Precourt Institute for Energy
Showing 41-60 of 167 Results
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Thomas Devereaux
Professor of Photon Science, of Materials Science and Engineering and Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy main research interests lie in the areas of theoretical condensed matter physics and computational physics. My research effort focuses on using the tools of computational physics to understand quantum materials. Fortunately, we are poised in an excellent position as the speed and cost of computers have allowed us to tackle heretofore unaddressed problems involving interacting systems. The goal of my research is to understand electron dynamics via a combination of analytical theory and numerical simulations to provide insight into materials of relevance to energy science. My group carries out numerical simulations on SIMES’ high-performance supercomputer and US and Canadian computational facilities. The specific focus of my group is the development of numerical methods and theories of photon-based spectroscopies of strongly correlated materials.
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Noah Diffenbaugh
William Wrigley Professor and Kimmelman Family Senior Fellow
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Noah S. Diffenbaugh is an Editor of the peer-review journal Geophysical Research Letters, and a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He is a recipient of the James R. Holton Award from the American Geophysical Union, a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation, and a Terman Fellowship from Stanford University. He has also been recognized as a Kavli Fellow by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and as a Google Science Communication Fellow.
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Jennifer Dionne
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy and Professor, by courtesy, of Radiology (Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford)
BioJennifer (Jen) Dionne is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and, by courtesy, of Radiology at Stanford. She is also a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator, deputy director of Q-NEXT (a DOE National Quantum Initiative), and co-founder of Pumpkinseed, a company developing quantum sensors to understand and optimize the immune system. From 2020-2023, Jen served as Stanford’s Inaugural Vice Provost of Shared Facilities, raising capital to modernize instrumentation, fund experiential education, foster staff development, and support new and existing users of the shared facilities. Jen received her B.S. degrees in Physics and Systems Science and Mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis, her Ph. D. in Applied Physics at the California Institute of Technology in 2009, and her postdoctoral training in Chemistry at Berkeley. As a pioneer of nanophotonics, she is passionate about developing methods to observe and control chemical and biological processes as they unfold with nanometer scale resolution, emphasizing critical challenges in global health and sustainability. Her research has developed culture-free methods to detect pathogens and their antibiotic susceptibility; amplification-free methods to detect and sequence nucleic acids and proteins; and new methods to image light-driven chemical reactions with atomic-scale resolution. Jen’s work has been featured in NPR, the Economist, Science, and Nature, and recognized with the NSF Alan T. Waterman Award, a NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, a Moore Inventor Fellowship, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. She was also featured on Oprah’s list of “50 Things that will make you say ‘Wow’!”. She also perceives outreach as a critical component of her role and frequently collaborates with visual and performing artists to convey the beauty of science to the broader public.
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Louis Durlofsky
Otto N. Miller Professor in the School of Earth Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsGeneral reservoir simulation, optimization, reduced-order modeling, upscaling, flow in fractured systems, history matching, CO2 sequestration, energy systems optimization
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Abbas El Gamal
Hitachi America Professor in the School of Engineering and Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy
BioAbbas El Gamal is the Hitachi America Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. He received his B.Sc. Honors degree from Cairo University in 1972, and his M.S. in Statistics and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering both from Stanford University in 1977 and 1978, respectively. From 1978 to 1980, he was an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at USC. From 2003 to 2012, he was the Director of the Information Systems Laboratory at Stanford University. From 2012 to 2017 he was Chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. His research contributions have been in network information theory, FPGAs, and digital imaging devices and systems. He has authored or coauthored over 230 papers and holds 35 patents in these areas. He is coauthor of the book Network Information Theory (Cambridge Press 2011). He has received several honors and awards for his research contributions, including the 2016 Richard W. Hamming Medal, the 2012 Claude E. Shannon Award, and the 2004 INFOCOM Paper Award. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the IEEE. He has co-founded and served on the board of directors and advisory boards of several semiconductor and biotechnology startup companies.
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W Gary Ernst
The Benjamin M. Page Professor in Earth Sciences, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPetrology/geochemistry and plate tectonics of Circumpacific and Alpine mobile belts; ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism in Eurasia; geology of the California Coast Ranges, the cental Klamath Mountains, and White-Inyo Range; geobotany and remote sensing of the American Southwest; mineralogy and human health.
