Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Showing 1-33 of 33 Results
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Emilius Aalto
Basic Life Science Research Scientist
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy primary research interest is theoretical fisheries ecology, with a focus on population dynamics, spatial dynamics, and response to disease and catastrophic events. My current work involves the incorporation of the effects of ocean acidification and low-oxygen events into an abalone growth and reproduction model. Past projects include modeling indirect positive effects from fishing-induced competitive release and the effects of size-specific obligate predation on post-harvest recovery time.
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Christine M Baker
Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and, by courtesy, of Oceans
BioBaker’s research examines processes at the land-ocean interface, a highly dynamic region with fragile ecosystems, progressively vulnerable communities, and coastal hazards further magnified by a changing climate. Her research integrates laboratory experimentation with numerical modeling and remotely sensed field observations to build our fundamental understanding of hydrodynamics in coastal regions. The goals of her research include informing predictions of coastal water quality, shoreline evolution, and other coastal hazards and improving coastal resiliency in changing environments. Her ongoing and planned projects include studying wave transformation in shallow waters, surf-shelf transport driven by eddy and rip current dynamics, wave-driven sediment transport, and coupled hydro- and morphodynamics in the context of extreme events.
Baker completed a bachelors degrees in Civil Engineering from Oregon State University and a Masters and PhD in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of Washington. -
Halleh Balch
Assistant Professor of Oceans and, by courtesy, of Electrical Engineering
BioHalleh B. Balch is an experimental physicist and HHMI Hanna H. Gray Faculty Fellow at Stanford University. Her research broadly focuses on advancing imaging, spectroscopy, and nanophotonics with a focus on applications in oceanography and water sustainability. Halleh received her PhD in physics from the University of California Berkeley and her undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College in physics and literature. Halleh joined Stanford as an Assistant Professor in the Doerr School of Sustainability in August 2025.
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Barbara Block
Charles and Elizabeth Prothro Professor of Marine Sciences, Professor of Oceans and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThermal physiology, open ocean predators, ecological physiology and tuna biology
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Alexandria Boehm
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies, Professor of Oceans and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
BioI am interested in pathogens in the environment including their sources, fate, and transport in natural and engineered systems. I am interested in understanding of how pathogens are transmitted to humans through contact with water, feces, and contaminated surfaces. My research is focused on key problems in both developed and developing countries with the overarching goal of designing and testing novel interventions and technologies for reducing the burden of disease.
I am also interested broadly in coastal water quality where my work addresses the sources, transformation, transport, and ecology of biocolloids - specifically fecal indicator organisms, DNA, pathogens, and phytoplankton - as well as sources and fate of nitrogen. This knowledge is crucial to formulating new management policies and engineering practices that protect human and ecosystem health at the coastal margins. -
David Cade
Basic Life Research Scientist
BioFor the most up to date information, check out www.davidecade.com
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Karen Casciotti
Associate Dean for Facilities and Shared Labs, Professor of Oceans, of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProfessor in Oceans and ESS, focus on marine chemistry and biogeochemistry.
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Larry Crowder
Edward Ricketts Provostial Professor, Professor of Oceans, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, of Environmental Social Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsEcology, conservation, fisheries, protected species, ecosystem-based management
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Kristen Davis
Associate Professor of Oceans and, by courtesy, of Civil and Environmental Engineering
BioI am an engineer and oceanographer who is interested in studying how physical processes shape coastal waters – combining principles of fluid mechanics, oceanography, and ecology. I use both field observations and numerical tools to examine circulation in the ocean, its natural variability, and influence on marine ecosystems and human-nature interactions. I joined Stanford department of Oceans in 2024. Before that, I was an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Irvine.
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Giulio De Leo
Professor of Oceans, of Earth System Science and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am a theoretical ecologist mostly interested in investigating factors and processes driving the dynamics of natural and harvested populations and on how to use this knowledge to inform practical management. I have worked broadly on life histories analysis, fishery management, dynamics and control of infectious diseases and environmental impact assessment.
