School of Humanities and Sciences
Showing 1-28 of 28 Results
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Raghu Mahajan
Senior Research Scientist
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research interests are wide-ranging:
1) In the context of gravity, how does spacetime emerge from its dual quantum system? How does the dual quantum system encode the answers to questions that involve local physics in semi-classical gravity? How do you avoid the "firewall" paradox in the context of black-hole evaporation?
2) How do you calculate electrical and heat currents in strongly-coupled many-body systems? How do you explain the linear-in-temperature resistivity in high-temperature cuprates?
3) Use tensor network methods to study electrical and heat transport and also the real-time dynamics of systems out of thermal equilibrium. -
Thomas Markland
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research centers on problems at the interface of quantum and statistical mechanics. Particular themes that occur frequently in our research are hydrogen bonding, the interplay between structure and dynamics, systems with multiple time and length-scales and quantum mechanical effects. The applications of our methods are diverse, ranging from chemistry to biology to geology and materials science. Particular current interests include proton and electron transfer in fuel cells and enzymatic systems, atmospheric isotope separation and the control of catalytic chemical reactivity using electric fields.
Treatment of these problems requires a range of analytic techniques as well as molecular mechanics and ab initio simulations. We are particularly interested in developing and applying methods based on the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics to include quantum fluctuations such as zero-point energy and tunneling in the dynamics of liquids and glasses. This formalism, in which a quantum mechanical particle is mapped onto a classical "ring polymer," provides an accurate and physically insightful way to calculate reaction rates, diffusion coefficients and spectra in systems containing light atoms. Our work has already provided intriguing insights in systems ranging from diffusion controlled reactions in liquids to the quantum liquid-glass transition as well as introducing methods to perform path integral calculations at near classical computational cost, expanding our ability to treat large-scale condensed phase systems. -
Todd Martinez
David Mulvane Ehrsam and Edward Curtis Franklin Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Photon Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAb initio molecular dynamics, photochemistry, molecular design, mechanochemistry, graphical processing unit acceleration of electronic structure and molecular dynamics, automated reaction discovery, ultrafast (femtosecond and attosecond) chemical phenomena
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Susan K. McConnell
Susan B. Ford Professor, Emerita
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsSusan McConnell has studied the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the development of the mammalian cerebral cortex. Her work focused on the earliest events that pattern the developing forebrain, enable neural progenitors to divide asymmetrically to generate young neurons, propel the migration of postmitotic neurons outward into their final positions, and sculpt the fates and phenotypes of the neurons as they differentiate.
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Nathan McDonald
Basic Life Science Research Associate, Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am interested in the fundamental cell biology of neurons. In particular, I study how neuronal synapses are formed and function. Synapses are specialized intercellular junctions that facilitate rapid communication between neurons, and thus form the basis of neural circuits and nervous system function.
Within a synapse, synaptic vesicles containing neurotransmitters are released at a specific region termed the active zone. The active zone is composed of a variety of molecules that coordinate the tethering and priming of synaptic vesicles, the recruitment of ion channels to respond to action potentials, and the stabilization of the synapse through transmembrane connections to a postsynaptic cell.
A wide range of transmembrane proteins are capable of initiating synapse formation during development and provide specificity for targeting the proper postsynaptic cell, including Neurexins/Neuroligins, LRRTMs, DIPs/DPRs, and many Ig domain proteins. However, in all synapses, these molecules must signal to build a common active zone core. I am studying how the conserved active zone core assembles downstream of this complexity, a fundamental unresolved question in developmental neurobiology.
To study this problem, I use the simple and stereotyped nervous system of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. I use fluorescent imaging of endogenous proteins at single neuron and single synapse resolution, as well as genetic and biochemical methods. -
Fiorenza Micheli
David and Lucile Packard Professor of Marine Science, Professor of Oceans, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, of Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr Fiorenza Micheli is a marine ecologist and conservation biologist conducting research and teaching at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. Micheli’s research focuses on the processes shaping marine communities and incorporating this understanding in the management and conservation of marine ecosystems. She is a Pew Fellow, a fellow of the California Academy of Science and the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program, and past president of the Western Society of Naturalists.
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David Miller
W.M. Keck Foundation Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor, by courtesy, of Applied Physics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDavid Miller’s research interests include the use of optics in switching, interconnection, communications, computing, and sensing systems, physics and applications of quantum well optics and optoelectronics, and fundamental features and limits for optics and nanophotonics in communications and information processing.