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Béline Falzon
Assistant Director, Events, Precourt Institute for Energy
BioBorn and raised in France, Béline Falzon has lived in the United States since 2015 and has worked at Stanford since 2022. Most recently, she was the Event Manager at the Stanford King Center on Global Development. A Certified Meeting Professional, she also volunteers for the Event Planners Practitioners Community on campus. In her free time, she enjoys crafting, playing board games, reading speculative fiction, and spoiling her two cats Juniper and Nutmeg.
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Shanhui Fan
Joseph and Hon Mai Goodman Professor of the School of Engineering, Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy and Professor, by courtesy, of Applied Physics
BioFan's research interests are in fundamental studies of nanophotonic structures, especially photonic crystals and meta-materials, and applications of these structures in energy and information technology applications
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Chris Field
Melvin and Joan Lane Professor of Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Director, Woods Institute for the Environment & Professor of Earth System Science, of Biology and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute and at the Precourt Institute
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch
My field is climate-change science, and my research emphasizes human-ecological interactions across many disciplines. Most studies include aspects of ecology, but also aspects of law, sociology, medicine, or engineering. -
Martin Fischer
Kumagai Professor in the School of Engineering and Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy
BioProfessor Fischer's research goals are to improve the productivity of project teams involved in designing, building, and operating facilities and to enhance the sustainability of the built environment. His work develops the theoretical foundations and applications for virtual design and construction (VDC). VDC methods support the design of a facility and its delivery process and help reduce the costs and maximize the value over its lifecycle. His research has been used by many small and large industrial government organizations around the world.
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Kelsey Freeman
Social Science Research Scholar
BioKelsey is an award-winning writer, policy researcher, and advocate focused on rural community development, Indigenous rights, migration and climate change.
She is currently a Social Science Research Scholar at Stanford University's Precourt Energy Institute, where her work focuses on supporting Native American tribes in their clean energy goals. Through this role, she is also seconded to the Tribal Affairs program at the California Energy Commission (CEC), where she is helping launch a landmark policy-making process in collaboration with California tribes to ensure they can participate in and benefit from the clean energy transition.
Kelsey draws on 10 years focused on tribal sovereignty and has a strong track record of building programming to support tribes. She previously worked at Central Oregon Community College, where she collaborated with tribes across Oregon to start a college-readiness program for Native American high school students. She also facilitated workshops on equity, advised the college’s Dreamers’ Club, and served on the City of Bend Accessibility Advisory Committee.
Her debut book No Option but North (IG Publishing) was published in 2020 and is based on her year on a Fulbright Fellowship in Mexico interviewing Central American migrants. It interweaves their stories with research into the policies that reveal the fundamental tensions involved in contemporary migration. It won the 2021 Colorado Book Award in creative nonfiction and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. It also received acclaim in Publisher’s Weekly, The New York Journal of Books, Choice Reviews of the Association of College and Research Libraries, and many others. She has since spoken and interviewed across the U.S. on immigration policy. Kelsey has written for Stanford International Policy Review, UCLA’s Journal of Law and Environmental Policy, The Mantle, Complex(ion) Magazine, and is the recipient of a Steinberg Reporting Award.
From 2022-2025, Kelsey was a Knight Hennessy Scholar at Stanford studying international policy and environment and resources. During this time, she worked with Nevada’s green bank to help develop their tribal clean energy program, conducted research on international climate displacement and organized a course and conference on climate migration. She is the author of the report "Understanding Federal Indian Law for Renewable Energy," published by Stanford Law School.
Kelsey holds an MA in international policy and an MS in environment and resources from Stanford University and a BA in government and legal studies from Bowdoin College. -
Mark Golden
Director of Communication, Precourt Institute for Energy
BioWorking with the Precourt Institute's small communications team, my principal responsibility is to inform the public about energy research and education at Stanford through articles, press releases, social media, Stanford Energy newsletter, printed materials and presentations. I also aid reporters writing about energy. I began work at Stanford in 2011, when I joined the Precourt Institute's communications team as a writer.
Before coming to Stanford, I taught in the San Francisco public schools for several years. Previously, I was a reporter for Dow Jones & Co. for 10 years, primarily covering the U.S. natural gas and power industries. I also worked in Kiev, Ukraine in 1996-97, editing a weekly news magazine on that country's economic and political development. I also worked for Columbia University, writing on public health research. -
Kenneth Goodson
Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs, Davies Family Provostial Professor, and Professor, by courtesy, of Materials Science and Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProf. Goodson’s Nanoheat Lab studies heat transfer in electronic nanostructures, microfluidic heat sinks, and packaging, focussing on basic transport physics and practical impact for industry. We work closely with companies on novel cooling and packaging strategies for power devices, portables, ASICs, & data centers. At present, sponsors and collaborators include ARPA-E, the NSF POETS Center, SRC ASCENT, Google, Intel, Toyota, Ford, among others.
