Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Showing 201-250 of 366 Results
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Eric Lambin
George and Setsuko Ishiyama Provostial Professor and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI study human-environment interactions in land systems by linking remote sensing, GIS and socio-economic data. I aim at better understanding causes and impacts of changes in tropical forests, drylands, and farming systems. I currently focus on land use transitions – i.e., the shift from deforestation (or land degradation) to reforestation (or land sparing for nature), – the influence of globalization on land use decisions, and the interactions between public and private governance of land use.
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Mathieu Lapôtre
Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and, by courtesy, of Geophysics
BioProf. Lapôtre leads the Earth & Planetary Surface Processes group. His research focuses on the physics behind sedimentary and geomorphic processes that shape planetary surfaces (including Earth's), and aims to untangle what sedimentary rocks tell us about the past hydrology, climate, and habitability of planets.
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James Leape
William and Eva Price Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, of Oceans
BioJim Leape serves as co-director of the Center for Ocean Solutions and is the William and Eva Price Senior Fellow in the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Through research, writing, and direct engagement with private and public sector leaders, Jim looks at how to drive large-scale systemic shifts to sustainability, with particular interest in expanding private sector leadership on sustainability globally.
Jim has four decades of conservation experience, spanning a broad range of conservation issues on every continent. From 2005 to 2014, he served as Director General of WWF International and leader of the global WWF Network, which is one of the world’s largest conservation organizations, active in more than 100 countries. In that capacity, he worked with government, business and civil society leaders on a wide range of issues, including climate change, marine conservation, forest protection, water resources management, and sustainability in global commodity markets. Before going to WWF International, Jim directed the conservation and science initiatives of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, a leading philanthropy in the U.S. Previously, he served as executive vice president of WWF-US in Washington, D.C.; as a lawyer for the United Nations Environment Programme in Nairobi, Kenya; as a law professor; and as a litigator for the National Audubon Society and for the U.S. Department of Justice.
Jim has served on the boards of the Marine Stewardship Council, Mission 2020 and the Luc Hoffmann Institute, and on the Global Future Council for the Food Security and the Environmental Stewards Board of the World Economic Forum. From 2007 to 2017, he was a member of the China Council for International Cooperation in Environment and Development, which advises the Premier of China. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the ClimateWorks Foundation.
Leape received an A.B. with honors from Harvard College and a J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School.
Jim serves on the boards of the Marine Stewardship Council, Mission 2020 and the Luc Hoffmann Institute, and on the Global Future Council for the Food Security and the Environmental Stewards Board of the World Economic Forum. From 2007 to 2017, he was a member of the China Council for International Cooperation in Environment and Development, which advises the Premier of China. He is also a Distinguished Fellow at the ClimateWorks Foundation.
Leape received an A.B. with honors from Harvard College and a J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School. -
Anna Lee
Lecturer, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAnna's research interests are how people learn about and make decisions related to food and waste.
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Justin Leidwanger
Associate Professor of Classics and, by courtesy, of Oceans
BioJustin Leidwanger's research focuses on Mediterranean mobilities and connectivity, maritime livelihoods, and their heritage. Ships and ports are central to exploring these themes, providing evidence for the long-term dynamics that shaped coastal communities economically, socially, and politically. He is drawn to the long arc of the Roman Mediterranean, especially its temporal edges, from the emergence of Hellenistic states to the long Late Antiquity and beyond. Through a focus on diverse but co-dependent seaborne interactions that have and continue to define the Mediterranean, this work aligns critical engagement with the past, advocacy for local communities in the present, and sustainable development for the future.
Current collaborative fieldwork in Sardinia with the University of Sassari examines the socio-environmental dynamics spanning three millennia of tuna trap fisheries (tonnare). In Croatia, joint excavation with the Croatian Conservation Institute of a wreck carrying a high-ranking individual and perhaps a goldsmith around 700 CE sheds new light on the transformation of interactions at the end of antiquity (featured in National Geographic, Reuters, and elsewhere). A maritime landscape survey with Dokuz Eylül University in southwest Türkiye explores the impacts of early Hellenistic sociopolitical shifts on local economies and mobilities.
Previously, Justin co-directed investigations (2011-2015) at the Archaic through Late Antique harbors of Burgaz (“Old Knidos”) in Türkiye, and led excavations (2013-2019) of the 6th-century Marzamemi 2 “church wreck” off Sicily, which carried 100 tons of marble architectural elements. Work in Sicily continues through 3D and other analyses of the assemblage as well as immersive museum-based and other heritage initiatives that link past and present. One facet of this work mobilizes archaeology to understand the creation and circulation of plastics as maritime material assemblages, offering a new vantage point on socio-environmental systems. Another uses archaeology to foreground heritage activism through the spaces, materialities, and memories of forced and undocumented migration across these waters.
