PNNL) spinout, to address aspects of the anti-terrorist physical security market; He served as Chairman until its sale to L3 Harris in March 2006. Leidos then acquired the Company in 2020. This technology is now the security standard in airports worldwide.
Concurrently, Mr. Lyons is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Stanford University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Serving in the Stanford position since 1988, he was a co-developer of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program with Prof. Tom Byers and the founding professor of Technology Venture Formation. Engineering. He is the co-creator of the Stanford Innovation and Entrepreneurship two-week program for existing high-tech companies produced and managed by the Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD). This program has just completed its 14th year. He has co-produced and delivered numerous other SCPD and STVP programs. He co-founded the Ratio Academy focused on creating training platforms for entrepreneurial education, with a co-developed online program with SCPD called Idea to Market, I2M. He is the founding professor of Tech Venture Formation, MSE273.
From 1980 to 1991, he was a co-founder, a Vice-President, and a Director of Integrated Systems Inc. (INTS, founded 1980), a leading implementer of high-performance real-time control systems for aircraft, automotive, and manufacturing applications. INTS was fundamentally a spinout from the Lockheed Palo Alto Research Lab and Systems Control, Inc. The Company was merged with WindRiver Systems in 1999. WindRiver was acquired by Intel in 2009.
Mr. Lyons received a Bachelor and Masters (equivalent) in Engineering Physics from Cornell University, an MSEE from Stanford, did Ph.D research in Aero/Astro at Stanford (abd) and an MBA, with Distinction, from the Pepperdine Presidential/Key Executive Program. He is a graduate of the Stanford/AEA Institute for the Management of High Technology Companies and a Price-Babson Fellow in Entrepreneurship Education. He holds an FAA multi-Engine Airline Transport Pilot License and Certified Flight Instructor Certificates for Instrument and Multi-Engine Aircraft. He is an avid sailor and motorcyclist. -
Ernestine Fu Mak
Lecturer, Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioDr. Ernestine Fu Mak is Co-Director of FTL (Frontier Technology Lab), an initiative of the Stanford School of Engineering and Doerr School of Sustainability. She has taught interdisciplinary courses across engineering and medicine: Frontier Technology - Understanding and Preparing for Technology in the Next Economy, Design and Innovation for the Circular Economy, Autonomous Vehicles Studio, Entrepreneurship Through the Lens of Venture Capital, and Silicon Valley and the U.S. Government.
She is the Founder of Brave Capital. Over the past decade, she has worked across the startup ecosystem, negotiating mergers and acquisitions, organizing SPVs for later-stage companies, angel investing in and advising startups that have since been acquired, and advising banks on venture debt. Alongside her role at Brave Capital, she is a Venture Partner at Alsop Louie Partners, where she began her career and has guided founders as they navigate the journey to product-market fit and scale their businesses and teams. She was recognized on the inaugural Forbes Magazine 30 Under 30 list, Vanity Fair Next Establishment list, and Business Insider Silicon Valley 100 list. She is a Kauffman Fellow and Eisenhower Fellow.
She is a strong advocate for active citizen participation in our democracy. She co-authored “Civic Work, Civic Lessons” with former Stanford Law School Dean Thomas Ehrlich to encourage civic engagement. She also co-authored “Renewed Energy” with IPCC major contributor John Weyant to guide government policy and investment strategies for a sustainable future. She has served as a board director and advisor to nonprofits such as Ad Council, California 100, and Presidio Institute.
She completed her B.S., M.S., MBA, Ph.D., and postdoc at Stanford University. Graduating with Tau Beta Pi and Phi Beta Kappa honors, she was awarded the Kennedy Prize for the top undergraduate thesis in engineering and the Terman Award as one of the top thirty graduating seniors in engineering. Her doctoral thesis focused on human operator and autonomous vehicle interactions with system bias and transitions of control. She is an inventor on numerous granted or in-process technology patents.
