Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Showing 1-100 of 112 Results
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Nur Arafeh Dalmau
Postdoctoral Scholar, Oceans
BioI am currently a postdoc at UCLA and Stanford and an Honorary Fellow at The University of Queensland. I am a marine community ecologist and marine spatial planner. My research focuses on understanding the impacts of marine heatwaves on kelp forest ecosystems. I also research the role of marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures for providing climate resilience and designing networks of climate-smart marine protected areas. I support conservation initiatives with NGOs, parks, and fishers, and teach decision tools such as Marxan. My heart remains in my beautiful Costa Brava, Spain (Catalonia), where I do my best to support conservation. I am a naive dreamer, and I know future generations will dive into healthy kelp forests and thriving marine ecosystems.
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Adel Asadi
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth and Planetary Sciences
BioAdel Asadi is a Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, in the Doerr School of Sustainability. He is a member of Stanford Mineral-X initiative, a program dedicated to pioneering sustainable critical minerals exploration to facilitate the transition to green energy. Under the supervision of Prof. Jef Caers, Adel's research is focused on mineral exploration, leveraging data science tools and artificial intelligence algorithms. Through the integrated geological data analysis, his goal is to enhance the predictive accuracy of models for discovering high-grade mineral deposits, thereby enabling decision-making with higher certainty. He is currently collaborating with Ero Copper Corporation, headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, on discovery of new economic copper and nickel deposits in Brazil.
Before joining Stanford University, Adel was a Postdoctoral Scholar at Tufts University in Massachusetts. There, he conducted research on renewable energy systems at the Offshore Wind Energy group. Under Prof. Babak Moaveni’s supervision, in a project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), he exploited multiple-point geostatistics to simulate offshore wind speed and direction in a multi-variate context, using numerical weather models, satellite/radar remote sensing, observational, and geospatial data.
Adel Asadi earned his PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a Geosystems specialization from Tufts University. His doctoral work in the Geohazards Research Lab involved a diverse toolkit (computer vision, machine learning, remote sensing, and geographic information systems) to model earthquake-induced ground failure hazards (soil liquefaction) and map post-earthquake ground failure damages (landslides and liquefaction) on global, regional, and event-specific scales. His dissertation research was funded by the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGIA).
During his Master's study in Mining Engineering at Michigan Technological University, under Prof. Snehamoy Chatterjee’s supervision, he developed a novel multiple-point geostatistical simulation algorithm for Earth resources modeling and uncertainty quantification. He also worked on a space mining research project aimed at mapping iron and titanium on the lunar surface using remote sensing data and machine learning algorithms. Additionally, he gained one year of professional experience in the copper mining industry in the US through three internships in Sierrita and Morenci operations at Freeport-McMoRan Inc., Arizona. -
Paul Berne Burow
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioI am a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University. My research examines the cultural dimensions of climate and land use change in North America, with a focus on how Indigenous peoples and rural communities experience, adapt to, and shape environmental change on the landscapes they call home. I work at the intersection of environmental anthropology, Indigenous environmental sciences, cultural ecology, and human-environment geography, using mixed methods that span ethnography, interviews, focus group discussions, household surveys, community science, archival research, and spatial analysis.
My current projects investigate collaborative forest stewardship with Tribal Nations and federal land management agencies in the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin regions of California and Nevada. This work examines how Indigenous knowledge, cultural values, and governance institutions shape the effectiveness of shared stewardship approaches and their outcomes for ecosystem health and community well-being. I also lead research into how forest-adjacent communities value and use dryland woodland ecosystems, and I am developing a new planning framework for integrating cultural ecosystem services into forest management decision-making. My book manuscript, Good Country: Land Stewardship and Belonging in the American West, examines the cultural politics of environmental change through the experiences of Paiute communities, federal land managers, and livestock ranchers navigating ecological transformation in the rural West.