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W. E. Moerner
Harry S. Mosher Professor
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsLaser spectroscopy and microscopy of single molecules to probe biological systems, one biomolecule at a time. Primary thrusts: fluorescence microscopy far beyond the optical diffraction limit (PALM/STORM/STED), methods for 3D optical microscopy in cells, and trapping of single biomolecules in solution for extended study. We explore protein localization patterns in bacteria, structures of amyloid aggregates in cells, signaling proteins in the primary cilium, and dynamics of DNA and RNA.
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Andrea Montanari
John D. and Sigrid Banks Professor and Professor of Mathematics
BioI am interested in developing efficient algorithms to make sense of large amounts of noisy data, extract information from observations, estimate signals from measurements. This effort spans several disciplines including statistics, computer science, information theory, machine learning.
I am also working on applications of these techniques to healthcare data analytics. -
Harold Mooney
Paul S. and Billie Achilles Professor in Environmental Biology, Emeritus
BioStanford ecologist Harold “Hal” Mooney is the Paul S. Achilles Professor of Environmental Biology, emeritus, in the School of Humanities and Science’s Department of Biology and senior fellow, emeritus, with the Stanford Woods Institute as well as the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Mooney helped pioneer the field of physiological ecology and is an internationally recognized expert on environmental sciences. Through his six-decade academic career, Mooney has demonstrated how plant species and groups of species respond to their environments and developed research methodologies for assessing how plants interact with their biotic environments. To date he has authored more than 400 scientific books, papers and articles.
Mooney's recent research focuses on assessing the impacts of global environmental change on terrestrial ecosystems, especially on ecosystem function, productivity and biodiversity. Recent research includes studying the environmental and social consequences of industrialized animal production systems and examining factors that promote the invasion of non-indigenous plant species.
Mooney has played an international leadership role in numerous research settings, especially with problems related to biodiversity, invasive species, global warming and Mediterranean climates. In addition, he has been active in building up worldwide communities and networks of ecologists and scientists in other disciplines and arranging international conferences on the environment. He played a central role in the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP), building up an international organization of scientists and having an influential part in setting the guidelines for the formulation of environmental policies. He also has advanced numerous international research programs as Secretary General and Vice-President of the International Council for Science (ICSU).
Mooney earned his Ph.D. from Duke University in 1960 and started as an assistant professor at UCLA that same year. In 1968 he was recruited to Stanford University, where he was later appointed the Paul S. Achilles Professor of Environmental Biology in the School of Humanities and Science’s Department of Biology. A senior fellow with the Stanford Woods Institute as well as the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Mooney has led a wide range of national and international scientific activities related to environment and conservation.
Notable roles included coordinating the 1995 Global Biodiversity Assessment, co-chairing the Assessment Panel of the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, establishing and leading the Global Invasive Species Program and serving as lead review editor for the ongoing global assessment of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. His many accolades and awards include the 1990 ECI Prize in terrestrial ecology, the 1992 Max Planck Research Award in biosciences, the 1996 Eminent Ecologist Award from the Ecological Society of America, the 2000 Nevada Medal, the 2002 Blue Planet Prize, the 2007 Ramon Margalef Prize in Ecology, the 2008 Tyler Prize, the 2008 BBVA Foundation Award for Biodiversity Conservation, and the 2010 Volvo Environment Prize. -
Erin Mordecai
Associate Professor of Biology and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research focuses on the ecology of infectious disease. We are interested in how climate, species interactions, and global change drive infectious disease dynamics in humans and natural ecosystems. This research combines mathematical modeling and empirical work. Our main study systems include vector-borne diseases in humans and fungal pathogens in California grasses.
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Ashby Morrison
Associate Professor of Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research interests are to elucidate the contribution of chromatin to mechanisms that promote genomic integrity.
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Mary Beth Mudgett
Senior Associate Dean for the Natural Sciences and Susan B. Ford Professor
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy laboratory investigates how bacterial pathogens employ proteins secreted by the type III secretion system (TTSS) to manipulate eukaryotic signaling to promote disease. We study TTSS effectors in the plant pathogen Xanthomonas euvesicatoria, the causal agent of bacterial spot disease of pepper and tomato. For these studies, we apply biochemical, cell biological, and genetic approaches using the natural hosts and model pathosystems.
