School of Humanities and Sciences


Showing 301-376 of 376 Results

  • Todd Smith

    Todd Smith

    Professor (Research) of Physics, Emeritus

    BioTodd received his PhD from Rice University. He acted as an assistant professor of physics and electrical engineering, senior research physicist, and professor of physics. Research interests include experimental accelerator physics, laser physics, and superconductivity. His specialty is free electron lasers.

  • Edward I. Solomon

    Edward I. Solomon

    Monroe E. Spaght Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Photon Science
    On Leave from 04/01/2024 To 06/30/2024

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProf. Solomon's work spans physical-inorganic, bioinorganic, and theoretical-inorganic chemistry, focusing on spectroscopic elucidation of the electronic structure of transition metal complexes and its contribution to reactivity. He has advanced our understanding of metal sites involved in electron transfer, copper sites involved in O2 binding, activation and reduction to water, structure/function correlations over non-heme iron enzymes, and correlation of biological to heterogeneous catalysis.

  • Richard Sommer

    Richard Sommer

    Lecturer

    BioRick Sommer received both his bachelors and PhD degrees in Mathematics from UC Berkeley, where he began his research in mathematical logic. Rick held a research position at MSRI in 1989 - 1990, and became a Gabor Szego Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Stanford in 1990. In 1995, Rick co-founded the Stanford University Mathematics Camp, for which he served as Director for over 25 years, and continues in a role as Special Advisor and Instructor. Also in the mid-90s, Rick took on a leadership role in developing online courses and residential summer programs for Stanford's Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY). In 2012, EPGY transformed into Stanford Pre-Collegiate Studies (SPCS), providing a home to the Stanford Online High School as well as over a dozen summer and year-around pre-collegiate programs, many of which Rick played a role in designing, developing and leading. Rick served as Executive Director of SPCS from 2015-2020. Rick occasionally teaches Logic in the Philosophy Department (Phil 151 and 152) and Set Theory in the Math Department (Math 161). Rick has a strong interest in mathematics education, and more generally in educational programs designed to inspire and develop the curiosity of young people. Rick is Co-Founder and Board Member of AI4ALL, working to increase diversity in the leadership of AI, and he is Treasurer and Board Member of the Gathering for Gardner Foundation, stimulating curiosity and the playful exchange of ideas in mathematics and related fields, in the spirit of Martin Gardner.

  • Daniel Stack

    Daniel Stack

    Associate Professor of Chemistry
    On Leave from 04/01/2024 To 06/30/2024

    BioResearch in the Stack group focuses on the mechanism of dioxygen activation and the subsequent oxidative reactivity with primarily copper complexes ligated by imidazoles or histamines. Specifically, the group is interested in substrate hydroxylations and full dioxygen reduction. The remarkable specificity and energy efficiency of metalloenzymes provide the inspiration for the work. Trapping and characterizing immediate species, primarily at low temperatures, provide key mechanistic insights especially through substrate reactivity along with spectroscopic and metrical correlation to DFT calculations. Our objective is to move these efficient enzymatic mechanisms into small synthetic complexes, not only to reproduce biological reactivity, but more importantly to move the oxidative mechanism beyond that possible in the protein matrix.

    Daniel Stack was born, raised and attended college in Portland Oregon. He received his B.A. from Reed College in 1982 (Phi Beta Kappa), working with Professor Tom Dunne on weak nickel-pyrazine complexes. In Boston, he pursued his doctoral study in synthetic inorganic chemistry at Harvard University (Ph.D., 1988) with Professor R. H. Holm, investigating site-differentiated synthetic analogues of biological Fe4S4 cubanes. As an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow with Professor K. N. Raymond at the University of California at Berkeley, he worked on synthesizing new, higher iron affinity ligands similar to enterobactin, a bacterial iron sequestering agent. He started his independent career in 1991 at Stanford University primarily working on oxidation catalysis and dioxygen activation, and was promoted to an Associate Professor in 1998. His contributions to undergraduate education have been recognized at the University level on several occasions, including the Dinkelspiel Award for Outstanding Contribution to Undergraduate Education in 2003.