My research program is organized around three interconnected lines of inquiry: understanding the nature of climate impacts on vulnerable, frontline communities; identifying the institutional barriers and enablers that shape equitable climate adaptation; and advancing community-led approaches to building climate-resilient landscapes. Through long-term, community-engaged partnerships with Tribal Nations, I work to expand Indigenous-led stewardship of ancestral homelands, co-produce knowledge that supports cultural revitalization and landscape resilience, and inform more just approaches to climate adaptation and public lands policy. -
Pablo Busch
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioDr. Pablo Busch is an interdisciplinary researcher with training in industrial and environmental engineering, public policy, energy systems, industrial ecology, and statistics. His research broadly focuses on scientific analyses to support a clean energy transition, and to help identify risks to equity and sustainability in the emerging energy transition mineral supply chain. Pablo's main research goal is to conduct scientific analysis to diverse environmental and climate change problems, and to translate key insights from research into a digestible and actionable format for decision-making. His research is fueled by tools from engineering, statistics, geographic information systems, economics and public policy.
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Elsie Cecilia Carrillo
Postdoctoral Scholar, Oceans
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDiving physiology and foraging ecology of semi-aquatic garter snakes
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Xinyu Dou
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioStanford Energy Fellow
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Amir Eskanlou
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth and Planetary Sciences
BioAmir is a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford Mineral-X. With 15 years of research and industry experience, his background includes the development and optimization of mineral processing flowsheets for copper, phosphate, graphite and rare earth elements (REEs) from primary and secondary resources. At Stanford, he conducts research related to various aspects of critical minerals processing, including AI-driven reagent discovery, uncertainty quantification, circuit design, and optimization of energy and water consumption.
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Veronica Frans
Postdoctoral Scholar, Oceans
BioVeronica is a quantitative ecologist and science communicator focused on understanding biodiversity-human relationships within the contexts of conservation, sustainability, and ecological theory. She advances methods in ecological and synthesis research by creating innovative, open-source databases, modeling tools, and frameworks that have been widely adopted for conservation and industrial applications. Her award-winning research has been published in leading journals such as Methods in Ecology & Evolution and Nature Ecology & Evolution, and has consistently gained global media attention, being featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and Smithsonian Magazine.
Veronica earned a dual Ph.D. in Fisheries & Wildlife and Ecology, Evolution, & Behavior from Michigan State University in 2024. She also holds a dual M.Sc. in International Nature Conservation from Göttingen University (Germany) and Lincoln University (New Zealand). She has studied and worked in many places around the world—from as far north as Alaska’s Bering Sea, to as far south as the Falkland Islands. Speaking six languages, her international experiences and relationships with diverse communities inform her research on coupled human-natural systems at local to global scales.
Veronica is a Stanford Science Fellow and National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology at Hopkins Marine Station (Doerr School of Sustainability). Her faculty host is Fiorenza Micheli, the David and Lucile Packard Professor of Marine Science, Chair of the Oceans Department, and Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions. For her postdoctoral research, Veronica is developing a novel framework for predicting human-wildlife relationships under global change. -
Laura Frouté
Postdoctoral Scholar, Energy Science and Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsLaura is a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, working on subsurface engineering solutions for the energy transition. Part of her research focuses on replicating geological hydrogen production in the laboratory and identifying and mitigating reactivity constraints at the microscale. Her research also focuses on investigating carbon storage into various basalt formations by measuring their carbon mineralization potential. Her expertise includes designing laboratory-scale pilots and conducting research on rock formations in the context of hydrocarbon production, carbon storage, and hydrogen production to understand the interplay of geochemistry, reaction mechanisms and complex storage and transport processes across length scales. To study the evolution of porous media properties following reaction or transport experiments, she uses a wide spectrum of multiscale, multimodal material characterization techniques (sorption, XRD, XRF, μCT, FIB-SEM, TEM). She holds a MS in Chemical Engineering from ENSIC (France) and a PhD in Energy Science and Engineering from Stanford University. Her interests range from subsurface engineering, fluid flow in porous media, to environmental and regulatory issues in the oil & gas industry, CCUS, climate solutions and energy policy.
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Melanie Gittard
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am an applied environmental and development economist studying the impacts of climate change and water pollution in sub-Saharan Africa.
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Tianyang Guo (郭天阳)
Postdoctoral Scholar, Geological Sciences
BioDr. Tianyang Guo earned his Ph.D. degree in Rock Mechanics from the Department of Earth Sciences, the University of Hong Kong in 2020. He earned his bachelor's and master’s degree from Wuhan University (WHU) in 2013 and 2016, respectively. He was awarded the National Scholarship for Graduate in 2015 and graduated from WHU as an outstanding graduate. Before joining Stanford, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) under PolyU Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme 2021.
