School of Humanities and Sciences
Showing 1-100 of 114 Results
-
Blas Cabrera
Stanley G. Wojcicki Professor, Emeritus
BioFor five years up to mid-2015 has been Spokesperson for the SuperCDMS (Cryogenic Dark Matter Search) collaboration with twenty-two member institutions, which mounted a series of experiments in the Soudan mine in northern Minnesota to search for the dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles or WIMPs. This direct detection effort has lead the world in sensitivity for much of the past ten years and utilizes novel cryogenic detectors using germanium and silicon crystals operated below 0.1 K. The completed CDMS II experiment operated 4 kg of germanium and 1 kg of silicon for two years and set the most sensitive limits at the time for spin-independent interactions for WIMPs masses above 40 GeV/c2. The SuperCDMS Soudan experiment operated 9 kg of germanium until the end of calendar 2015.
He was selected for a three-term as Project Director, through mid 2018, for the approved second generation (G2) SuperCDMS SNOLAB experiment which will operate 30 kg of Ge and Si detectors in the deeper SNOLAB facility in Canada. The project searches for low mass WIMPs (0.1 - 10 GeV/c2) and the cryostat facility will allow future upgrades to search down to the solar neutrino floor. It has recently been approved for full construction by the DOE and NSF. -
Emmanuel Candes
Barnum-Simons Chair of Math and Statistics, Professor of Statistics, Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) and Professor, by courtesy, of Electrical Engineering
BioEmmanuel Candès is the Barnum-Simons Chair in Mathematics and Statistics, a professor of electrical engineering (by courtesy) and a member of the Institute of Computational and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford University. Earlier, Candès was the Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology. His research interests are in computational harmonic analysis, statistics, information theory, signal processing and mathematical optimization with applications to the imaging sciences, scientific computing and inverse problems. He received his Ph.D. in statistics from Stanford University in 1998.
Candès has received several awards including the Alan T. Waterman Award from NSF, which is the highest honor bestowed by the National Science Foundation, and which recognizes the achievements of early-career scientists. He has given over 60 plenary lectures at major international conferences, not only in mathematics and statistics but in many other areas as well including biomedical imaging and solid-state physics. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2014. -
Gunnar Carlsson
Ann and Bill Swindells Professor, Emeritus
BioDr. Carlsson has been a professor of mathematics at Stanford University since 1991. In the last ten years, he has been involved in adapting topological techniques to data analysis, under NSF funding and as the lead PI on the DARPA “Topological Data Analysis” project from 2005 to 2010. He is the lead organizer of the ATMCS conferences, and serves as an editor of several Mathematics journals
-
Dayanne Carvalho
Ph.D. Student in Chemistry, admitted Summer 2021
Masters Student in Chemistry, admitted Spring 2026BioChemical biology researcher interrogating host-immune interactions, passionate about uncovering molecular mechanisms and developing new therapeutics.
-
Lynette Cegelski
Monroe E. Spaght Professor of Chemistry and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur laboratory uncovers the chemical principles that organize living systems. Across biology - from microbial communities to human disease - chemical and macromolecular composition, molecular interactions, and chemical modifications govern the assembly, function, and persistence of complex biological systems, yet many of these principles remain hidden from conventional approaches. We develop innovative chemical, structural, and biological strategies to preserve and interrogate intact biological systems, revealing chemistry that cannot be observed by studying isolated components alone. Our work has uncovered previously unknown molecular structures, chemical modifications, and mechanisms of biological organization, including the discovery of phosphoethanolamine (pEtN) cellulose, a chemically modified form of cellulose that fundamentally changed our understanding of bacterial extracellular matrices.
In parallel, we discover and engineer molecules that probe, disrupt, and control biological systems. A major focus is the development of new strategies to combat antibiotic resistance and persistent bacterial communities. Our laboratory has introduced first-in-class vancomycin conjugates with multiple modes of action, unusually broad-spectrum activity, and the ability to sterilize biofilms - properties not observed together in other vancomycin conjugates. We also develop anti-biofilm agents, molecular probes, imaging agents, and other chemical tools that both reveal new biology and provide starting points for addressing pressing challenges in human health and disease.