    Areas of current focus include:

    Copper Dioxygen Chemistry
    Our current interests focus on stabilizing species formed in the reaction of dioxygen with Cu(I) complexes formed with biologically relevant imidazole or histamine ligation. Many multi-copper enzymes ligated in this manner are capable of impressive hydroxylation reactions, including oxidative depolymerization of cellulose, methane oxidation, and energy-efficient reduction of dioxygen to water. Oxygenation of such complexes at extreme solution temperatures (-125°C) yield transient Cu(III) containing complexes. As Cu(III) is currently uncharacterized in any biological enzyme, developing connections between the synthetic and biological realms is a major focus.

    Surface Immobilization of Catalysts in Mesoporous Materials
    In redox active biological metal sites, the ligation environment is coupled tightly to the functional chemistry. Yet, the metal sites are also site-isolated, creating species that may only have a transient existence in a homogeneous solution. Site isolation of synthetic complexes can be achieved synthetically by supporting the metal complex on a solid matrix. Movement of these complexes into silica based materials or onto electroactive carbon electrodes represent a new direction for the group in the development of bio-inspired metal-based catalysts.

  • Tim Stearns

    Tim Stearns

    Professor of Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe use the tools of genetics, microscopy, and biochemistry to understand fundamental questions of cell biology: How are cells organized by the cytoskeleton? How do the centrosome and cilium control cell control cell signaling? How is cell division coordinated with duplication of the centrosome, and what goes wrong in cancer cells defective in this coordination?

  • Leonard Susskind

    Leonard Susskind

    Felix Bloch Professor of Physics

    BioLeonard Susskind is the Felix Bloch professor of Theoretical physics at Stanford University. His research interests include string theory, quantum field theory, quantum statistical mechanics and quantum cosmology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an associate member of the faculty of Canada's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and a distinguished professor of the Korea Institute for Advanced Study.

    Susskind is widely regarded as one of the fathers of string theory, having, with Yoichiro Nambu and Holger Bech Nielsen, independently introduced the idea that particles could in fact be states of excitation of a relativistic string. He was the first to introduce the idea of the string theory landscape in 2003.

  • Yuri Suzuki

    Yuri Suzuki

    Professor of Applied Physics and, by courtesy, of Materials Science and Engineering

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsHer interests are focused on novel ground states and functional properties in condensed matter systems synthesized via atomically precise thin film deposition techniques with a recent emphasis has been on highly correlated electronic systems:
    • Emergent interfacial electronic & magnetic phenomena through complex oxide heteroepitaxy
    • Low dimensional electron gas systems
    • Spin current generation, propagation and control in complex oxide-based ferromagnets
    • Multifunctional behavior in complex oxide thin films and heterostructures

  • Paul Switzer

    Paul Switzer

    Professor of Statistics and of Environmental Earth System Science, Emeritus

    BioDr. Switzer's research interests are in the development of statistical tools for the environmental sciences. Recent research has focused on the interpretation of environmental monitoring data, design of monitoring networks, detection of time trends in environmental and climatic paramenters, modeling of human exposure to pollutants, statistical evaluation of numerical climate models and error estimation for spatial mapping.

  • Hua Tang

    Hua Tang

    Professor of Genetics and, by courtesy, of Statistics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDevelop statistical and computational methods for population genomics analyses; modeling human evolutionary history; genetic association studies in admixed populations.

  • Stuart Thompson

    Stuart Thompson

    Professor of Biology (Hopkins Marine Station)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsNeurobiology, signal transduction

  • Lu Tian

    Lu Tian

    Professor of Biomedical Data Science and, by courtesy, of Statistics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research interest includes
    (1) Survival Analysis and Semiparametric Modeling;
    (2) Resampling Method ;
    (3) Meta Analysis ;
    (4) High Dimensional Data Analysis;
    (5) Precision Medicine for Disease Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment.

  • Robert Tibshirani

    Robert Tibshirani

    Professor of Biomedical Data Science and of Statistics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research is in applied statistics and biostatistics. I specialize in computer-intensive methods for regression and classification, bootstrap, cross-validation and statistical inference, and signal and image analysis for medical diagnosis.

  • Alice Ting

    Alice Ting

    Professor of Genetics, of Biology and, by courtesy, of Chemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe develop chemogenetic and optogenetic technologies for probing and manipulating protein networks, cellular RNA, and the function of mitochondria and the mammalian brain. Our technologies draw from protein engineering, directed evolution, chemical biology, organic synthesis, high-resolution microscopy, genetics, and computational design.