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Anne Dekas
Associate Professor of Earth System Science and, by courtesy, of Oceans
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsEnvironmental microbiology, deep-sea microbial ecology, marine biogeochemistry
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Rob Dunbar
W.M. Keck Professor in the School of Earth Sciences, Professor of Oceans, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Professor, by courtesy, of Earth System Science
On Leave from 10/01/2025 To 09/30/2026Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOcean processes, biogeochemistry, climatology/paleoclimatology, isotopic chemistry, ocean policy
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Robin Elahi
Advanced Lecturer
BioI am an advanced lecturer at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station, where I teach courses in kelp forest ecology, statistics, and scientific computing. In general, I study drivers of spatial and temporal change in marine ecosystems. Ongoing and recent research projects include:
-examining the consequences of fisheries closures on fisher behavior
-understanding why some coral reefs fare better than their neighbors
-biodiversity and body size change, particularly in the context of recent human impacts -
Christopher Francis
Professor of Earth System Science, of Oceans and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMicrobial cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and metals in the environment; molecular geomicrobiology; marine microbiology; microbial diversity; meta-omics
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Oliver Fringer
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and of Oceans
BioFringer's research focuses on the development and application of numerical models and high-performance computational techniques to the study of fundamental processes that influence the dynamics of the coastal ocean, rivers, lakes, and estuaries.
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William Gilly
Professor of Oceans
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy work has contributed to understanding electrical excitability in nerve & muscle in organisms ranging from brittle-stars to mammals. Current research addresses behavior, physiology and ecology of squid through field and lab approaches. Electronic tagging plus in situ video, acoustic and oceanographic methods are used to study behaviors and life history in the field. Lab work focuses on control of chromogenic behavior by the chromatophore network and of locomotion by the giant axon system.
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Jeremy Goldbogen
Associate Professor of Oceans
BioJeremy Goldbogen is an Associate Professor of Oceans at Stanford University, based at the Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, California. He is a comparative physiologist who studies the integrative biology of marine organisms, with a particular focus on the feeding biomechanics, energetics, and foraging ecology of baleen whales.
Goldbogen received his B.S. in Zoology from the University of Texas at Austin, where he began his research career studying the biomechanics of locomotion in hummingbirds and Antarctic pteropods. He earned his M.S. in Marine Biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of British Columbia, where his dissertation on the mechanics and energetics of rorqual lunge feeding earned him the Governor General's Gold Medal—UBC's most outstanding PhD award. Following postdoctoral positions at Scripps and the Cascadia Research Collective, he joined Stanford's faculty in 2014.
His research program uses cutting-edge bio-logging technology—animal-attached sensors including accelerometers, video cameras, and echosounders—to study the behavior and physiology of marine megafauna in their natural environment. His lab has made groundbreaking discoveries about whale feeding mechanics, cardiovascular function, and the ecological consequences of body size in cetaceans. Notable achievements include the first recordings of a blue whale's heart rate and insights into why whales are big but not bigger. -
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. -
Justin Leidwanger
Associate Professor of Classics and, by courtesy, of Oceans
BioJustin Leidwanger's work focuses on Mediterranean mobilities, interaction, and maritime heritage. Ships and ports, most recently in southwest Türkiye and southeast Sicily, are central to exploring these themes in the field, providing evidence for connections and the long-term dynamics that shaped communities amid economically, socially, and politically changing worlds. To this end, he is particularly drawn to the long arc of the Roman Mediterranean, including its temporal edges, from the emergence of Hellenistic states through the long late antiquity and beyond.
Between 2013 and 2019, he led investigations of the 6th-century Marzamemi 2 “church wreck” (Sicily), which sank while carrying nearly 100 tons of marble architectural elements. Work continues through underwater survey, 3D analysis, and publication as well as immersive museum-based and pop-up exhibits and other initiatives. Project 'U Mari extends this collaborative and community-based field research across southeast Sicily, interrogating the heritage of diverse but co-dependent interactions with and across the sea that have long defined the central Mediterranean. These connections offer a resource for deeper critical engagement with the past, more meaningful identities in the present, and more sustainable development in the future. One facet of this work examines the socioeconomic dynamics spanning three millennia of tuna fishing through maritime landscape archaeology and documentation of the fading material culture and traditional knowledge of the mattanza. Another mobilizes archaeology to better understand the creation and circulation of plastics as maritime material assemblages, offering a window into socio-environmental systems. These efforts simultaneously foreground heritage activism through community-based archaeology of the spaces, materialities, and memories of contemporary journeys of forced and undocumented migration across these waters.
Justin 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, 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 digital modeling (structured light scanning, laser scanning, photogrammetry, GIS, network analysis) and pottery analysis (petrography, pXRF, computational morphological analysis).
