Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability


Showing 1-15 of 15 Results

  • Lauren Oakes

    Lauren Oakes

    Adjunct Assistant Professor, Earth System Science

    BioLauren E. Oakes is an ecologist and human-natural systems scientist. She is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Earth System Science at Stanford University and a Conservation Scientist on the Forests and Climate Change team at the Wildlife Conservation Society. Lauren teaches workshops and short-courses in narrative science writing and interdisciplinary environmental sciences, and she combines ecological research with methods from the social sciences to help people adapt to climate change impacts. Her work focuses on understanding the impacts of climate change to forest ecosystems and advancing best practices in adaptation and implementation of nature based solutions. She earned her PhD from Stanford University’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (2015) and her bachelor’s degree from Brown University (2004) in Environmental Studies and Visual Art, studying film and photography. Her first book, In Search of the Canary Tree (Basic Books, Hachette Book Group), is a narrative science memoir about finding faith in the ability of people to cope with a rapidly changing planet. Science Friday selected the Canary as one of the Best Science Books of 2018.

    For nearly 20 years, Dr. Oakes has worked on a suite of environmental issues as a researcher, scholar, advocate, and documentarian (Alaska Gold 2012; Red Gold 2008). During that time, she confronted changes in rural communities and challenges in conservation, such as mining development in pristine watersheds in Alaska or road development through the temperate forests of Chile. She witnessed whole communities transformed by oil and gas development in the American West. She spent six years studying climate change impacts to forest ecosystems in the Alexander Archipelago, Alaska. At the core of her passions for research, teaching, and communicating issues of environmental change is the desire to improve resource management and conservation practices.

    In addition to publishing her climate- and forest-related research in peer-reviewed journals, Lauren has contributed to National Geographic, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Scientific American, and Anthropocene Magazine, Emergence Magazine, and Lit Hub.. Her research has been profiled by The Atlantic, Scientific American, Smithsonian, Outside Magazine, National Geographic, The Christian Science Monitor, Adventure Kayak Magazine, and ClimateWire, among other outlets. With years of experience in professional outdoor guiding, she has also lead multi-day expeditions for National Geographic Expeditions and co-designed/co-taught Stanford field courses in Alaska and the Grand Canyon.

  • Ryan OConnor

    Ryan OConnor

    Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2021
    Stanford Student Employee, Social Sciences Division

    BioRyan O’Connor is an Ocean Social Ecologist and current PhD Candidate in the Oceans Department, Environmental Behavioral Sciences Department, and the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program for the Environment and Resources (E-IPER) at Stanford University. Ryan’s research is based in Pacific Grove, CA and Baja California, Mexico, and focuses broadly on understanding how human societies interact with their local marine environments. His research employs an innovative blend of quantitative ecology and qualitative social science methods to elevate and highlight community voices and local ecological knowledge in ocean conservation. By understanding how a person's relationship to the ocean, personal history with nature, and social context shape individual perceptions of the marine environment, Ryan seeks to inform the co-production of sustainable ocean management programs. Ryan also teaches courses on human-ocean interaction, the history of the oceans, and ocean 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 is also an Ethics in Society Fellow with the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society at Stanford. Learn more at https://ryanoconnorresearch.weebly.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.

  • Alison Ong

    Alison Ong

    Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2020
    Master of Arts Student in Economics, admitted Autumn 2022

    BioAlison Ong is a PhD student in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program for Environment and Resources. Prior to graduate school, she worked at Energy and Environmental Economics Inc. (E3) in San Francisco and most recently was a Fulbright Scholar in Melbourne, Australia. At Stanford, Alison plans to focus her doctoral research on the distributional effects of energy policy through both an economic and regulatory lens.

  • Simona Onori

    Simona Onori

    Associate Professor of Energy Science Engineering and Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsModeling, control and optimization of dynamic systems;
    Model-based control in advanced propulsion systems;
    Energy management control and optimization in HEVs and PHEVs;
    Energy storage systems- Li-ion and PbA batteries, Supercapacitors;
    Battery aging modeling, state of health estimation and life prediction for control;
    Damage degradation modeling in interconnected systems

  • Franklin M. ("Lynn") Orr, Jr.

    Franklin M. ("Lynn") Orr, Jr.