  • Lauren Tompkins

    Lauren Tompkins

    Associate Professor of Physics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProfessor Tompkins’s research focuses on understanding the relationships which govern matter’s most fundamental constituents. As a member of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), she utilizes the world’s highest energy person-made particle collisions in order to understand the mechanism that gives particles mass, whether or not our current model of elementary particle interactions is a complete description of nature, and if dark matter can be produced and studied in colliders.

    In order to search for the exceedingly rare interactions which may provide insight to these questions, the LHC will produce a blistering rate of 50 to 80 proton-proton collisions every 25 nanoseconds in 2015 and beyond. Professor Tompkins works on the design and implementation of custom electronics which will improve the ATLAS experiment’s ability to pick out the collisions which produce the Higgs bosons, dark matter particles and other rare events out of the deluge of ordinary interactions. Her group focuses on particles called heavy flavor fermions, the most massive particles not responsible for mediating interactions. Because they are so heavy, they may have a special connection to the origin of mass or physics beyond our current models of particle interactions.

    She is additionally a member of the Light Dark Matter Experiment (LDMX), a proposed experiment to produce and detect dark matter in the laboratory utilizing an accelerated beam of electrons.

  • Barry Trost

    Barry Trost

    Job and Gertrud Tamaki Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Emeritus

    BioBorn in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Barry Trost began his university training at the University of Pennsylvania (BA, 1962) and completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1965). He moved directly to the University of Wisconsin, where he was promoted to Professor of Chemistry and subsequently Vilas Research Professor. He joined the faculty at Stanford as Professor of Chemistry in 1987 and became Tamaki Professor of Humanities and Sciences in 1990. In addition to serving multiple visiting professorships, Professor Trost was presented with a Docteur honoris causa of the Université Claude-Bernard (Lyon I), France, and in 1997 a Doctor Scientiarum Honoris Causa of the Technion, Haifa, Israel. In recognition of his innovations and scholarship in the field of organic synthesis, Professor Trost has received the ACS Award in Pure Chemistry, ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award, and the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award, among many others. Professor Trost has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Chemical Society, and American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and served as Chairman of the NIH Medicinal Chemistry Study Section. He has held over 125 special university lectureships and presented over 270 Plenary Lectures at national and international meetings. He has published two books and over 950 scientific articles. He edited a major compendium entitled Comprehensive Organic Synthesis consisting of nine volumes and serves on the editorial board for Science of Synthesis and Reaxys.

    The Trost Group’s research program revolves around the theme of synthesis, including target molecules with potential applications as novel catalysts, as well as antibiotic and antitumor therapies. The work comprises two major activities: 1) developing the tools, i.e., the reactions and reagents, and 2) creating the proper network of reactions to make complex targets readily available from simple starting materials.

    Efforts to develop "chemists' enzymes" – non-peptidic transition metal based catalysts that can perform chemo-, regio-, diastereo-, and especially enantioselective reactions – focus close attention to the question of atom economy to minimize waste, energy, and consumption of raw materials.

    Synthetic efficiency raises the question of metal catalyzed cycloadditions to rings other than six-membered. A general strategy is evolving for a "Diels-Alder" equivalent for formation of five, seven, nine, etc. membered carbo- and heterocyclic rings.

    An exciting new direction derives from the molecular gymnastics acetylenes undergo in the presence of transition metals. Additional specific goals include cycloisomerization to virtually all types of ring sizes and systems with particularly versatile juxtaposition of functionality.

    Palladium and ruthenium catalysts represent a major part of the lab's efforts, in order to invent new synthetic processes together with new opportunities for selectivity complementary to that obtained using other metal complexes. Main group chemistry, especially involving silicon, zinc, and sulfur, also offers many opportunities for new reaction design. Rational design of novel catalysts for asymmetric additions to carbonyl and imine groups are an exciting thrust.From these new synthetic tools evolve new synthetic strategies towards complex natural products. Targets include β-lactam antibiotics, ionophores, steroids and related compounds (e.g., Vitamin D metabolites), alkaloids, nucleosides, carbohydrates, and macrolide, terpenoid, and tetracyclic antitumor and antibiotic agents.

  • Albert Tsao

    Albert Tsao

    Basic Life Research Scientist

    BioHoward Hughes Medical Institute Fellow of The Helen Hay Whitney Foundation

  • Shripad Tuljapurkar

    Shripad Tuljapurkar

    The Dean and Virginia Morrison Professor of Population Studies

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsStochastic dynamics of human and natural populations; prehistoric societies; probability forecasts including sex ratios, mortality, aging and fiscal balance; life history evolution.