On campus, he teaches courses and advises students on topics in Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Antique archaeology, Mediterranean heritage, economies and interaction, port networks, ceramic production and exchange, archaeological theory, and Greco-Roman architecture and engineering. The Maritime Archaeology & Digital Heritage Lab (MEDLab) at the Archaeology Center serves as a fieldwork base and collaborative resource for shipwreck and harbor archaeology, digital modeling (structured light scanning, laser scanning, photogrammetry, GIS, network visualization), and pottery analysis (petrography, pXRF, computational morphological analysis, finite element method, experimental archaeology).
Author of Roman Seas: A Maritime Archaeology of Eastern Mediterranean Economies (Oxford), and editor or co-editor of various volumes, including Maritime Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Cambridge), Regional Economies in Action (Vienna), and Across the Shore: Integrating Perspective on Maritime Heritage (Springer), he is currently working on two books. The first, Fluid Technologies: Innovation on the Ancient Mediterranean, examines the interdependence of maritime logistics in Greco-Roman economies, from transport amphora standardization to changes in ship design and port infrastructure. The second, The Tuna Trap, uses the distinctive practices surrounding community fisheries to shed light on the entanglement of human and non-human mobilities across central Mediterranean waters. -
Larry John Leifer
Member, Bio-X
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur "designXlab" at the Stanford Center for Design Research (CDR) has long (30+ years) been focused on Engineering Design Team dynamics at global collaboration scale working with corporate partners in my graduate course ME310ABC. In our most recent studies we have added Neuroscience visualization of brain activity using fMRI and fNIRS. In doing so we have launched "NeuroDesign" as a professional discipline.
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Michael Lepech
C. L. Peck, Class of 1906, Professor and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
BioUnsustainable energy and material consumption, waste production, and emissions are some of today’s most pressing global concerns. To address these concerns, civil engineers are now designing facilities that, for example, passively generate power, reuse waste, and are carbon neutral. These designs are based foremost on longstanding engineering theory. Yet woven within this basic knowledge must be new science and new technologies, which advance the field of civil engineering to the forefront of sustainability-focused design.
My research develops fundamental engineering design concepts, models, and tools that are tightly integrated with quantitative sustainability assessment and service life modeling across length scales, from material scales to system scales, and throughout the early design, project engineering, construction, and operation life cycle phases of constructed facilities. My research follows the Sustainable Integrated Materials, Structures, Systems (SIMSS) framework. SIMSS is a tool to guide the multi-scale design of sustainable built environments, including multi-physics modeling informed by infrastructure sensing data and computational learning and feedback algorithms to support advanced digital-twinning of engineered systems. Thus, my research applies SIMMS through two complementary research thrusts; (1) developing high-fidelity quantitative sustainability assessment methods that enable civil engineers to quickly and probabilistically measure sustainability indicators, and (2) creating multi-scale, fundamental engineering tools that integrate with sustainability assessment and facilitate setting and meeting sustainability targets throughout the life cycle of constructed facilities.
Most recently, my research forms the foundation of the newly created Stanford Center at the Incheon Global Campus (SCIGC) in South Korea, a university-wide research center examining the potential for smart city technologies to enhance the sustainability of urban areas. Located in the smart city of Songdo, Incheon, South Korea, SCIGC is a unique global platform to (i) advance research on the multi-scale design, construction, and operation of sustainable built environments, (ii) demonstrate to cities worldwide the scalable opportunities for new urban technologies (e.g., dense urban sensing networks, dynamic traffic management, autonomous vehicles), and (iii) improve the sustainability and innovative capacity of increasingly smarter cities globally.
With an engineering background in civil and environmental engineering and material science (BSE, MSE, PhD), and business training in strategy and finance (MBA), I continue to explore to the intersection of entrepreneurship education, innovation capital training, and the potential of startups to more rapidly transfer and scale technologies to solve some of the world's most challenging problems. -
Andrew Leslie
Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am interested in morphological evolution. I approach this broad topic by investigating how interactions among form, function, and environment have influenced evolutionary patterns in plant reproductive structures over million-year time scales. This approach requires synthesizing information from different disciplines, and my work uses approaches from paleontology, biomechanics, phylogenetics, and biogeography.