    Keleen and Carlton Beal Professor in Petroleum Engineering, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch
    My students and I work to understand the physical mechanisms that control flow of multiphase, multicomponent fluids in the subsurface, using a combination of experiments and theory. The theory part includes numerical simulation of flow in heterogeneous porous rocks and coalbeds, often using streamline approaches, and it also involves solving by analytical methods the differential equations that describe the interactions of complex phase equilibrium and flow (porous rocks containing more than one flowing phase can sometimes act like a chromatograph, separating components as they flow). The experiments are used to test how well the models describe reality. Applications of this work range from enhanced oil and gas recovery to geologic storage of carbon dioxide (to reduce greenhouse gas emissions) to the transport of contaminants in aquifers.

    Teaching
    I teach a courses for graduate students on the mathematics of multiphase, multicomponent flow in porous media and on the thermodynamics of phase behavior. I also teach an undergraduate course on energy for freshmen.

    Professional Activities
    Member, National Research Council Committee on Subsurface Characterization, Modeling, Monitoring, and Remediation of Fractured Rocks, 2013-present, Member, Technical Advisory Committee, Center for Sustainable Energy at Notre Dame; Member, Division Committee for the Division of Earth and Life Sciences of the National Research Council, 2012-present; Member, Energy Technology Innovation System Working Group, President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, 2010; Member, California Energy Future study committee (2009-2010); Member, NRC Committee on America's Energy Future (2007-2009); co-chair, Workshop on Basic Research Needs for the Geosciences, U.S. Dept. of Energy (2007); IOR Pioneer, Society of Petroleum Engineers (2006); Honorary Doctorate in Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland (2005); member, Advisory Board, Carbon Mitigation Initiative, Princeton University (2004-present); director, Global Climate & Energy Project, Stanford University; member, Faculty Leadership Committee, Stanford Institute for the Environment (2004-05); National Associate of the National Academies (2002); Robert Earl McConnell Award, AIME (2001); election to National Academy of Engineering (2000); member, Board of Directors, David and Lucile Packard Foundation (1999-2008); member, Provost's Committee on the Environment (1995-2004); member, Board of Directors, Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (1987-present); Chair, Fellowships for Science and Engineering Advisory Panel, David and Lucile Packard Foundation (1990-present);

  • Leonard Ortolano

    Leonard Ortolano

    UPS Foundation Professor of Civil Engineering in Urban and Regional Planning, Emeritus

    BioOrtolano is concerned with environmental and water resources policy and planning. His research stresses environmental policy implementation in developing countries and the role of non-governmental organizations in environmental management. His recent interests center on corporate environmental management.

  • Khalid Osman

    Khalid Osman

    Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Center Fellow, by courtesy, at the Woods Institute for the Environment

    BioKhalid Osman joined the department as an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in autumn of 2022. His research spans the use of mixed quantitative-qualitative methods to assess public perceptions of water infrastructure, water conservation efforts, and the management of existing infrastructure systems to meet the needs of those being served by the systems. He currently is focused on the operationalization of equity in water sector infrastructure, conceptualizing equity in decentralized water and sanitation systems, water affordability, and stakeholder-community engagement in sustainable civil infrastructure systems for achieving environmental justice.

    Khalid was the holder of a Bill and Melinda Gates Millennium Scholars Graduate Fellowship and also a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship.

  • Joshua Ott

    Joshua Ott

    Ph.D. Student in Aeronautics and Astronautics, admitted Autumn 2021
    Ph.D. Minor, Earth and Planetary Sciences

    BioJoshua is a fourth-year Ph.D. Candidate in Aeronautics & Astronautics at Stanford University and is a recipient of the Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF) in Science & Engineering. He is currently serving on Active Duty in the United States Air Force through the DAWN-ED PhD fellowship. Joshua is a researcher in the Stanford Intelligent Systems Lab (SISL) where his research focuses on decision making under uncertainty for autonomous systems. Joshua has also conducted research in collaboration with SISL and NASA JPL related to the DARPA Subterranean Challenge.

    Joshua earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2020. During his time at UC Berkeley, Joshua's work focused on optimization methods for bioinspired design, machine learning for real time manufacturing control, and experimental multi-phase flow analysis. Joshua has also interned at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.