  • John Turneaure

    John Turneaure

    Professor (Research) of Physics, Emeritus

    BioJohn received his PhD in physics from Stanford University. He later became a research associate in W.W. Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory. Following, he acted as an assistant professor of physics, senior research associate, and professor. Research interests include experimental and observational astrophysics and cosmology.

  • Ravi Vakil

    Ravi Vakil

    Robert Grimmett Professor of Mathematics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAlgebraic geometry and related subjects. For a complete publication list, see my publication page http://math.stanford.edu/~vakil/preprints.html rather than the list here.

  • Andras Vasy

    Andras Vasy

    Robert Grimmett Professor of Mathematics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research concentrates on topics in two broad areas of applications of microlocal analysis in which, partly with collaborators, I introduced new ideas in recent years: non-elliptic linear and non-linear partial differential equations (PDE), typically concerning wave propagation or other related phenomena, and inverse problems for X-ray type transforms along geodesics and related problems for determining the metric tensor from boundary measurements.

  • Peter Vitousek

    Peter Vitousek

    Clifford G. Morrison Professor of Population and Resource Studies, Professor of Earth System Science, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, of Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsVitousek's research interests include: evaluating the global cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus, and how they are altered by human activity; understanding how the interaction of land and culture contributed to the sustainability of Hawaiian (and other Pacific) agriculture and society before European contact; and working to make fertilizer applications more efficient and less environmentally damaging (especially in rapidly growing economies)

  • Ayelet Voskoboynik

    Ayelet Voskoboynik

    Assistant Professor (Research) of Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study several stem cell interrelated phenomena using the colonial chordate, Botryllus schlosseri. We use genetic, genomic, and cell biological approaches to investigate: The evolutionary molecular mechanisms that regulate the decline of tissue regenerative potential during aging and allogeneic stem cell competition in host.

  • Jelena Vuckovic

    Jelena Vuckovic

    Jensen Huang Professor of Global Leadership, Professor of Electrical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Applied Physics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsJelena Vuckovic’s research interests are broadly in the areas of nanophotonics, quantum and nonlinear optics. Her lab develops semiconductor-based photonic chip-scale systems with goals to probe new regimes of light-matter interaction, as well as to enable platforms for future classical and quantum information processing technologies. She also works on transforming conventional photonics with the concept of inverse design, where optimal photonic devices are designed from scratch using computer algorithms with little to no human input. Her current projects include quantum and nonlinear optics, cavity QED, and quantum information processing with color centers in diamond and in silicon carbide, heterogeneously integrated chip-scale photonic systems, and on-chip laser driven particle accelerators.

  • Robert Wagoner

    Robert Wagoner

    Professor of Physics, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProbes (accretion disks, ...) of black holes, sources and detectors of gravitational radiation, theories of gravitation, anthropic cosmological principle.

  • Virginia Walbot

    Virginia Walbot

    Professor of Biology, Emerita

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur current focus is on maize anther development to understand how cell fate is specified. We discovered that hypoxia triggers specification of the archesporial (pre-meiotic) cells, and that these cells secrete a small protein MAC1 that patterns the adjacent soma to differentiate as endothecial and secondary parietal cell types. We also discovered a novel class of small RNA: 21-nt and 24-nt phasiRNAs that are exceptionally abundant in anthers and exhibit strict spatiotemporal dynamics.

  • Guenther Walther

    Guenther Walther

    Professor of Statistics

    BioGuenther Walther studied mathematics, economics, and computer science at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany and received his Ph.D. in Statistics from UC Berkeley in 1994.

    His research has focused on statistical methodology for detection problems, shape-restricted inference, and mixture analysis, and on statistical problems in astrophysics and in flow cytometry.

    He received a Terman fellowship, a NSF CAREER award, and the Distinguished Teaching Award of the Dean of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford. He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, the Annals of Statistics, the Annals of Applied Statistics, and Statistical Science. He was program co-chair of the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and served on the executive committee of IMS from 1998 to 2012.

  • Ward Watt

    Ward Watt

    Professor of Biology, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsEvolutionary adaptive mechanisms, molecules to ecosystems

  • Robert Waymouth

    Robert Waymouth

    Robert Eckles Swain Professor of Chemistry and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering

    BioRobert Eckles Swain Professor in Chemistry Robert Waymouth investigates new catalytic strategies to create useful new molecules, including bioactive polymers, synthetic fuels, and sustainable plastics. In one such breakthrough, Professor Waymouth and Professor Wender developed a new class of gene delivery agents.