She is a proud part of a military family. -
Gilbert Masters
Professor (Teaching) of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Emeritus
BioGILBERT M. MASTERS
MAP EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
B.S. (1961) AND M.S. (1962) UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
PH.D. (1966) Electrical Engineering, STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Gil Masters has focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy systems as essential keys to slowing global warming, enhancing energy security, and improving conditions in underserved, rural communities. Although officially retired in 2002, he has continued to teach CEE 176A: Energy-Efficient Buildings, and CEE 176B: Electric Power: Renewables and Efficiency. He is the author or co-author of ten books, including Introduction to Environmental Engineering and Science (3rd edition, 2008), Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems, (2nd edition, 2013), and Energy for Sustainability: Technology, Policy and Planning (2nd edition, 2018). Professor Masters has been the recipient of a number of teaching awards at Stanford, including the university's Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Tau Beta Pi teaching award from the School of Engineering. Over the years, more than 10,000 students have enrolled in his courses. He served as the School of Engineering Associate Dean for Student Affairs from 1982-1986, and he was the Interim Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1992-93. -
Meagan Mauter
Associate Professor Civil & Environmental Engineering, of Photon Science, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and at the Precourt Institute for Energy and Associate Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering
BioProfessor Meagan Mauter is appointed as an Associate Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering and as a Center Fellow, by courtesy, in the Woods Institute for the Environment. She directs the Water and Energy Efficiency for the Environment Lab (WE3Lab) with the mission of providing sustainable water supply in a carbon-constrained world through innovation in water treatment technology, optimization of water management practices, and redesign of water policies. Ongoing research efforts include: 1) developing automated, precise, robust, intensified, modular, and electrified (A-PRIME) water desalination technologies to support a circular water economy, 2) identifying synergies and addressing barriers to coordinated operation of decarbonized water and energy systems, and 3) supporting the design and enforcement of water-energy policies.
Professor Mauter also serves as the research director for the National Alliance for Water Innovation, a $110-million DOE Energy-Water Desalination Hub addressing water security issues in the United States. The Hub targets early-stage research and development of energy-efficient and cost-competitive technologies for desalinating non-traditional source waters.
Professor Mauter holds bachelors degrees in Civil & Environmental Engineering and History from Rice University, a Masters of Environmental Engineering from Rice University, and a PhD in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from Yale University. Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford, she served as an Energy Technology Innovation Policy Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and as an Associate Professor of Engineering & Public Policy, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. -
Simona Meiler
Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioI am a weather and climate risk scientist, studying how hazard, exposure, and vulnerability interact to shape the risks and impacts of extreme weather events – both today and in a changing climate. My work combines modeling and systems thinking to explore a range of topics, including tropical cyclone risk, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, human displacement, post-disaster recovery, and systemic risk. My approach is inherently interdisciplinary, with the goal of translating model insights into real-world applications that support climate-resilient decision-making.
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, supported by an SNSF Postdoc.Mobility fellowship, working with Prof. Jack W. Baker. I completed my PhD at ETH Zurich in weather and climate risk modeling, with a focus on global tropical cyclone risk and uncertainty quantification, under the supervision of Prof. David N. Bresch. -
Marek Miltner
Affiliate, Program-Rajagopal, R.
BioMarek is a researcher and postgraduate student in the fields of Artificial Intellignence for Energy Sustainability, and Technology Policy connected to it. He has also been teaching Computer Science courses at university level since 2018, and at Stanford since 2020.
He has received an MPhil in Technology Policy from the University of Cambridge (UK), and an MEng in Innovation Management and Artificial Intelligence from Czech Technical University (EU). In the past, he has led a research team that built the first autonomous electric vehicle in the Czech Republic. -
Eduardo Miranda
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsRegional seismic risk assessment, ground motion directionality
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William Mitch
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioBill Mitch received a B.A. in Anthropology (Archaeology) from Harvard University in 1993. During his studies, he excavated at Mayan sites in Belize and surveyed sites dating from 2,000 B.C. in Louisiana. He switched fields by receiving a M.S. degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering at UC Berkeley. He worked for 3 years in environmental consulting, receiving his P.E. license in Civil Engineering in California. Returning to UC Berkeley in 2000, he received his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2003. He moved to Yale as an assistant professor after graduation. His dissertation received the AEESP Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award in 2004. At Yale, he serves as the faculty advisor for the Yale Student Chapter of Engineers without Borders. In 2007, he won a NSF CAREER Award. He moved to Stanford University as an associate professor in 2013.