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Lawrence Goulder
Shuzo Nishihara Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsGoulder's research examines the environmental and economic impacts of environmental policies in the U.S. and China, with a focus on policies to deal with climate change and air pollution. His current research focuses on the evaluation of proposed U.S. federal level climate change policies and China's emerging nationwide emissions trading program to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
His work also explores the sustainability of natural resources and well-being in several countries.
Results from his work have been published in academic journal articles as well as in the book, Confronting the Climate Challenge: Options for US Policy, which was published by Columbia University Press in 2017.
His work often employs a general equilibrium analytical framework that integrates the economy and the environment and links the activities of government, industry, and households. The research considers both the aggregate benefits and costs of various policies as well as the distribution of policy impacts across industries, income groups, and generations. Some of his work involves collaborations with climate scientists, biologists, and engineers.
Goulder has conducted analyses for several government agencies, business groups, and environmental organizations, and has served on advisory committees to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board. -
Diana Gragg
Managing Director Explore Energy, Precourt Institute for Energy
Current Role at StanfordManaging Director, Explore Energy, Precourt Institute for Energy
Core Lecturer, Civil and Environmental Engineering -
Ronald Hanson
Clarence J. and Patricia R. Woodard Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProfessor Hanson has been an international leader in the development of laser-based diagnostic methods for combustion and propulsion, and in the development of modern shock tube methods for accurate determination of chemical reaction rate parameters needed for modeling combustion and propulsion systems. He and his students have made several pioneering contributions that have impacted the pace of propulsion research and development worldwide.
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James Harris
James and Elenor Chesebrough Professor in the School of Engineering, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch interests have been in the areas of new electronic and optoelectronic device structures created by heterojunctions, quantum wells, superlattices and nanostructured materials. Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) has been the foundation to prepare nanostructured metastable materials with atomic layer control and dimensions smaller than the wavelength of electrons. In this regime, quantum size effects can be utilized to create entirely new device structures based upon tailored transitions between quantum states and tunneling between states and structures. Past two decades focused on MBE growth of novel optoelectronic materials (GaInNAsSb) for long wavelength lasers and solar cells; quantum well structures for surface emitting lasers with power and bandwidth demands of AI now driving 10,000 element VCSEL arrays for optical interconnect; integrated nanophotonic structures for laser driven dielectric electron accelerators and free electron lasers (FEL) on a wafer for medical imagining systems; high speed optical modulators and non-linear optical effects for generation, control and application of ultra-short optical pulses; ultra-high efficiency multi-bandgap solar cells; world record solar to hydrogen conversion with water splitting; Si based photonic devices, including single photon avalanche detector (SPAD) for range finding and autonomous vehicles; implantable retina prosthesis with first human response in phase 1 human trials, 12/17.
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Jerry Harris
The Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Professor in Geophysics, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBiographical Information
Jerry M. Harris is the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Geophysics and Associate Dean for the Office of Multicultural Affairs. He joined Stanford in 1988 following 11 years in private industry. He served five years as Geophysics department chair, was the Founding Director of the Stanford Center for Computational Earth and Environmental Science (CEES), and co-launched Stanford's Global Climate and Energy Project (GCEP). Graduates from Jerry's research group, the Stanford Wave Physics Lab, work in private industry, government labs, and universities.
Research
My research interests address the physics and dynamics of seismic and electromagnetic waves in complex media. My approach to these problems includes theory, numerical simulation, laboratory methods, and the analysis of field data. My group, collectively known as the Stanford Wave Physics Laboratory, specializes on high frequency borehole methods and low frequency labratory methods. We apply this research to the characterization and monitoring of petroleum and CO2 storage reservoirs.
Teaching
I teach courses on waves phenomena for borehole geophysics and tomography. I recently introduced and co-taught a new course on computational geosciences.
Professional Activities
I was the First Vice President of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists in 2003-04, and have served as the Distinguished Lecturer for the SPE, SEG, and AAPG. -
Siegfried Hecker
Professor (Research) of Management Science and Engineering and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly Interestsplutonium science; nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship; cooperative threat reduction