    Born in 1960 in Warner Robins, Georgia, Robert Waymouth studied chemistry and mathematics at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia (B.S. and B.A., respectively, both summa cum laude, 1982). He developed an interest in synthetic and mechanistic organometallic chemistry during his doctoral studies in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology under Professor R.H. Grubbs (Ph.D., 1987). His postdoctoral research with Professor Piero Pino at the Institut fur Polymere, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, focused on catalytic hydrogenation with chiral metallocene catalysts. He joined the Stanford University faculty as assistant professor in 1988, becoming full professor in 1997 and in 2000 the Robert Eckles Swain Professor of Chemistry.

    Today, the Waymouth Group applies mechanistic principles to develop new concepts in catalysis, with particular focus on the development of organometallic and organic catalysts for the synthesis of complex macromolecular architectures. In organometallic catalysis, the group devised a highly selective alcohol oxidation catalyst that selectively oxidizes unprotected polyols and carbohydrates to alpha-hyroxyketones. In collaboration with Dr. James Hedrick of IBM, we have developed a platform of highly active organic catalysts and continuous flow reactors that provide access to polymer architectures that are difficult to access by conventional approaches.

    The Waymouth group has devised selective organocatalytic strategies for the synthesis of functional degradable polymers and oligomers that function as "molecular transporters" to deliver genes, drugs and probes into cells and live animals. These advances led to the joint discovery with the Wender group of a general, safe, and remarkably effective concept for RNA delivery based on a new class of synthetic cationic materials, Charge-Altering Releasable Transporters (CARTs). This technology has been shown to be effective for mRNA based cancer vaccines.

  • Paula V. Welander

    Paula V. Welander

    Associate Dean for Integrative Initiatives in DEI, Associate Professor of Environmental Earth System Science and, by courtesy, of Biology and of Earth and Planetary Sciences

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBiosynthesis of lipid biomarkers in modern microbes; molecular geomicrobiology; microbial physiology

  • Paul Wender

    Paul Wender

    Francis W. Bergstrom Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMolecular imaging, therapeutics, drug delivery, drug mode of action, synthesis

  • Carl Wieman

    Carl Wieman

    Cheriton Family Professor and Professor of Physics and of Education, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Wieman group’s research generally focuses on the nature of expertise in science and engineering, particularly physics, and how that expertise is best learned, measured, and taught. This involves a range of approaches, including individual cognitive interviews, laboratory experiments, and classroom interventions with controls for comparisons. We are also looking at how different classroom practices impact the attitudes and learning of different demographic groups.

  • Herman Winick

    Herman Winick

    Professor of Applied Physics (Research), Emeritus

    BioBorn and educated in New York City, he received his AB (1953) and his PhD (1957) from Columbia University. Following a postdoc position at the University of Rochester (1957-59) he continued work in high energy physics and accelerator development at the Cambridge Electron Accelerator at Harvard University (1959-73), serving as Assistant Director. He came to Stanford in 1973 to lead the technical design of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project (SSRP), now SSRL, and served as Deputy Director of the laboratory until his semi-retirement in 1998 (www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu). He has taught physics at Columbia, Rochester, Harvard, MIT, Northwestern, University of Massachusetts, and Stanford. His 1970’s and 1980’s research developing periodic magnet systems (wigglers and undulators), had a major impact on synchrotron radiation sources and research facilities at Stanford and around the world. Beginning in 1992 he made major contributions to initiating and developing the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), the world’s first X-ray Free Electron Laser. Starting operation in 2009, the LCLS has shifted the major SLAC focus from high energy physics to x-ray sources and research. In 1997 he suggested SESAME, a synchrotron light source involving 9 countries in the Middle East. He has played a major role in the development of this project, on track to start research in 2016 (www.sesame.org.jo). He is now promoting a similar project in Africa. Throughout his adult life he has been an activist in helping dissidents and protecting academic freedom and human rights.

  • Wing Hung Wong

    Wing Hung Wong

    Stephen R. Pierce Family Goldman Sachs Professor of Science and Human Health and Professor of Biomedical Data Science

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsCurrent interest centers on the application of statistics to biology and medicine. We are particularly interested in questions concerning gene regulation, genome interpretation and their applications to precision medicine.