Employing a fundamental understanding of organic chemical reaction pathways, his research explores links between public health, engineering and sustainability. Topics of current interest include:
Public Health and Emerging Carcinogens: Recent changes to the disinfection processes fundamental to drinking and recreational water safety are creating a host of highly toxic byproducts linked to bladder cancer. We seek to understand how these compounds form so we can adjust the disinfection process to prevent their formation.
Global Warming and Oceanography: Oceanic dissolved organic matter is an important global carbon component, and has important impacts on the net flux of CO2 between the ocean and atmosphere. We seek to understand some of the important abiotic chemical reaction pathways responsible for carbon turnover.
Sustainability and Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs): While PCBs have been banned in the US, we continue to produce a host of structurally similar chemicals. We seem to understand important chemical pathways responsible for POP destruction in the environment, so we can design less persistent and problematic chemicals in the future.
Engineering for Sustainable Wastewater Recycling: The shortage of clean water represents a critical challenge for the next century, and has necessitated the recycling of wastewater. We seek to understand ways of engineer this process in ways to minimize harmful byproduct formation.
Carbon Sequestration: We are evaluating the formation of nitrosamine and nitraminecarcinogens from amine-based carbon capture, as well as techniques to destroy any of these byproducts that form. -
Aadhityaa Mohanavelu
Ph.D. Student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, admitted Autumn 2023
BioAadhityaa Mohanavelu is a PhD student at Osman Lab, currently working on quantifying global water challenges and developing equitable water infrastructure systems. His research uses tools and techniques from diverse disciplines, including data-driven computational modeling, artificial intelligence, qualitative methodology, and sensor-based experiments, to better comprehend water problems and develop innovative solutions. He has a strong background in modeling hydro-climatic systems, studying resilient water infrastructures, and quantifying environmental contamination hazards. He loves music and enjoys traveling!
Aadhityaa is a holder of the 2023 Quad Fellowship (inaugural cohort). -
Stephen Monismith
Obayashi Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor of Oceans
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsHydrodynamics of lakes, estuaries, coral reefs, kelp forests and the coastal ocean
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Jonathan Lee Montoya
Affiliate, Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioJonathan Lee Montoya studies equitable pathways in STEM disciplines at the intersection of Engineering and Computer Science Education. Jonathan is a practitioner at heart. He holds secondary teaching credentials in Biological Sciences, Geosciences, and Career Technical Education. He has also taught Virtual Design and Construction. Jonathan received his Ph.D. and M.A. in Education from the University of California, Irvine, where he was an NSF Ridge to Reef Scholar and Eugene Cota-Robles Scholar. He also holds an M.A. in STEEM education from Santa Clara University, where he was an NSF Robert Noyce Teacher Scholar. Jonathan received his B.S. in Environmental Sciences with an emphasis in Ethics at Cal Poly Humboldt. While at Humboldt, he also studied Botany and Environmental Education in Argentina and Chile.
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Joseph Fitzpatrick Moore, P.E.
Adjunct Lecturer, Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioMember, State Bar of California; Registered California Professional Civil Engineer; Fellow, American College of Construction Lawyers; Past Chair, International Bar Associaton, International Construction Projects Commitee; Board Member, International Constructon Law Alliance. Partner, Hanson Bridgett, LLP. Joseph is a dual qualified lawyer and civil engineer. His law practice focuses on complex domestic and international construction projects and disputes.
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Dinesh D Moorjani
Student, Program-Jain, R.
BioDinesh Moorjani is a serial tech founder & CEO, venture capital investor, and professor. He is the founder and Managing Partner of Time Zero Capital, a technology venture capital firm investing in responsible innovation.
Dinesh founded Hatch Labs Inc. where he served as Chairman & CEO and cofounded Tinder (NASDAQ: MTCH) in 2012. Dinesh built several technology companies including Saffronart, a global eCommerce marketplace for Indian fine art and collectibles backed by Sequoia Capital, where he continues to serve on the board. Dinesh also cofounded Kleverbeast—a no-code SaaS application development platform and Monet Analytics—an AI platform that decodes human emotion.