His research interests include (1) Cracking mechanisms and induced microseismicity during the injection of CO2 into reservoir rocks. (2) Application of machine learning in acoustic emission (AE) data interpretation. (3) Microcracking mechanisms of granite based on AE and microscopic observation. -
Alex Hedgpeth
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioAlexandra Hedgpeth is a biogeochemist whose research explores how soil carbon cycling in peatlands responds to environmental change. Her work focuses on understanding the mechanisms that regulate carbon storage and greenhouse gas production in both tropical and boreal wetlands, with a particular emphasis on the vulnerability of deep, ancient carbon to modern surface inputs and hydrologic shifts.
Through her Ph.D. research at the University of California, Los Angeles, Alex has developed and applied novel isotopic and geochemical approaches—including implementing radiocarbon dating, stable isotope analyses, and high-resolution molecular characterization—to trace the sources and fates of carbon in peat soils. Her fieldwork spans a range of ecosystems, from ombrotrophic bogs in the Arctic to saturated tropical peat domes in Central America. This comparative framework allows her to identify unifying controls on carbon preservation and loss across climate zones.
Alex's research integrates field measurements, laboratory experiments, and synthesis of global datasets. She is a key contributor to multi-institutional efforts to model peatland carbon cycling under climate change scenarios, including DOE- and NSF-supported initiatives. Her work helps clarify the role of peatlands as both long-term carbon sinks and potential sources of atmospheric CO₂ and CH₄ under future disturbance.
In addition to her scientific contributions, Alex is committed to collaborative, interdisciplinary research and has worked closely with partners at national laboratories, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and international data synthesis networks. She is especially interested in questions with high uncertainty and high relevance to climate feedbacks—such as thresholds in biogeochemical function and the persistence of deep soil carbon under hydrologic change. -
Alexander Honeyman
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioI work at the intersections of data science, field work, laboratory experimentation, biogeochemistry, and microbial ecology. I was exposed to the issue of wildland fire through 10 years of experience as a volunteer firefighter / EMT in Colorado (fire / rescue / EMS). My current work involves investigating the geochemical character of wildfire smoke by hybridizing analyses of physical samples with various geospatial datasets and atmospheric particle transport models. I love working in environmental systems because they are complex, and offer numerous opportunities to blend the physical and computational sciences.
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Qi Hu
Postdoctoral Scholar, Energy Science and Engineering
BioI am a postdoctoral scholar collaborating with Tapan Mukerji on developing innovative workflows for monitoring subsurface CO2 sequestration. My research primarily involves integrating advanced seismic inversion techniques, such as full-waveform inversion, with rock physics and fluid dynamics to glean insights into subsurface structures and behaviors. Additionally, I am intrigued by the potential of distributed acoustic sensing and machine learning algorithms in various topics related to energy transition.
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Cameron S. Kay
Postdoctoral Scholar, Environmental Social Sciences
BioCameron S. Kay is a postdoctoral scholar in the Climate Cognition Lab at Stanford University. His research explores the psychological foundations of antisocial beliefs and behaviours, including why people believe in conspiracy theories, harbour prejudicial beliefs, and gaslight others. To support this work, he develops psychometrically sound scales and tools for improving data quality. Before joining Stanford, Cameron was a visiting assistant professor at Union College in Upstate New York. He earned his PhD in psychology with a specialization in quantitative research methods at the University of Oregon, where he also completed master’s degrees in psychology and journalism. He holds a BA in psychology from the University of British Columbia.
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Jonas Kloeckner
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth and Planetary Sciences
BioJonas Kloeckner is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, sponsored by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI). He specializes in critical mineral exploration essential for the sustainable energy transition. Utilizing his expertise in artificial intelligence and resource forecasting, Mr. Kloeckner leads initiatives that strive to align with global sustainability goals.
Jonas earned his PhD in Engineering from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil, where he later served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Geosciences. His doctoral and postdoctoral research focused on advancing geostatistical methods for Earth resources forecasting, significantly contributing to the field.
Previously, Jonas was a Visiting Research Scholar at Stanford University under the mentorship of Professor Jef Caers. He holds a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Mining Engineering from UFRGS, with additional international studies at Ecole des Mines d’Alès, France, and as a visiting student at Columbia University, USA.
