Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Showing 41-60 of 110 Results
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Mengyu Liang (Amber)
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioI'm currently a postdoc at Stanford Woods Institute of the Environment working on combining remote sensing and econometric to assess the environmental and social outcomes of natural climate solutions and forest management interventions. I completed my PhD at the Department of Geographical Sciences at UMD in May 2024. During my PhD, I developed remote sensing techniques utilizing multi-source remote sensing data (e.g,. GEDI, ICESat2, Landsat archive, PlanetScope) for monitoring long-term carbon sequestration in forest restoration areas in East Africa. Seeking to understand how to use Earth Observation to improve the sustainability of human-environment interaction is both a passion of mine and the research agenda during my PhD and onwards. Moreover, I have developed skills in forest inventory and Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) data collection from working on field campaigns in Mozambique and Uganda. Developing web-based interactive map dashboards is another set of technical expertise that I have been practicing (see http://mliang8.github.io/ for map portfolio ) and want to employ in future projects to enhance communications with various stakeholders.
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Stephanie M. Lim
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioI am a biological oceanographer studying the response of ice algae, phytoplankton, and biogeochemical cycles to climate change in the polar oceans. My personal website is https://slim8288.github.io
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Zhuo Liu
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth and Planetary Sciences
BioZhuo Liu is a postdoctoral scholar at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, sponsored by Mineral-X. His expertise is in multi-geophysical data interpretation with both traditional methods and machine-learning-based methods for critical mineral exploration.
Zhuo Liu earned his PhD degree in Geophysics, with a minor degree in Geology, from the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), USA. His doctoral and postdoctoral research focused on advancing geophysical data interpretation methods and incorporating geologic prior information into the interpretation process in machine-learning and geostatistical approaches for mineral resources exploration.
Previously, Zhuo earned his Bachelor's degree in Applied Geophysics from the Central South University, China, and a Master's degree in Geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), USA. He also visited the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) as a Student Visiting Scholar under the mentorship of Dr. Xinming Wu in 2021. -
Yuchi Ma
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioAs a postdoctoral scholar in Earth System Science at Stanford University with a Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering and a minor in Machine Learning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), my research is dedicated to developing and applying precision sensing technologies and Geospatial AI to advance scalable Earth observation, environmental monitoring, and data-driven decision support. My research program develops sensing-to-decision frameworks that connect the physical and computational dimensions of the Earth system. I contribute across three tightly linked areas: (1) remote sensing strategies for fine-scale environmental and agroecosystem observation; (2) GeoAI methods that improve model generalization across space, sensors, and time; and (3) science applications that translate these methods into actionable insights on land management, climate resilience, and sustainability.
My research has resulted in 8 first-authored and 17 co-authored publications in leading journals, including Nature Sustainability and Remote Sensing of Environment. The impact of my work is reflected in 2 first-authored papers recognized as Web of Science Highly Cited Papers (Top 1%) and 1 first-authored paper designated as a Top Cited Paper in Remote Sensing of Environment (2025). Beyond academia, the real-world impact of my research is evident: my models have been adopted by USDA and Google X, demonstrating their practical value to both government and industry.
Besides, I have taught 3 courses, including one semester as the Lecturer of Record in Geography at UW-Madison. For service, I have served as reviewers for over 30 journals and convened agroecosystem- and AI-related sessions at the AGU and AAG meetings. In addition, I have actively secured internal and external funding, serving as PI or Co-PI on multiple awarded projects. These leadership and collaborative roles have allowed me to build enduring connections with top researchers from academic institutions and private sectors, extending my professional network beyond Stanford. More details are listed in my CV. -
Benjamin Maki
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioBen joined Stanford's Earth System Science department as a postdoctoral scholar in February 2026. He is currently working on a series of projects related to the sustainable management of groundwater resources in California's Central Valley, where his work is focused within the context of managed aquifer recharge (MAR). MAR is a suite of methods used to redirect excess surface water into groundwater systems and has emerged as a key strategy to bank freshwater and restore groundwater levels throughout California. More specifically, his work focuses on better understanding the potential risks to groundwater quality posed by naturally occurring geogenic contaminants during recharge efforts, where changes to native geochemical conditions during recharge can result in the inadvertent mobilization of toxic naturally occurring contaminants, such as arsenic, uranium, chromium, and manganese. Current work funded through the Stanford Sustainability Accelerator, and in partnership with the Madera Irrigation District among other community partners, aims to establish a simple, functional multi-user focused toolkit to aid in effectively and safely scaling groundwater recharge efforts throughout the state. Importantly, this work focuses on both understanding community level concerns during local groundwater recharge projects, while simultaneously establishing effective groundwater quality monitoring protocols and designing simple, scalable, and effective field-scale management solutions to protect long-term groundwater quality.
Prior to joining Stanford, Ben completed his Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology, with a designated emphasis in Public Policy, at the University of California Riverside (UCR). His dissertation research focused on assessing the mechanistic controls driving inadvertent geogenic metals solubilization and transformation within MAR systems designed to infiltrate untreated stormwater runoff using recharge basins on agricultural lands in the Pajaro Valley, CA. These systems were uniquely designed to remediate nitrate contamination within infiltrating stormwater via the application of carbon based (e.g., woodchips, almond shells, etc.) horizontal permeable reactive barriers, installed within basin surface soils, where carbon solubilization effectively stimulated native microbial communities to reduce and remediate excess nitrate during infiltration. However, the conditions that promote denitrification (e.g., excess organic carbon and shifts to oxygen depleted conditions) can also result in the solubilization of geogenic metals from soils. Ben’s dissertation work employed novel methods to assess how these processes were influenced by excess organic carbon availability and redox cycling, representative of the cycling wet and dry condition in basin soils during recharge, to better understand the balance between water quality tradeoffs and consider system management strategies to maximize water quality benefits while reducing risks. Preceding his time at UCR, Ben received a BS in Environmental Science from Western Washington University, where he studied the influences of amorphous iron oxyhydroxides and biological amendments on arsenic and iron bioavailability, fate, and transport in soils.
When not thinking about groundwater replenishment, Ben enjoys time with friends, family, and his partner Al and dog Rupert. He spends the bulk of his free time surfing on the California coast, exploring the Bay Area by bicycle and campervan, traveling to as many new places as possible, and enjoying live music, and good food and company along the way!