Author of Roman Seas: A Maritime Archaeology of Eastern Mediterranean Economies (Oxford), and editor or co-editor of six more volumes, including Regional Economies in Action (Vienna) and Maritime Networks in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Cambridge), he is currently working on two books. The first, entitled Fluid Technologies: Innovation on the Ancient Mediterranean, arises from research with students in the field, lab, and museum, analyzing transport amphoras, port infrastructure, and other clues to ancient technologies of distribution. The second, The Tuna Trap, explores the entanglement of mobilities that have and continue to bind the shores surrounding the Strait of Sicily. -
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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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
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Stephen Palumbi
Jane and Marshall Steel Jr. Professor of Marine Sciences, Professor of Oceans and of Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe're interested in ecological, evolutionary, and conservation questions related to marine (and sometimes terrestrial) organisms and ecosystems. We use evolutionary genetics and molecular ecology techniques, and our fieldwork takes us all around the world. Currently, we're studying coral diversity, the adaptive potential of corals in response to climate change, the movement of organisms between marine reserves, genetic changes in abalone in response to environmental.
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Manu Prakash
Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment and Associate Professor, by courtesy, of Oceans
BioWe use interdisciplinary approaches including theory and experiments to understand how computation is embodied in biological matter. Examples include cognition in single cell protists and morphological computing in animals with no neurons and origins of complex behavior in multi-cellular systems. Broadly, we invent new tools for studying non-model organisms with significant focus on life in the ocean - addressing fundamental questions such as how do cells sense pressure or gravity? Finally, we are dedicated towards inventing and distributing “frugal science” tools to democratize access to science (previous inventions used worldwide: Foldscope, Abuzz), diagnostics of deadly diseases like malaria and convening global citizen science communities to tackle planetary scale environmental challenges such as mosquito surveillance or plankton surveillance by citizen sailors mapping the ocean in the age of Anthropocene.
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Krish Seetah
Associate Professor of Environmental Social Sciences, of Oceans, of Anthropology and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment
BioI am a zooarchaeologist, whose focus is primarily on colonisation and colonialism. My zooarchaeological research has used butchery analysis (with the benefit of professional and ethnographic actualistic experience) to investigate agency within the human-animal relationship. More recently, I have employed geometric morphometrics (GMM) as a mechanism for identifying and distinguishing animal populations. This approach to studying colonial activity centres on understanding how people manipulate animal bodies, both during life and after death.
Alongside the strictly faunal research is a research interest in technologies associated with animal processing. This has been used to investigate issues of technology, trade and socio-economic attitudes within colonial contexts in the Mediterranean (Venice & Montenegro) and the Baltic (Poland, Latvia & Lithuania).
I am also the Director of the ‘Mauritian Archaeology and Cultural Heritage’ (MACH) project, which studies European Imperialism and colonial activity. This project centres on the movement of peoples and material cultures, specifically within the contexts of slavery and Diaspora. The work of this project has focused on key sites in Mauritius and is based on a systematic programme of excavation and environmental sampling. The underlying aims are to better understand the transition from slavery to indentured labour following abolition, the extent and diversity of trade in the region and the environmental consequences of intense, monoculture, agriculture. -
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. -
Leif Thomas
Professor of Earth System Science and, by courtesy, of Oceans
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPhysical oceanography; theory and numerical modeling of the ocean circulation; dynamics of ocean fronts and vortices; upper ocean processes; air-sea interaction.
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Brooke Weigel
Assistant Professor of Oceans
BioDr. Brooke Weigel is a marine ecologist. Her research focuses on the ecology, physiology, and genomics of marine algae and microbial communities in the ocean. She is particularly interested in the feedbacks between climate change, kelp forests, microbes & carbon cycling in the ocean. Her research uses a variety of tools and methods, including field and lab experiments, genomics, bioinformatics, algal culturing, scientific scuba diving, ecophysiology, and biogeochemistry. Overall, her esearch aims to improve our understanding of coastal marine ecosystems with the overall goal of ensuring a healthy, productive, and resilient ocean. The Weigel Lab is based at Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, CA.
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Earle Wilson
Assistant Professor of Earth System Science, by courtesy, of Geophysics, of Oceans and Center Fellow, by courtesy, at the Woods Institute for the Environment
BioEarle Wilson is an assistant professor in the Department of Earth System Science. He is a physical oceanographer who studies ocean dynamics at high latitudes and their far-reaching impacts on the global climate. He is particularly interested in the circulation of the Southern Ocean and its interactions with the cryosphere (i.e., sea ice and marine-terminating glaciers). Dr. Wilson and his group explore these research questions using various tools and methods, ranging from in situ ocean observations and idealized numerical models.