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Philip Levis
Professor of Computer Science and of Electrical Engineering
BioProfessor Levis' research focuses on the design and implementation of efficient software systems for embedded wireless sensor networks; embedded network sensor architecture and design; systems programming and software engineering.
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Raymond Levitt
Kumagai Professor in the School of Engineering, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Levitt founded and directs Stanford’s Global Projects Center (GPC), which conducts research, education and outreach to enhance financing, governance and sustainability of global building and infrastructure projects. Dr. Levitt's research focuses on developing enhanced governance of infrastructure projects procured via Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) delivery, and alternative project delivery approaches for complex buildings like full-service hospitals or data centers.
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Shanjun Li
Steven and Roberta Denning Global Sustainability Professor, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and at the Precourt Institute for Energy
BioShanjun Li is the Steven and Roberta Denning Global Sustainability Professor and a Senior Fellow at both the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). His research focuses on environmental and energy economics, urban and transportation economics, empirical industrial organization, and the Chinese economy. His recent work examines pressing sustainability challenges and the rapid rise of clean energy industries in China, exploring their global implications to inform evidence-based policymaking.
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Aaron Lindenberg
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and of Photon Science
On Leave from 2026-10-01 To 2026-12-31BioLindenberg's research is focused on visualizing the ultrafast dynamics and atomic-scale structure of materials on femtosecond and picosecond time-scales. X-ray and electron scattering and spectroscopic techniques are combined with ultrafast optical techniques to provide a new way of taking snapshots of materials in motion. Current research is focused on the dynamics of phase transitions, ultrafast properties of nanoscale materials, and charge transport, with a focus on materials for information storage technologies, energy-related materials, and nanoscale optoelectronic devices.
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Juhn Liou
Professor of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPetrochemical processes and tectonics of ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic terranes
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Ira Lit
Professor (Teaching) of Education
BioResearch and practice focuses on teacher education, elementary education, educational equity, and the design and purpose of education and schooling, as well as the exploration of the educational experience of students often marginalized by the school context.
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Keith Loague
Professor of Geological Sciences, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsRESEARCH (see PUBLICATIONS), 1980-2017
Process-based characterizations of surface & near-surface hydrologic response, based upon comprehensive field observations and sophisticated numerical simulations.
* Group Members (with degrees earned): John Griggs - PhD, Jennifer Kleveno - MS, Robert Miyahira - MS, Ephraim Leon-Guerrero - MS, Domingo Molina - MS, Robert Abrams - MS, Ricardo Diaz-Diaz - Post Doctoral Fellow, Erik Wahlstrom - MS, Robert Abrams - PhD, Robert Abrams - Post Doctoral Fellow, Jim Blanke - MS CoTerm, Anona Dutton - MS CoTerm, D’Artagnan Lloyd - MS, Melissa Mills - MS, Edzer Pebesma - Visiting Scholar, Iris Stewart - PhD, Luis Ugalde - MS, Joel VanderKwaak - Post Doctoral Fellow, Dennis Corwin - Visiting Scholar, Leigh Soutter - PhD, Robert Abrams - Research Associate, Qihua Ran - MS, Lauren Benson - MS CoTerm, Qihua Ran - PhD, Adrianne Carr - PhD, Christopher Heppner - PhD, Susan BeVille - MS CoTerm, Brian Ebel - PhD, Brian Ebel - Post Doctoral Fellow, Benjamin Mirus - PhD, Mollie Pettit - MS, Kristin Mayer - MS, Matthew Thomas - PhD, & Matthew Thomas - Post Doctoral Fellow
* Invited Reviews, requested by: Academic Press, Advances in Environmental Research, Advances in Water Resources, American Geophysical Union, Hydraulic Engineering, Hydrologic Engineering, Cambridge University Press, Earth & Planetary Science Letters, Ecohydrology, Engineering Geology, Environmental & Engineering Geoscience, Environmental Earth Sciences, Environmental Geology, Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Environmental Science & Technology, Geoderma, Geophysical Research Letters, Hydrogeology, Hydrological Processes, Contaminant Hydrology, Environmental Quality, Geophysical Research - Earth Surface, Natural Hazards, National Aeronautics & Space Administration, National Geographic Society, National Science Foundation, National Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada, Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations, Oxford University Press, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Remote Sensing of Environment, Reviews in Geophysics, Science, USDA Water Quality Research Program, USGS National Institutes for Water Resources , US State Department (Science Center), Soil Science Society of America, Vadoze Zone, Water Resources Center (California), Water Resources Research, Water Resources Research Center (Hawaii), & 37 more journals/agencies