  • Yingtong "Amanda" WU

    Yingtong "Amanda" WU

    Lecturer

    BioI am a plant ecologist, botanist, and naturalist. I am broadly interested in microbial ecology, canopy ecology, and their intersections with the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of Native Americans. I completed my Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics with the Ricklefs Lab at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. I am currently a postdoc researcher at the Fukami Lab, Stanford University, where I will be applying my analytical skills in microbial DNA sequencing to understand: (1) the community assembly of monkeyflower nectar microbes and (2) the effects of wildfires and prescribed burning on microbial communities associated with California oaks.

    My previous and ongoing research projects include:​
    FIRES AND TRADITIONAL ECOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE
    SPECIES RANGE SIZES AND SPECIES RARITY
    SOIL MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES
    SPECIES DELIMITATION AND GENE FLOW
    CANOPY ECOLOGY

  • Yan Xia

    Yan Xia

    Associate Professor of Chemistry

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPolymer Chemistry, Microporous Polymer Membranes, Responsive Polymers, Degradable Polymers, Polymers with Unique Mechanical Behaviors, Polymer Networks, Organic Electronic Materials

  • Shicong Xie

    Shicong Xie

    Basic Life Research Scientist

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI use 4D imaging to study cell growth and cell cycle progression in epithelial organoid models and in intact mice.

  • Mason Yearian

    Mason Yearian

    Professor of Physics, Emeritus

    BioMason received his PhD in physics at Stanford University. Later, he served as an assistant professor, associate professor, and professor at Stanford. Past research includes developing detectors for X-ray and gamma ray astronomy, and work on the GRO/EGRET experiments. Mason also developed a computer-based curriculum for teaching introductory physics courses in high schools and universities.

  • Richard Zare

    Richard Zare

    Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science and Professor, by courtesy, of Physics

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research group is exploring a variety of topics that range from the basic understanding of chemical reaction dynamics to the nature of the chemical contents of single cells.

    Under thermal conditions nature seems to hide the details of how elementary reactions occur through a series of averages over reagent velocity, internal energy, impact parameter, and orientation. To discover the effects of these variables on reactivity, it is necessary to carry out studies of chemical reactions far from equilibrium in which the states of the reactants are more sharply restricted and can be varied in a controlled manner. My research group is attempting to meet this tough experimental challenge through a number of laser techniques that prepare reactants in specific quantum states and probe the quantum state distributions of the resulting products. It is our belief that such state-to-state information gives the deepest insight into the forces that operate in the breaking of old bonds and the making of new ones.

    Space does not permit a full description of these projects, and I earnestly invite correspondence. The following examples are representative:

    The simplest of all neutral bimolecular reactions is the exchange reaction H H2 -> H2 H. We are studying this system and various isotopic cousins using a tunable UV laser pulse to photodissociate HBr (DBr) and hence create fast H (D) atoms of known translational energy in the presence of H2 and/or D2 and using a laser multiphoton ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer to detect the nascent molecular products in a quantum-state-specific manner by means of an imaging technique. It is expected that these product state distributions will provide a key test of the adequacy of various advanced theoretical schemes for modeling this reaction.

    Analytical efforts involve the use of capillary zone electrophoresis, two-step laser desorption laser multiphoton ionization mass spectrometry, cavity ring-down spectroscopy, and Hadamard transform time-of-flight mass spectrometry. We believe these methods can revolutionize trace analysis, particularly of biomolecules in cells.

  • Evgeny Zatulovskiy

    Evgeny Zatulovskiy

    Basic Life Research Scientist

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsCell cycle and cell size control in animal cells

  • Alfred Zong

    Alfred Zong

    Acting Assistant Professor, Physics

    BioI will be joining the Physics and Applied Physics departments as an assistant professor in September 2024, where my group focuses on the study of light-induced non-equilibrium phenomena in quantum materials. To capture the ultrafast dynamics on the nanoscale, we develop a variety of techniques such as ultrafast electron diffraction and microscopy, attosecond transient absorption spectroscopy, and coherent diffraction imaging. These time-resolved probes are integrated with a complex sample environment such as in-situ strain and electrostatic gating in order to design, discover, and understand non-equilibrium phases of quantum materials.

    We are seeking motivated undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs to join the group. Please email me directly to discuss opportunities.

    For more details, check out the group website at https://zonglab.stanford.edu/