Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability


Showing 81-100 of 123 Results

  • Norman Sleep

    Norman Sleep

    Professor of Geophysics, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPhysics of large-scale processes in the Earth

  • Olav Solgaard

    Olav Solgaard

    Audrey S. Hancock Professor in the School of Engineering

    BioThe Solgaard group focus on design and fabrication of nano-photonics and micro-optical systems. We combine photonic crystals, optical meta-materials, silicon photonics, and MEMS, to create efficient and reliable systems for communication, sensing, imaging, and optical manipulation.

  • George Somero

    George Somero

    David and Lucile Packard Professor in Marine Science, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe examine two aspects of organism-environment interactions: How does stress from physical (e.g., temperature) and chemical (oxygen levels, pH) factors perturb organisms and how do organisms respond, adaptively, to cope with this stress? We examine evolutionary adaptation and phenotypic acclimatization using a wide variety of marine animals, including Antarctic fishes and invertebrates from intertidal habitats on the coastlines of temperate and tropical seas.

  • Suihong Song

    Suihong Song

    Postdoc Res Affiliate, Mukerji Program
    Postdoctoral Scholar, Energy Science and Engineering

    BioSuihong 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.

  • Maksim Sonin

    Maksim Sonin

    Visiting Scholar, Precourt Institute for Energy

    BioDr. Maksim Sonin is an energy executive who drives global investments and executes large-scale capital developments valued at over $15B across major sectors and geographies, from the Arctic to the desert, with teams spanning five continents.

    Dr. Sonin has held executive roles and served on the boards of UCC (with a capital projects portfolio exceeding $10B), Silleno ($7B+ world-scale petrochemical complex), KMG Petrochem ($2B+ gas processing facility), and other organizations. He has led world-scale petrochemical, ammonia, and fertilizer complexes representing a significant share of global production and traded supply. This includes some of the world's largest plants, setting new benchmarks for single-train production capacity. He has worked with Chevron, Shell, and ExxonMobil in consortium ventures and collaborated with other players.

    As a Visiting Scholar at Stanford's Precourt Institute for Energy, his current work focuses on the technical, economic, and execution challenges associated with developing and scaling energy and industrial infrastructure. A Sloan Fellow with an MS in Management from Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), Dr. Sonin also holds a PhD in Engineering from the Scientific Research Institute of Natural Gases and Gas Technologies, and an MS in Finance. He is an elected Fellow of the Energy Institute (UK) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (UK).

  • Erik Sperling

    Erik Sperling

    Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Associate Professor, by courtesy, of Oceans

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe research interests in the Sperling Lab are Earth history and the evolution of life, and the interactions between the biosphere and the geosphere. As such this research can generally be considered paleontology, insofar as paleontology encompasses all aspects of the history of life.

    Consequently, we define our research agenda by the questions we are interested in, rather than the tools used. This research incorporates multiple lines of evidence, and multiple tools, to investigate questions in the history of life. These lines of evidence include fossil data, molecular phylogenetics, sedimentary geochemistry, and developmental and ecological data from modern organisms. Ultimately, the goal is to link environmental change with organismal and ecological response through the lens of physiology.

    Our field research takes place all over the world--current areas include:

    -NW Canada (Yukon and Northwest Territories): Research has been conducted on the early Neoproterozoic Fifteenmile Group, Cryogenian and Ediacaran Windermere Supergroup, and on the Ordovician-Devonian Road River Group in the southern Richardson Mountains
    -Southern Canadian Cordillera: Work here has focused on the early Cambrian Mural Formation and its soft-bodied fauna.
    -England and Wales: Cambrian-Silurian successions in the Welsh Basin
    -Namibia: Ediacaran Nama Group
    -Upwelling zones: We study the oxygen minimum zone offshore California as an analogue for ancient low-oxygen oceans.

  • Adam Spitzig

    Adam Spitzig

    Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2024
    Student Worker, Ethics In Society

    BioAdam Spitzig is a PhD candidate in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) at Stanford University’s Doerr School of Sustainability. He is a historical ecologist and data scientist whose research examines long-term biodiversity dynamics and their human drivers.

    His work integrates paleoecological data (especially fossil pollen records), archaeological and historical sources, geospatial analysis, and statistical modeling to understand when and how human societies have increased, maintained, or reduced biodiversity. He is particularly interested in identifying cases of sustained anthropogenic biodiversity expansion and examining the institutional, economic, infrastructural, and land-use processes that produced them. His work also explores how long-term ecological knowledge can inform contemporary conservation and restoration strategy.

    Before beginning his PhD, he led ecological modeling and machine learning initiatives in conservation and technology organizations, including Ducks Unlimited and several data-driven startups.

    He holds a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University, a Master of Information & Data Science from UC Berkeley, a Master of Environmental Management and a Juris Doctor from Duke University, and a BA from the University of Florida.

  • Alfred M. Spormann

    Alfred M. Spormann

    Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and of Chemical Engineering, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMetabolism of anaerobic microbes in diseases, bioenergy, and bioremediation

  • Catherine Spurin

    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

    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.

  • Heath Stanfield

    Heath Stanfield

    Ph.D. Student in Earth System Science, admitted Autumn 2026

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsSubsurface fluid-rock interactions for energy, resources, and carbon storage

  • Jonathan Stebbins

    Jonathan Stebbins

    Professor of Geological Sciences, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly Interestsstructure and dynamics of crystalline, glassy, and molten inorganic materials and how these relate to geologically and technologically important properties and processes; solid state Nuclear Magnetic Resoance (NMR); mineralogy; igneous petrology; glass science