TEACHING (courses taught, repeatedly; 89 total), 1985-2017
* University of Hawaii @ Manoa, 1985-1988 (~ 1,000 days): GG455 Groundwater Geology, GG654 Groundwater Contamination, GG655 Groundwater Modeling, & GG656 Transport Modeling
* University of California @ Berkeley, 1988-1994 (2,222 days): FRM109 Wildland Hydrology, SS150 Soil Hydrology, Soil Science Seminar, SS250 Vadose Zone Modeling, & SS251 Hillslope Hydrology
* Leland Stanford Junior University, 1994-2017 (8,431 days): GES-43Q Environmental Problems, GES-130 Environmental Earth Sciences I, GES-131 Environmental Earth Sciences II, GES-130 Soil Physics and Hydrology, GES-131 Hydrologically-Driven Landscape Evolution, GES-140 Geomorphology, GES-230 Hydrogeology, GES-332b Seminar in Hydrogeology, GES-237 Surface and Near-Surface Hydrologic Response, GES-238 Soil Physics, & GES-239 Advanced Geomorphology
SERVICE (US Army - enlisted - 1,096 days active duty), 1970-1973
* Stateside: Fort Wayne MI, Fort Knox KY (D-12-5 "tigers one and all"), Fort Eustis VA, Fort Stewart GA, Hunter Army Airfield GA, Treasure Island CA, & Fort Carson CO
* Vietnam (volunteer - 328 days "in country"): "breathing in" Saigon / Tan Son Nhut AB (via Travis AFB, Alaska, & Yokota AFB), Vung Tau, 611th Trans Company 1st Aviation Brigade @ Vien Long Army Airfield ("Delta Riggers" - crew chief, Tailboard 336 [67N20 / UH-1H (slick)], door gunner, & rigger), Can Tho Army Airfield, F Troop 1st Calvalry Division @ Bien Hoa Air Base (Army side), & "breathing out" Saigon / Tan Son Nhut AB (to Travis AFB) -
David Lobell
Benjamin M. Page Professor, William Wrigley Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute, at the Woods Institute for the Environment and at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study the interactions between food production, food security, and the environment using a range of modern tools.
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Helen Longino
Clarence Irving Lewis Professor of Philosophy, Emerita
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am currently pursuing research in several different areas. 1) The concept of interaction in science and philosophy. 2) The epistemology of science, especially social epistemology. 3) The contributions feminist philosophy of science can make to understanding science and sustainability policy in so-called developing countries? 4) How engagement with communities can inform philosophical analysis.
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Amory B Lovins
Senior Precourt Scholar for Integrative Design and Energy Efficiency, Precourt Institute for Energy
Current Role at StanfordAdjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sept 2019 – June 2024, then retitled Lecturer in CEE, with the same responsibilities, because the definition changed and Lovins lacks a PhD. Senior Precourt Scholar for Integrative Design and Energy Efficiency, Precourt Institute for Energy.
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Donald Lowe
Max Steineke Professor in Earth Sciences, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsClastic sedimentology, deep-water sedimentation mechanics and facies; Archean depositional systems and crustal development
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Stephen Luby
Lucy Becker Professor of Medicine, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Professor, by courtesy, of Epidemiology and Population Health
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Luby’s research interests include identifying and interrupting environmental pathways of disease in low- and middle-income countries.
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Beatriz Magaloni
Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsComparative Politics, Political Economy, Latin American Politics
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Katharine (Kate) Maher
Professor of Earth System Science, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsHydrology, reactive transport modeling and environmental geochemistry
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Gail Mahood
Professor of Geological Sciences, Emerita
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOrigin and evolution of silicic magmas expressed in rhyolitic volcanic centers and shallow plutons; geologic histories of calderas; high-precision Ar-Ar geochronology applied to caldera-forming eruptions and flood basalts; formation of lithium deposits in volcanic environments; volcanic hazards in eastern California and western Saudi Arabia, geothermal systems; geoarchaeology
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Dr. Arun Majumdar
Chester Naramore Dean, Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Jay Precourt Professor, Prof of Mechanical Eng, of Energy Science & Eng, of Photon Science, Sr Fellow at Woods and, by courtesy, at Hoover & Prof, by court, of MS&E
BioDr. Arun Majumdar is the inaugural Dean of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. He is the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor at Stanford University, a faculty member of the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Energy Science and Engineering, a Senior Fellow and former Director of the Precourt Institute for Energy and Senior Fellow of the Woods Institute for the Environment and Senior Fellow by (courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. He is also a faculty in Department of Photon Science at SLAC.