Dinesh served in numerous executive leadership roles at multinational corporations, including as Managing Director at Comcast Ventures, Sr. Vice President and Group Head of Mobility at IAC/InterActive Corp, and in various leadership roles at Samsung Electronics in the US and Asia. He built his early career in the Global Energy Practice at AD Little, Goldman Sachs, and as an early employee at Mainspring (IPO 2000, acquired by IBM 2001). Dinesh served as an independent board director at Alight (NYSE: ALIT) and on the advisory boards of Fortune 500 companies including American Express, Assurant, and Cox Automotive. He served on the board of directors of Zoox (acquired by Amazon), a leader in autonomous vehicles. Dinesh served as an advisor to Warburg Pincus, the global private equity firm, where he was previously an EIR, co-investing alongside the firm and serving in a governance capacity on portfolio company boards.
Dinesh is an adjunct professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and regularly guest lectures at Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. Dinesh also serves on the Harvard Business School California Research Center Advisory Board. He supports disenfranchised youth and education through his non-profit work as a board director at the United Friends of the Children and the Organization for Social Media Safety. Dinesh continues to serve as a Board Trustee at the University of California, Merced. Dinesh earned his BS in Chemical Engineering from Northwestern University and MBA from Harvard. Dinesh is a PhD Candidate in the Engineering Department at Stanford University. -
Kopal Nihar
Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioI am a PhD candidate advised by Dr Rishee Jain and working at Urban Informatics Lab. My research interest lies in understanding data-driven human-building interactions and impact of indoor air quality on occupant behaviour, especially for the purpose of natural ventilation.
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Hae Young Noh
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioHae Young Noh is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her research introduced the new concept of “structures as sensors” to enable physical structures (e.g., buildings and vehicle frames) to be user- and environment-aware. In particular, these structures indirectly sense humans and surrounding environments through their structural responses (i.e., vibrations) by inferring the desired information (e.g., human behaviors, environmental conditions, heating and cooling system performance), instead of directly measuring the sensing targets with additional dedicated sensors (e.g., cameras, motion sensors). This concept brought a paradigm shift in how we view these structures and how the structures interact with us.
Traditionally, structures that we inhabit (such as buildings or vehicles) are considered as passive and unchanging objects that we need to monitor and control, utilizing a dense set of sensors to collect information. This has often been complicated by “noise” caused by the occupants and environments. For example, building vibrations induced by indoor and outdoor environmental and operational conditions (e.g., people walking around, traffic outside, heating system running, etc.), have been often seen as noise that needs to be removed in traditional building science and structural engineering; however, they are a rich source of information about structure, users, environment, and resources. Similarly, in vehicle engineering, researchers and engineers have been investigating control and dynamics to reduce vehicle vibration for safety and comfort. However, vibrations measured inside vehicles contain information about transportation infrastructure, vehicle itself, and driver.
Noh's work utilizes this “noise” to empower the structures with the ability to perceive and understand the information about users and surroundings using their own responses, and actively adopt and/or interact to enhance their sustainability and the occupants’ quality of life. Since she utilizes the structure itself as a sensing medium, information collection involves a simpler set of hardware that can be easily maintained throughout the structural lifetime. However, the analysis of data to separate the desired information becomes more challenging. This challenge is addressed through high-rate dynamic sensing and multi-source inferencing. Ultimately, her work aims to allow structural systems to become general sensing platforms that are easier and more practical to deploy and maintain in a long-term.
At Stanford University, Noh received her PhD and MS degrees in the CEE department and her second MS degree in Electrical Engineering. Noh earned her BS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. -
Leonard Ortolano
UPS Foundation Professor of Civil Engineering in Urban and Regional Planning, Emeritus
BioOrtolano is concerned with environmental and water resources policy and planning. His research stresses environmental policy implementation in developing countries and the role of non-governmental organizations in environmental management. His recent interests center on corporate environmental management.