Together, our research spans fundamental chemical discovery and molecular invention: uncovering the chemistry that enables biological systems to assemble and persist, and using those insights to create new ways to interrogate and control them. This work opens opportunities to combat infectious disease, improve human health, preserve marine ecosystems, advance sustainable materials, and deepen our understanding of how chemistry organizes life. -
Moses Charikar
Donald E. Knuth Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Mathematics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsEfficient algorithmic techniques for processing, searching and indexing massive high-dimensional data sets; efficient algorithms for computational problems in high-dimensional statistics and optimization problems in machine learning; approximation algorithms for discrete optimization problems with provable guarantees; convex optimization approaches for non-convex combinatorial optimization problems; low-distortion embeddings of finite metric spaces.
-
James K. Chen
Jauch Professor and Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology, of Developmental Biology and of Chemistry
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur laboratory combines chemistry and developmental biology to investigate the molecular events that regulate embryonic patterning, tumorigenesis, and sperm development. We are currently using genetic and small-molecule approaches to study the molecular mechanisms that sustain stem-like cancer cells or promote spermiogenesis. We are also developing new technologies for optically controlling developmental signaling proteins.
-
Rebecca C. Chen
Postdoctoral Scholar, Physics
BioBrinson Prize Fellow
-
Xiaoke Chen
Associate Professor of Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur goal is to understand how brain circuits mediate motivated behaviors and how maladaptive changes in these circuits cause mood disorders. To achieve this goal, we focus on studying the neural circuits for pain and addiction, as both trigger highly motivated behaviors, whereas, transitioning from acute to chronic pain or from recreational to compulsive drug use involves maladaptive changes of the underlying neuronal circuitry.
-
Christopher Chidsey
Associate Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Chidsey group research interest is to build the chemical base for molecular electronics. To accomplish this, we synthesize the molecular and nanoscopic systems, build the analytical tools and develop the theoretical understanding with which to study electron transfer between electrodes and among redox species through insulating molecular bridges
-
Ani Chiti
Postdoctoral Scholar, Physics
BioI am a Brinson Prize Fellow at Stanford University, primarily interested in the formation of the first stars and galaxies, the formation of heavy elements, the early Milky Way, and local dynamical tracers of dark matter. I observe and characterize nearby stars and galaxies that formed at early times to understand these topics, in an approach known as "Near-field cosmology" or "Galactic archaeology".
Before joining Stanford, I was the inaugural Brinson Prize Fellow in Observational Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. I obtained a PhD in Physics from MIT in 2021, and received bachelor's degrees in Physics and Mathematics from Cornell University in 2014. -
Steven Chu
William R. Kenan Jr. Professor, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology and of Energy Science and Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsSynthesis, functionalization and applications of nanoparticle bioprobes for molecular cellular in vivo imaging in biology and biomedicine. Linear and nonlinear difference frequency mixing ultrasound imaging. Lithium metal-sulfur batteries, new approaches to electrochemical splitting of water. CO2 reduction, lithium extraction from salt water
-
Ben Church
Ph.D. Student in Mathematics, admitted Autumn 2021
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am interested in birational geometry in all characteristics.
-
Sarah Church
Professor of Physics, Emerita
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsExperimental & Observational Astrophysics and Cosmology
-
Nicole Cobb
Grants Assistant & Administration Associate, Statistics
BioNicole Cobb is the Grants Assistant & Administration Associate with the Statistics Department in the School of Humanities & Sciences.
-
James Collman
George A. and Hilda M. Daubert Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus
BioProfessor Emeritus James Collman has made landmark contributions to inorganic chemistry, metal ion biochemistry, homogeneous catalysis, and transition metal organometallic chemistry. He pioneered numerous now-popular research tools to reveal key structural and functional details of metalloenzymes essential to respiration and energy, and hemoglobin and myoglobin, essential to oxygen transport in the blood.