In October 2009, Dr. Majumdar was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate to become the Founding Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E), where he served until June 2012 and helped ARPA-E become a model of excellence and innovation for the government with bipartisan support from Congress and other stakeholders. Between March 2011 and June 2012, he also served as the Acting Under Secretary of Energy, enabling the portfolio of Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery and Reliability, Office of Nuclear Energy and the Office of Fossil Energy, as well as multiple cross-cutting efforts such as Sunshot, Grid Modernization Team and others that he had initiated. Furthermore, he was a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Energy, Dr. Steven Chu, on a variety of matters related to management, personnel, budget, and policy. In 2010, he served on Secretary Chu's Science Team to help stop the leak of the Deep Water Horizon (BP) oil spill.
Dr. Majumdar served as the Chair of the Advisory Board of the US Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm. He led the Agency Review Team for the Department of Energy, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during the Biden-Harris Presidential transition. He served as the Vice Chairman of the Advisory Board of US Secretary of Energy, Dr. Ernest Moniz, and was also a Science Envoy for the US Department of State with focus on energy and technology innovation in the Baltics and Poland. He also serves on numerous advisory boards and boards of businesses, investment groups. government agencies and non-profit organizations.
After leaving Washington, DC and before joining Stanford, Dr. Majumdar was the Vice President for Energy at Google, where he assembled a team to create technologies and businesses at the intersection of data, computing and electricity grid.
Dr. Majumdar is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, US National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His research in the past has involved the science and engineering of nanoscale materials and devices, especially in the areas of energy conversion, transport and storage as well as biomolecular analysis. His current research focuses on redox reactions and systems that are fundamental to a sustainable energy future, multidimensional nanoscale imaging and microscopy, and an effort to leverage modern AI techniques to develop and deliver energy and climate solutions.
Prior to joining the Department of Energy, Dr. Majumdar was the Almy & Agnes Maynard Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering at University of California–Berkeley and the Associate Laboratory Director for energy and environment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He also spent the early part of his academic career at Arizona State University and University of California, Santa Barbara.
Dr. Majumdar received his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 1985 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989 under the supervision of Professor Chang-Lin Tien. -
Lisa Mandle
Lead scientist, Woods Research Natural Capital Project
BioLisa Mandle (she/her) is Director of Science-Software Integration and a Lead Scientist with the Natural Capital Project. She works to make ecosystem service science accessible and actionable through NatCap’s data and software, overseeing our software team. Her research sheds light on how land management and infrastructure development affect ecosystem services, social equity, and human health. Lisa works with governments, multi-lateral development banks, and non-governmental organizations to incorporate this understanding into policy and finance, particularly in Latin America and Asia. She is also lead editor of the book Green Growth That Works, which provides a practical guide to policy and finance mechanisms from around the world for securing benefits from nature.
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Ali Mani
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
BioAli Mani is a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. He is a faculty affiliate of the Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering at Stanford. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford in 2009. Prior to joining the faculty in 2011, he was an engineering research associate at Stanford and a senior postdoctoral associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Chemical Engineering. His research group builds and utilizes large-scale high-fidelity numerical simulations, as well as methods of applied mathematics, to develop quantitative understanding of transport processes that involve strong coupling with fluid flow and commonly involve turbulence or chaos. His teaching includes the undergraduate engineering math classes and graduate courses on fluid mechanics and numerical analysis.
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Wendy Mao
Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and of Photon Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsUnderstanding the formation and evolution of planetary interiors; experimental mineral physics; materials in extreme environments.
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Felicia Marcus
Landreth Visiting Fellow, Water in the West
BioFelicia Marcus has a long career as an organizational manager, a federal, state, and local government policymaker, and as a non-profit leader. She is currently the Landreth Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program and is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and the American College of Environmental Lawyers. Felicia was most recently Chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board after having served as Regional Administrator of the U.S. EPA Region IX and as head of the City of Los Angeles’ Department of Public Works in addition to senior leadership in national non-governmental organizations (Trust for Public Land, Natural Resources Defense Council). She has experience as a private and public interest sector attorney and has worked on issues across the West spanning water supply, water rights, and water quality in addition to experience in other sectors like energy, toxics, and land use. She is also a member of the Water Policy Group, an international network of former and current high-level water official policymakers and is also one of the three US members of the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation in addition to serving on many boards and advisory committees. She also currently serves as a Board Member for the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, which supports the reliability of the bulk electricity transmission grid for the western United States and parts of Canada and Mexico. Felicia graduated cum laude from Harvard College (East Asian Studies), has her JD from New York University School of Law, and attended Hong Kong University (Rotary Fellowship).