Jonas’s current research integrates spatial data analysis with advanced decision-making processes in subsurface systems, enhancing resource management strategies and supporting sustainable mining practices. Beyond academia, he actively collaborates on various international projects, optimizing resource extraction and minimizing environmental impacts through innovative technology and interdisciplinary collaboration. -
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. -
Josheena Naggea
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsJosheena's community-engaged research focuses on small-scale fisheries, disaster impacts and recovery, marine protected area management, and the valorization of natural and cultural heritage in ocean governance. She has a keen interest in understanding people-ocean connections and how that influences pro-ecological behavior and local environmental stewardship.
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Alireza Namayandeh
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsAlireza Namayandeh’s research focuses on the formation, transformation, and environmental impacts of metal-bearing nanoparticles in soil, water, and air, with a particular emphasis on their role in wildfire-generated pollution. His work investigates how wildfires contribute to the release and transport of toxic metal nanoparticles, assessing their chemical and physical properties and their implications for human health and ecosystem contamination.
His current research, supported by the NSF Earth Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, explores the mechanisms by which biomass burning generates toxic airborne nanoparticles and how soil mineralogy influences their formation. By combining laboratory experiments, synchrotron-based spectroscopy, electron microscopy, and field studies, he aims to better understand the pathways of metal mobilization during wildfires. He is also leading efforts to analyze ash and soil samples from recent wildfires in California, including the Eaton and Palisade fires in Los Angeles, to assess the risks associated with airborne metal nanoparticles.
Beyond wildfire-driven pollution, he is interested in the fundamental geochemistry of nanoparticle formation and transport. His previous work on precursor clusters of iron oxy-hydroxides provided new insights into the formation of metal-bearing nanoparticles and their role in controlling contaminant mobility in the environment. He continues to explore how ultrafine particles interact with toxic metals, organic matter, and microbial communities in both terrestrial and atmospheric systems.
His broader scholarly interests include wildfire geochemistry, atmospheric particulate matter, environmental mineralogy, and the intersection of environmental geochemistry and public health. His goal is to develop a deeper understanding of how natural and anthropogenic processes influence the formation and dispersion of hazardous nanoparticles, ultimately contributing to improved air quality standards, risk assessment models, and environmental policies in wildfire-prone regions. -
Mark Nikolic
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth and Planetary Sciences
BioI study large scale processes of evolution through earth history using the fossil record. In doing so, I make use of computational and phylogenetic approaches along with large datasets. I also lead the History of Life and Biodiversity summer internship through the Stanford Young Investigators program. Aside from fossils, I'm also a big fan of riding my bike and disco music.
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Marcus Nobrega Gomes Jr
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsBy recreating high-resolution flood maps for the last 50 years in California, my research aims to cross-correlate flood hazard maps with medical records to investigate whether a causal relation exists.
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Ryan OConnor
Postdoctoral Scholar, Environmental Social Sciences
BioRyan O’Connor is an Environmental Social Scientist and current Postdoctoral Scholar in the Environmental Social Sciences Department at Stanford University. Ryan’s research focuses broadly on understanding the Human Dimensions of Environmental Governance and how human societies interact with, learn about, and manage social-ecological systems. His research employs an innovative blend of quantitative and qualitative social-ecological methods to elevate and highlight community voices and local ecological knowledge in conservation and to investigate how communities learn about and act upon convergence crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and social-ecological resilience. By understanding how a person's relationship to the nature-rich world, personal history with nature, and social context shape individual perceptions of the environment management, Ryan seeks to inform the co-production of sustainable governance programs. Ryan also teaches courses on research methods, human-nature interaction, the history of the oceans, and environmental governance at Stanford and has supervised undergraduates on projects ranging from computer vision machine learning models for marine mammal monitoring to expert interviews of marine protected area officials. Ryan has also been an Ethics in Society Fellow with the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society at Stanford. Learn more at https://ryanoconnorresearch.com
Prior to his work at Stanford, Ryan served as an officer in the US Navy working on international logistics policy research and development. Ryan most recently worked as an environmental policy consultant and geospatial project manager for AECOM Technical Services, helping to administer the National Flood Insurance Program, leading multi-hazard mapping, policy analysis, and legislative affairs efforts in support of disaster and climate resilience across the United States.
