Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Showing 21-32 of 32 Results
-
Edgar Virguez
Research Engineer, Energy Science & Engineering
BioEdgar Virgüez is an energy systems engineer promoting a rapid and cost-efficient energy transition towards decarbonized electric power systems. His research integrates operations research and geospatial analysis methods, focusing on providing accessible, affordable, clean, and reliable electricity. His findings have appeared in top-tier journals like Applied Energy and Energy Conversion and Management.
Edgar has participated in 19 research or consultancy projects ($3.43 million), working with organizations such as the World Bank and the IADB. He has directed life-cycle assessments and cost-benefit analyses of integrating new fuels into energy markets, designed mitigation strategies for local governments, and performed risk assessments of exposure to air pollutants.
Concurrently to his research interests, he is passionate about improving higher education. He has held several academic administration positions where he has enhanced academic, administrative, and financial processes by applying optimization and data analytics methods. Simultaneously, he has developed as a next-generation pedagogue teaching 16 courses, serving more than 560 students, and achieving high ratings from his students.
Edgar has received several professional honors for his contributions and exemplary promise as a higher education leader. In 2020 he was honored as a K. Patricia Cross Future Leader awardee by the Association of American Colleges & Universities, identified as a higher-education rising star. At Duke, he had a distinguished tenure receiving several of the most prestigious awards, including the 2021 Grad School Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2021 Forever Duke Student Leadership Award. In 2022, he was selected as a board member (Young Trustee) of Duke's highest governing body, the Board of Trustees, appointed from 2022 to 2025. His columns describing his advocacy efforts for a renewed educational model have appeared in high-circulation media like Science and Inside Higher Ed.
His knowledge base arises from an academic formation that includes: a PhD in Environmental Sciences and Policy (’22) and an MA in Environment (Energy and Environment) (’18) from Duke University, and an MSc in Environmental Engineering (’10), and BSc’s in Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering (’09) from Universidad de los Andes. Acknowledging his academic excellence and research contributions, he has been awarded scholarships/fellowships for more than $577,000 from competitive programs sponsored by institutions such as the Sloan Foundation and Procter and Gamble (P&G). -
Peter Vitousek
Clifford G. Morrison Professor of Population and Resource Studies and Professor of Earth System Science, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsVitousek's research interests include: evaluating the global cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus, and how they are altered by human activity; understanding how the interaction of land and culture contributed to the sustainability of Hawaiian (and other Pacific) agriculture and society before European contact; and working to make fertilizer applications more efficient and less environmentally damaging (especially in rapidly growing economies)
-
Madalina Vlasceanu
Assistant Professor of Environmental Social Sciences
BioMadalina Vlasceanu is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Behavioral Sciences in the Environmental Social Sciences Department of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, and the director of the Stanford Climate Cognition Lab. Professor Vlasceanu is also a committee member of the Psychology Coalition at the United Nations, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology United Nations, and the International Panel on the Information Environment. She obtained a PhD in Psychology and Neuroscience from Princeton University in 2021 and a BA in Psychology and Economics from the University of Rochester in 2016. Prior to Stanford, she was an Assistant Professor of Psychology at New York University. Her research focuses on the cognitive and social processes that give rise to emergent phenomena such as collective beliefs, collective decision-making, and collective action, with direct applications to climate policy. Guided by a theoretical framework of investigation, her research employs a large array of methods including behavioral laboratory experiments, social network analysis, field studies, randomized controlled trials, megastudies, and international many-lab collaborations, with the goal of understanding the processes underlying climate awareness and action at the individual, collective, and system level. Professor Vlasceanu's research is theoretically grounded and focused on applications for practice, incorporates an interdisciplinary perspective, and directly informs policies and practices relevant to climate mitigation and adaptation.
-
Katie Vogelheim
Education Advisor, Human and Planetary Health
Staff, Human and Planetary HealthBioKatie Vogelheim is currently an Education Advisor to the Human and Planetary Health Initiative at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. She is also a member of the teaching team for Hacking for Climate Change, serves as an Innovation Coach for the Stanford Ecopreneurship program, and helped develop the Human and Planetary Action Lab series of project-based classes. In these capacities, Katie contributes to educating and mentoring students in addressing climate change challenges through innovative solutions.
Katie had a 30 year business career spanning several industries. Since 2010, she has directed funding to global nature based solution projects and early stage companies committed to a sustainable mission. From 2020-22, she joined Stanford as a Distinguished Career Institute Fellow, focused on Sustainability, Climate and Energy.
Katie works across campus developing curriculum and convening resources to advance human and planetary health efforts. She supplements this work with additional affiliations: serving on the Board of Dean’s Advisers at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, the Harvard Data Science Initiative, and Conservation International's Science and Leadership Councils.