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E'jaaz A. Mason
Lecturer, Earth Systems Program
BioE’jaaz A. Mason is a Lecturer in Earth Systems at Stanford University teaching courses about community-engaged multimedia environmental storytelling. He is also the Co-Founder of Lede New Orleans, a nonprofit fostering community engagement and young adult media production training. A filmmaker, educator, and community engagement specialist, Mason was a member of the 2023-2024 John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford. From 2015 to 2020, he taught film and digital media in New Orleans public high schools, founding an award-winning film program at New Orleans Charter Math & Science High School. Mason has received numerous awards for his work in youth education. He was a cinematographer for the 2022 HBO/Time Studios documentary Katrina Babies and is the Story and Impact Producer for the 2025 documentary The River. He is also directing two documentary films: Black Suit: Sewing [Her]story, which highlights the importance of Black women in New Orleans’ Black Masking Indian culture and an untitled film about environmental and societal challenges facing residents of the Bayview Hunter's Point neighborhood in San Francisco.
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Gilbert Masters
Professor (Teaching) of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Emeritus
BioGILBERT M. MASTERS
MAP EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
B.S. (1961) AND M.S. (1962) UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
PH.D. (1966) Electrical Engineering, STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Gil Masters has focused on energy efficiency and renewable energy systems as essential keys to slowing global warming, enhancing energy security, and improving conditions in underserved, rural communities. Although officially retired in 2002, he has continued to teach CEE 176A: Energy-Efficient Buildings, and CEE 176B: Electric Power: Renewables and Efficiency. He is the author or co-author of ten books, including Introduction to Environmental Engineering and Science (3rd edition, 2008), Renewable and Efficient Electric Power Systems, (2nd edition, 2013), and Energy for Sustainability: Technology, Policy and Planning (2nd edition, 2018). Professor Masters has been the recipient of a number of teaching awards at Stanford, including the university's Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Tau Beta Pi teaching award from the School of Engineering. Over the years, more than 10,000 students have enrolled in his courses. He served as the School of Engineering Associate Dean for Student Affairs from 1982-1986, and he was the Interim Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 1992-93. -
Pamela Matson
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute, Emerita
BioPAMELA MATSON is an interdisciplinary sustainability scientist, former academic leader, and organizational strategist. She served as dean of Stanford University’s School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences from 2002-2017, building interdisciplinary departments and educational programs focused on resources, environment and sustainability, as well as co-leading university-wide interdisciplinary initiatives. In her role as the Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies and Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment, she lead the graduate program on Sustainability Science and Practice. Her research addressed a range of environment and sustainability issues, including sustainability of agricultural systems, vulnerability and resilience of particular people and places to climate change, and characteristics of science that can contribute to sustainability transitions at scale. as an emerita faculty member, she continues to engage in questions related to transformational change for sustainability goals, and advises Stanford's efforts in that realm.
Dr. Matson served as chair of the board of the World Wildlife Fund-US and as a board member of the World Wildlife Fund-International and several university advisory boards. She served on the US National Academy of Science Board on Sustainable Development and co-wrote the National Research Council’s volume Our Common Journey: A transition toward sustainability (1999); she also led the NRC committee on America’s Climate Choices: Advancing the Science of Climate Change. She was the founding chair of the National Academies Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability, and founding editor for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources. She is a past President of the Ecological Society of America. Her recent publications (among around 200) include the books 'Seeds of Sustainability: Lessons from the Birthplace of the Green Revolution' (2012) and 'Pursuing Sustainability' (2016).
Pam is an elected member of the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a AAAS Fellow. She received a MacArthur Foundation Award, contributed to the award of the Nobel Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, among other awards and recognitions, and is an Einstein Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Matson holds a Bachelor of Science degree with double majors in Biology and Literature from the University of Wisconsin (Eau Claire), a Master degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Doctorate in Forest Ecology from Oregon State University, and honorary doctorates from Princeton, McGill and Arizona State Universities. She spent ten years as a research scientist with NASA-Ames Research Center before moving to a professorship at the University of California Berkeley and, in 1997, to Stanford University. -
Meagan Mauter
Associate Professor Civil & Environmental Engineering, of Photon Science, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and at the Precourt Institute for Energy and Associate Professor, by courtesy, of Chemical Engineering
BioProfessor Meagan Mauter directs the Water & Energy Efficiency for the Environment Lab (WE3Lab) with the mission of supporting affordability, resiliency, and sustainability in water-energy infrastructure systems. We develop and implement computational tools that guide robust infrastructure planning, prioritize technology innovation and investment, and unlock system flexibility.