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Khalid Osman
Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Center Fellow, by courtesy, at the Woods Institute for the Environment
BioKhalid Osman joined the department as an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in autumn of 2022. His research spans the use of mixed quantitative-qualitative methods to assess public perceptions of water infrastructure, water conservation efforts, and the management of existing infrastructure systems to meet the needs of those being served by the systems. He currently is focused on the operationalization of equity in water sector infrastructure, conceptualizing equity in decentralized water and sanitation systems, water affordability, and stakeholder-community engagement in sustainable civil infrastructure systems for achieving environmental justice.
Khalid was the holder of a Bill and Melinda Gates Millennium Scholars Graduate Fellowship and also a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship. -
Nicholas Ouellette
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Environmental Complexity Lab studies self-organization in a variety of complex systems, ranging from turbulent fluid flows to granular materials to collective motion in animal groups. In all cases, we aim to characterize the macroscopic behavior, understand its origin in the microscopic dynamics, and ultimately harness it for engineering applications. Most of our projects are experimental, though we also use numerical simulation and mathematical modeling when appropriate. We specialize in high-speed, detailed imaging and statistical analysis.
Our current research includes studies of turbulence in two and three dimensions, with a focus on coherent structures and the geometry of turbulence; the transport of inertial, anisotropic, and active particles in turbulence; the erosion of granular beds by fluid flows and subsequent sediment transport; quantitative measurements of collective behavior in insect swarms and bird flocks; the stability of ocean ecosystems; neural signal processing; and uncovering the natural, self-organized spatiotemporal scales in urban systems. -
Mr Tamin Pechet
Adjunct Lecturer, Program-Mauter, M.
BioTamin Pechet is an entrepreneur and investor who has founded a series of purpose-driven enterprises in natural resources and technology. Mr. Pechet is the founder and CEO of Upwell Water, a global, tech-enabled water resource and infrastructure company. He also founded and serves on the boards of Above Data, a venture-backed AI company, Kilonova Capital, an investment firm supporting late stage tech companies, and Hawk Hill Group, a renewable energy finance platform, in addition to serving on multiple venture capital-backed company boards. Mr. Pechet also founded and serves as Chairman of Imagine H2O, the largest global innovation accelerator for the water industry. Mr. Pechet previously worked for Goldman Sachs Special Situations Investing Group. Mr. Pechet is a frequent speaker on business and innovation in water, natural resources, and technology, and co-authored the book Water Tech: A Guide to Investment, Innovation, and Business Opportunities in the Water Sector. He holds an AB and an MBA from Harvard University, and serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford University.
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Forest Olaf Peterson, Ph.D.
Research Affiliate, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Staff, Civil and Environmental EngineeringBioAs a staff research affiliate, I bring both blue-collar and white-collar perspectives to my role as a scholar of infrastructure.
For seven years, I was a concrete laborer on large infrastructure projects with the Laborers’ International Union of North America. Those years taught me social and environmental dimensions from the ground up.
My fellow laborers wanted to work safely. However, though skilled, we often did not have the information to succeed without unnecessary hardship, for example, on a large highway project we could have worked on another task while a broken piece of equipment was repaired, however, neither the crew nor our supervisors had access to a task schedule to see that (there was a schedule, it was just permission that was missing -- though even with permission the schedule was your typical P6 Gantt which even at best wouldn't have been informative). As a result, our supervisors forced us to continue work loading miles of heavy concrete barriers with a damaged loader. Our choices were to work, quit, or be fired; we were not the operator of the loader, we were the ground crew [2023 Edit: we should have called our Union]. Eventually, a two-ton barrier dropped and hit something that flipped it over where it came to rest just inches above my chest. My fellow workers celebrated my life. One cried in memory of a recent work fatality. We were told to get back to work.
The futility of the situation has left a lasting impression.
www.researchgate.net/profile/Forest-Peterson
www.linkedin.com/in/forest-peterson -
Ashton Pihl
Ph.D. Student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, admitted Summer 2025
BioI am a first-year PhD Student in the Baker Coastal Lab researching surf-zone circulation generated by short-crested breaking waves. I am interested in studying the along-crest variability in energy dissipation, the unsteady structure associated with injected vertical and horizontal vorticity, and the evolution of vertical vorticity structures linked to the shoreward propagation of bores using laboratory experimental methods and numerical modeling.