Ryan earned his Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia in 2017. -
Carolina Olguin Jacobson
Postdoctoral Scholar, Oceans
BioMy research focuses on socio-ecological systems within fishery cooperatives in Baja California, Mexico, exploring their resilience and adaptation strategies to climate change and COVID-19 impacts through oceanographic and ecological monitoring. Working with marine protected areas and climate refugia areas.
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Lamprini Papargyri
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioLamprini Papargyri is a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University co-advised by Professor Steve Davis and Dr. Ken Caldeira. She earned her PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Cyprus, where she worked under the guidance of Professor Panos Papanastasiou to optimize the durability of materials used in photovoltaic systems. Her doctoral research employed advanced computational modeling using 3D finite element methods and XFEM to simulate stress, cracking, and degradation mechanisms in photovoltaic materials.
At Stanford, Lamprini’s research lies at the intersection of climate policy, economics, and equity. Her current work explores how economies with income inequality can optimally allocate resources between income redistribution and emissions abatement. Beyond research, she has led and contributed to multi-million-euro research initiatives across Europe and remains deeply interested in the societal and ethical dimensions of emerging technologies. Broadly, she is interested in developing integrated models that inform equitable and sustainable pathways for climate mitigation and economic development. -
Ashley Prow Fleischer
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth and Planetary Sciences
BioI earned a PhD in Earth Science with a focus in paleoclimatology from Syracuse University, where my research focused on reconstructing past environmental change and biotic responses using microfossils and geochemical proxies. My work integrates stratigraphy, paleobiology, geochemistry, and climate modeling to better understand Earth's climate dynamics during the intervals of rapid change, like the Late Devonian and end Triassic mass extinctions.
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Chenfei Qu
Postdoctoral Scholar, Environmental Social Sciences
BioChenfei Qu’s research focuses on climate change economics, including emissions trading systems, carbon pricing, air pollution, and integrated assessment of climate and energy policies, with an emphasis on general equilibrium modeling for policy analysis in developing countries. She holds a Ph.D. in Management Science and Technology and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Management, both from Tsinghua University. Chenfei Qu was a visiting scholar at the ZEW–Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research in 2024. Her work has been published in journals such as Climate Change Economics, Advances in Climate Change Research, and Environmental Science & Technology.
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Lisa Rennels
Postdoctoral Scholar, Environmental Social Sciences
Biopersonal website (more frequently updated): lisarennels.com
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Lane D. Smith
Postdoctoral Scholar, Energy Science and Engineering
BioLane D. Smith is a postdoctoral scholar working with the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University. His research interests include energy policy, electricity rate design, energy affordability, and macro-energy systems (with a particular focus on the electric grid). Lane holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington (2024 and 2019, respectively) and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Denver (2018).
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Suihong Song
Physical Science Research Scientist, Energy Science & Engineering
Postdoctoral Scholar, Energy Science and EngineeringBioSuihong Song collaborates with Professor Tapan Mukerji at the Stanford Center for Earth Resources Forecast (SCERF) as a postdoctoral scholar. His research is centered on integrating machine learning with geosciences, specifically focusing on machine learning-based reservoir characterization and geomodelling, Physics-informed Neural Networks (PINNs) and neural operators as well as their applications in porous flow simulations, neural networks-based surrogate and inversion, decision-making under uncertainty, and machine learning-based geological interpretation of well logs and seismic data. These research endeavors have practical applications in managing underground water resources, oil and gas exploration, geological storage of CO2, and the evaluation of hydrothermal and natural hydrogen, among others.Song proposed GANSim, an abbreviation for Generative Adversarial Networks-based reservoir simulation, which presents a reservoir geomodelling workflow. This innovative approach has been successfully implemented in various 3D field reservoirs by international oil companies, including ExxonMobil.
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Catherine Spurin
Postdoctoral Scholar, Energy Resources Engineering
BioI am a postdoctoral researcher in the Energy Science & Engineering department. My current research is focused on understanding how subsurface heterogeneity can be exploited to increase the amount of CO2 that is residually trapped. This increases storage security and minimizes the spread of the CO2 plume. This research makes up part of the GeoCquest consortium with Melbourne University, Cambridge University and CO2CRC. My supervisors are Prof. Hamdi Tchelepi and Prof. Sally Benson.