Professor Mauter also serves as the research director for the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI), a $235-million DOE Energy-Water Desalination Hub addressing water security challenges in the United States. The Hub targets research and development of energy-efficient and cost-competitive solutions for integrating non-traditional source waters into the water supply portfolio.
Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford, she served as an Energy Technology Innovation Policy Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, and as an Associate Professor of Engineering & Public Policy, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
Professor Mauter holds bachelors degrees in Civil & Environmental Engineering and History from Rice University, a Masters of Environmental Engineering from Rice University, and a PhD in Chemical and Environmental Engineering from Yale University. Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford, she served as an Energy Technology Innovation Policy Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the Mossavar Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and as an Associate Professor of Engineering & Public Policy, Civil & Environmental Engineering, and Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. -
Gerald Mavko
Professor (Research) of Geophysics, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch
I work to discover and understand the relationship between geophysical measurements and the rock and fluid properties that they sample in the Earth. My students and I have begun to understand the impact of rock type, porosity, pore fluids, temperature, and stress on seismic wave propagation and electromagnetic response. We are also working to quantify the links between geophysical measurements and the sedimentary and diagenetic processes that determine rock mineralogy and texture. Ultimately, this work allows us to better infer, from geophysical images, the composition and physical conditions at depth.
Teaching
I teach courses for graduate and undergraduate students on rock physics--the study of the physical properties of rocks and how they can be detected and mapped using seismic and electrical methods. This includes theory, laboratory measurements, and field data analysis. I also lead seminars in which students present and critique their ongoing research in rock physics.
Professional Activities
Associate chair, Department of Geophysics (2006-2008); distinguished lecturer, Society of Exploration Geophysicists (2006); honorary membership, Society of Exploration Geophysicists (2001); nominated for Reginald Fessenden Award, Society of Exploration Geophysicists (2000); School of Earth Sciences Excellence in Teaching Award (2000) -
David Thomas McColl
Adjunct Professor, Energy Science & Engineering
BioDavid McColl is the Executive Director of Stanford Climate Ventures. He received a B.S. in Management Science & Engineering and an M.S. in Energy Resources Engineering from Stanford University. He is an Adjunct Professor in Energy Resources Engineering, a research fellow at the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy & Finance, and a partner at Echelon.
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Michael McFaul
Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAmerican foreign policy, great power relations, comparative autocracies, and the relationship between democracy and development.
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Paul McIntyre
Rick and Melinda Reed Professor, Professor of Photon Science and Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy
BioMcIntyre's group performs research on nanostructured inorganic materials for applications in electronics, energy technologies and sensors. He is best known for his work on metal oxide/semiconductor interfaces, ultrathin dielectrics, defects in complex metal oxide thin films, and nanostructured Si-Ge single crystals. His research team synthesizes materials, characterizes their structures and compositions with a variety of advanced microscopies and spectroscopies, studies the passivation of their interfaces, and measures functional properties of devices.
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Nicholas Melosh
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
BioThe Melosh group explores how to apply new methods from the semiconductor and self-assembly fields to important problems in biology, materials, and energy. We think about how to rationally design engineered interfaces to enhance communication with biological cells and tissues, or to improve energy conversion and materials synthesis. In particular, we are interested in seamlessly integrating inorganic structures together with biology for improved cell transfection and therapies, and designing new materials, often using diamondoid molecules as building blocks.
My group is very interested in how to design new inorganic structures that will seamless integrate with biological systems to address problems that are not feasible by other means. This involves both fundamental work such as to deeply understand how lipid membranes interact with inorganic surfaces, electrokinetic phenomena in biologically relevant solutions, and applying this knowledge into new device designs. Examples of this include “nanostraw” drug delivery platforms for direct delivery or extraction of material through the cell wall using a biomimetic gap-junction made using nanoscale semiconductor processing techniques. We also engineer materials and structures for neural interfaces and electronics pertinent to highly parallel data acquisition and recording. For instance, we have created inorganic electrodes that mimic the hydrophobic banding of natural transmembrane proteins, allowing them to ‘fuse’ into the cell wall, providing a tight electrical junction for solid-state patch clamping. In addition to significant efforts at engineering surfaces at the molecular level, we also work on ‘bridge’ projects that span between engineering and biological/clinical needs. My long history with nano- and microfabrication techniques and their interactions with biological constructs provide the skills necessary to fabricate and analyze new bio-electronic systems.