Born 1932 in Beatrice, Nebraska, James P. Collman studied chemistry at U. Nebraska–Lincoln (B.S. 1954, M.S. 1956). His doctoral work at U. Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Ph.D., 1958) focused on Grignard reagents. As a faculty member at U. North Carolina, he demonstrated aromatic reactivity in metal acetylacetonates, and he developed metal complexes that hydrolyze peptide bonds under physiological conditions. He came to Stanford University as Professor of Chemistry in 1967. Among many honors, Prof. Collman’s was elected to the National academy of Sciences in 1975, and named California Scientist of the Year in 1983.
At Stanford, Prof. Collman invented a new paradigm for studying biological systems using functional synthetic analogs of metal-containing enzyme systems, free from the protein coatings that can affect metalloprotein chemical properties. This strategy allowed him to elucidate the intrinsic reactivity of the metal center as well as the effects of protein-metal interactions on biological function.
One focal point of this research has involved heme-proteins such as the oxygen (O2) carrier hemoglobin (Hb), and the O2-storing protein myoglobin (Mb). Prof. Collman was the first to prepare and characterize stable, functional analogues of the Hb and Mb active sites, which contain an iron derivative of the large flat “porphyrin” ligand. In his “picket fence” porphyrin, groups installed on the periphery block side reactions, which would otherwise degrade the structure. This protected iron complex manifests the unique magnetic, spectroscopic and structural characteristics of the O2-binding Hb and Mb sites, and exhibits very similar O2-binding affinities.
The Collman Group also prepared functional mimics of the O2-binding/reducing site in a key respiration enzyme, cytochrome c oxidase, CcO, which converts O2 to H2O during biosynthesis of the energy storage molecule ATP. This enzyme must be very selective: partial O2 reduction products are toxic. Prof. Collman invented a powerful synthetic strategy to create analogs of the CcO active site and applied novel electrochemical techniques to demonstrate that these models catalyze the reduction of O2 to water without producing toxic partially-reduced species. He was able to mimic slow, rate-limiting electron delivery by attaching his CcO model to a liquid-crystalline membrane using “click chemistry.” He demonstrated that hydrogen sulfide molecules and heterocycles reversibly bind to the metal centers at CcO’s active site, connecting a synthetic enzyme model to simple molecules that reversibly inhibit respiration. These respiration inhibitors exhibit physiological properties, affecting blood clotting and controlling the effects of the hormone, nitric oxide, NO.
In addition, Prof. Collman performed fundamental studies of organometallic reactions. He also prepared and characterized homodinuclear and heterodinuclear complexes having metal-metal multiple bonds, and made the first measurements of the rotational barriers found in multiple metal-metal bonds.
Prof. Collman’s impactful textbook “Principles and Applications of Organotransition Metal Chemistry” has seen multiple editions. His book “Naturally Dangerous: Surprising Facts About Food, Health, and the Environment” explains the science behind everyday life, and received favorable reviews in Nature and The Washington Post. -
Suchetha Cooray
Postdoctoral Scholar, Physics
BioSuchetha Cooray is a KIPAC Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. His research operates at the intersection of observational data, galaxy formation physics, cosmological theory, and artificial intelligence.
Suchetha is broadly interested in decoding the "cosmic ecosystems" that drive galaxy growth and evolution. His work seeks to reveal the complete lifecycle of galaxies—tracing their origins from density peaks of dark matter, through the complex interaction of their baryonic components, to their eventual cessation of star formation. Galaxy formation presents a profound computational challenge, as physical processes span at least 14 orders of magnitude, from the sub-parsec scales of black hole accretion disks to the vast web of cosmic large-scale structure.
To navigate this complexity, Suchetha employs numerical simulations and machine learning to build statistically robust models of the Universe, connecting the first galaxies revealed by JWST to the mature populations of the present day. As the field enters a transformative decade for precision cosmology, his research focuses on maximizing the scientific insights from upcoming major surveys—including PFS, Euclid, Rubin LSST, SPHEREx, and Roman.
Previously, Suchetha was a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and earned his doctorate at Nagoya University.