I obtained my PhD from Imperial College London in 2021. My PhD thesis "Intermittent flow pathways for multiphase flow in porous media: a pore-scale perspective" explored how flow phenomena not included in the framework of Darcy's law extended to multiphase flow influence the propagation and trapping of fluids. My supervisors were Prof. Sam Krevor and Prof. Martin Blunt. My research was funded by the President's PhD scholarship at Imperial. -
Griffin Srednick
Postdoctoral Scholar, Oceans
BioGriffin Srednick, PhD, is an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford Oceans and a community ecologist specializing in the spatiotemporal dynamics of marine communities. His postdoctoral research investigates how coral reef communities recover from disturbance and respond to the effects of climate change. Conducted within the National Science Foundation's Moorea Coral Reef (MCR) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, his work examines how spatiotemporal heterogeneity in coral communities can promote ecological resilience. By integrating oceanographic modeling with coral reef ecology, his research aims to reveal the mechanisms underpinning coral recovery following disturbance. His broader scientific interests focus on understanding the complex architecture of ecosystems and how a holistic view of ecological systems can inform and enhance conservation and restoration strategies.
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Rafael Stern
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioRafael Stern was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is 35 years old, and married to Gal. Rafael has a BSc in Geography from the Geosciences Department of Universidade Federal Fluminense, in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has a MSc from the Climate and Environment Department of the National Institute of Amazon Research in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, with the supervision of prof. Paulo Artaxo, and he measured the physical and chemical properties of atmospheric particles during forest fires season in the Amazon rainforest. He has a PhD from the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, with the supervision of prof. Dan Yakir, and he used a mobile eddy covariance station to compare the biogeophysical and biogeochemical effects of different ecosystems and of PV fields on drylands.
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Yudong Sun
Postdoctoral Scholar, Geophysics
BioYudong's study areas are earthquake physics, numerical modeling, InSAR, glaciology, and geodynamics. He specializes in numerical simulations of earthquake cycles and dynamic ruptures, integrating models with observations and laboratory experiments. He has published papers covering topics including back-propagating ruptures, slow slip events, fault roughness, deformation of glaciers, and lithospheres.
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Koen van Greevenbroek
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioKoen is a postdoctoral scholar at the Sustainable Solutions Lab, working with Ken Caldeira and Steve Davis. His current work involves developing a global food systems optimization model to study trade-offs and synergies between emissions and health. With a background in mathematics and interested in sustainability generally, he has previously worked on continental long-term planning of energy systems. During his PhD at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, he focussed in particular on near-optimal solutions and weather variability.
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Luwen Wan
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioLuwen is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, working with Dr. Kate Maher, Professor at Stanford University in the Department of Earth System Science. Her postdoctoral research focuses on developing tools for tracking the recovery and activity of the North American beaver from a computer version and evaluating beaver as a tool for fostering sustainable waterways. She received her Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Science from Michigan State University, where she worked on nutrient transport modeling across the Great Lakes Basin and agricultural tile drainage mapping across the US Midwest region.
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Margaret Weng
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science
BioMaggie Weng is a NASA postdoctoral fellow in the Dekas lab at Stanford University. Her research focuses on understanding molybdenum availability and uptake strategies at deep-sea methane seeps. She uses culture-independent techniques including metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and stable isotope probing to understand whole-community dynamics. She earned her PhD from Georgetown University in 2024 with Dr. Sarah Stewart Johnson, where her research focused on microbes in hypersaline environments, and her bachelor's degree in 2019 from Washington University in St. Louis. She is interested in microbial persistence at the edge of possibility, including extreme environments and polluted sites, and how microbial communities contribute to bioremediation and ecosystem stability. She always says yes to fieldwork and as a consequence has found herself in the Atacama Desert, Kerlingarfjöll, Iceland, and Western Australia as well as a commercial salt factory in San Diego, CA. When not in the lab she is an avid writer, hiker and knitter. Her fiction and nonfiction writing have appeared in The Los Angeles Review and Northern Woodlands magazine. When out in the woods, she appreciates a good biofilm almost as much as a good view.