Research Interests:
Bio-inorganic Interface
Molecular materials at interfaces
Self-Assembly and Nucleation and Growth -
Fiorenza Micheli
David and Lucile Packard Professor of Marine Science, Professor of Oceans and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
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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Elizabeth Miller
Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Emerita
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsStructural geology and tectonics. Evolution and deformation of continental crust and its sedimentary cover, plate tectonics and continental deformation, geochronology and thermochronology. Current interests in the Cordillera, northern circum-Pacific, Russia and Arctic regions.
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Reginald Mitchell
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus
BioProfessor Mitchell's primary area of research is concerned with characterizing the physical and chemical processes that occur during the combustion and gasification of pulverized coal and biomass. Coals of interest range in rank from lignite to bituminous and biomass materials include yard waste, field and seed crop residues, lumber mill waste, fruit and nut crop residues, and municipal solid waste. Experimental and modeling studies are concerned with char reactivity to oxygen, carbon dioxide and steam, carbon deactivation during conversion, and char particle surface area evolution and mode of conversion during mass loss.
Mitchell’s most recent research has been focused on topics that will enable the development of coal and biomass conversion technologies that facilitate CO2 capture. Recent studies have involved characterizing coal and biomass conversion rates in supercritical water environments, acquiring the understanding needed to develop chemical looping combustion technology for applications to coals and biomass materials, and developing fuel cells that use coal or biomass as the fuel source. Studies concerned with characterizing coal/biomass blends during combustion and gasification processes are also underway.
Professor Mitchell retired from Stanford University in July 2020, after having served over 29 years as a professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department. -
Diana Moanga
Lecturer, Earth Systems Program
BioDiana A. Moanga, PhD, is a Lecturer in the Earth Systems Program at Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability. She teaches courses in geographic information science (GIS), remote sensing, spatial analysis, and geospatial data science, including Fundamentals of Geographic Information Science, Advanced Concepts in Geographic Information Science, and Remote Sensing of Land, Biology and Global Change, and mentors undergraduate and graduate students through independent research.
Her teaching emphasizes applied, problem-based learning that connects geospatial methods to real-world environmental and societal questions. She designs GIS coursework around place-based analyses, spatial problem solving, cartographic communication, and independent student projects, with the goal of helping students move beyond learning software to understanding how spatial thinking can be used to investigate complex problems. In 2025, she received the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability’s Excellence in Teaching Award in recognition of her contributions to teaching, curriculum innovation, and student learning. Her approach to GIS education was also featured by Esri in the 2026 article, Making GIS Click: Lessons from a Stanford Classroom.
Dr. Moanga’s research spans coastal resilience, land system science, conservation, and coupled human–environment systems, with particular expertise in GIS, remote sensing, and spatial analysis. Her work examines how environmental and anthropogenic pressures reshape landscapes and coastal systems, including land-use and land-cover change, wildfire, flooding and coastal hazards, ecosystem services, and nature-based approaches to resilience. Across this work, she is particularly interested in developing spatial methods and decision-support frameworks that translate complex environmental data into information that can support conservation, planning, and climate resilience.
She earned her PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from the University of California, Berkeley in 2020. Her doctoral research used geospatial methods to examine land-use and land-cover change across California, including the effects of conservation management on coastal lands, agricultural transitions in the Central Valley, and wildfire activity under changing climate conditions. She earned her MS in Marine Affairs and Policy and BA in Marine Affairs from the University of Miami, where her research included harmful algal blooms, coastal zone management, and coral conservation.
Before joining the Earth Systems faculty in 2023, Dr. Moanga was a postdoctoral researcher in Stanford’s Department of Earth System Science and at Florida International University’s Sea Level Solutions Center. -
J. Moldowan
Professor (Research) of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOrganic geochemistry; study of molecular fossils (biomarkers) and their use in petroleum system analysis, reservoir characterization, environmental monitoring, molecular paleontology, global change, petroleum biodegradation in reservoir. Studies of thermal cracking of petroleum by deep burial or catalytic alteration in deep source rocks and reservoirs by using diamondoids. Applications to unconventional petroleun exploration and development.
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Stephen Monismith
Obayashi Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor of Oceans
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsHydrodynamics of lakes, estuaries, coral reefs, kelp forests and the coastal ocean
