Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Showing 1-50 of 152 Results
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Mareldi Ahumada Paras
Postdoctoral Scholar, Energy Resources Engineering
BioPostdoctoral scholar working with the Climate and Energy Policy Program at the intersection of climate policy, energy resilience and decarbonization. My graduate research focused on power system resilience and planning during extreme events. Previously, I worked at General Electric Company as an Edison and operability engineer on power turbine design and remote diagnostics of existing fleet.
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Ammar Alali
Ph.D. Student in Energy Resources Engineering, admitted Autumn 2023
BioI'm Ammar, a PhD student in Energy Science Engineering who is working with Hamdi Tchelepi. I got my master's degree from Stanford in 2018, and since then I have been working with Aramco as part of the development teams of two projects for Underground Gas Storage and CCUS to be developed for the first time in Saudi Arabia. My masters research was focused on numerical reservoir simulation of capillary-dominated flow in matrix-fracture systems using interface conditions. In my free time, I enjoy reading modern poetry and watching classic films.
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Folasade Ayoola
Ph.D. Student in Energy Science and Engineering, admitted Spring 2019
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDeep decarbonization of large-scale energy systems, exploring low-carbon transition pathway alternatives for oil-dependent countries, with a focus on Nigeria.
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Inês Azevedo
Associate Professor of Energy Science Engineering and by courtesy, of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsProfessor Azevedo is passionate about solving problems that include environmental, technical, economic, and policy issues, where traditional engineering approaches play an important role but cannot provide a complete answer. In particular, she is interested in assessing how energy systems are likely to evolve, which requires comprehensive knowledge of the technologies that can address future energy needs and the decision-making process followed by various agents in the economy.
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Khalid Aziz
Otto N. Miller Professor in the School of Earth Sciences, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOptimization and reservoir Simulation.
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Ilenia Battiato
Associate Professor of Energy Science Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsEnergy and environment (battery systems; superhydrophobicity and drag reduction; carbon sequestration); multiscale, mesoscale and hybrid simulations (multiphase and reactive transport processes); effective medium theories; perturbation methods, homogenization and upscaling.
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Sally Benson
Precourt Family Professor, Professor of Energy Science Engineering and Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy and at the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research is focused on reducing the risks of climate change by developing energy supplies with low carbon emissions. Students and post-doctoral fellows in my research group work on carbon dioxide storage, energy systems analysis, and pathways for transitioning to a low-carbon energy system.
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Stacey Bent
Vice Provost, Graduate Edu & Postdoc Affairs, Jagdeep & Roshni Singh Professor in the School of Engineering, Professor of Energy Science Eng, Sr Fellow at Precourt & Professor, by courtesy, of Electrical Eng, Materials Sci Eng & Chemistry
BioThe research in the Bent laboratory is focused on understanding and controlling surface and interfacial chemistry and applying this knowledge to a range of problems in semiconductor processing, micro- and nano-electronics, nanotechnology, and sustainable and renewable energy. Much of the research aims to develop a molecular-level understanding in these systems, and hence the group uses of a variety of molecular probes. Systems currently under study in the group include functionalization of semiconductor surfaces, mechanisms and control of atomic layer deposition, molecular layer deposition, nanoscale materials for light absorption, interface engineering in photovoltaics, catalyst and electrocatalyst deposition.
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Adam Brandt
Associate Professor of Energy Science Engineering and Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsGreenhouse gas emissions, energy systems optimization, mathematical modeling of resource depletion, life cycle analysis
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Catherine (Hay) Callas
Ph.D. Student in Energy Resources Engineering, admitted Spring 2020
BioCatherine Callas is a Ph.D. candidate in the Benson Lab in Energy Resources Engineering. She is an ExxonMobil Emerging Energy Fellow, and her research is focused on offshore carbon capture and sequestration in the Gulf Coast. She obtained her M.S. degree in the Atmosphere and Energy program within Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Brown University. Before attending Stanford, she worked as a Financial Analyst within the Fixed Income group at Goldman Sachs in New York City for three years. She was a Schneider Fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco where she analyzed the impact of the 2017 Northern California wildfires and 2018 Camp Fire on retail rates within PG&E’s service territory.
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Zhenlin Chen
Ph.D. Student in Energy Resources Engineering, admitted Summer 2023
BioZhenlin (Richard) Chen is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford's Adam Brandt lab, focuses on greenhouse gas emissions from oil and gas. His work primarily revolves around evaluating ground sensor technologies for methane detection and quantification ability. His methodological approach blends engineering principles, field data collection, and applied statistics. Chen is exploring AI-driven frameworks, particularly large language models, to refine energy data extraction and enhance the OPGEE model through private data fine-tuning and reinforcement learning. His emphasis remains on domain-specific tasks, aiming for efficiency in terms of latency and cost. He pursued his undergraduate studies in environmental science at Cornell University and holds a master's in Atmosphere and Energy Engineering from Stanford.
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Steven Chu
William R. Kenan Jr. Professor, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology and of Energy Science and Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsSynthesis, functionalization and applications of nanoparticle bioprobes for molecular cellular in vivo imaging in biology and biomedicine. Linear and nonlinear difference frequency mixing ultrasound imaging. Lithium metal-sulfur batteries, new approaches to electrochemical splitting of water. CO2 reduction, lithium extraction from salt water
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William Chueh
Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, of Energy Science and Engineering, of Photon Science, and Senior Fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy
BioThe availability of low-cost but intermittent renewable electricity (e.g., derived from solar and wind) underscores the grand challenge to store and dispatch energy so that it is available when and where it is needed. Redox-active materials promise the efficient transformation between electrical, chemical, and thermal energy, and are at the heart of carbon-neutral energy cycles. Understanding design rules that govern materials chemistry and architecture holds the key towards rationally optimizing technologies such as batteries, fuel cells, electrolyzers, and novel thermodynamic cycles. Electrochemical and chemical reactions involved in these technologies span diverse length and time scales, ranging from Ångströms to meters and from picoseconds to years. As such, establishing a unified, predictive framework has been a major challenge. The central question unifying our research is: “can we understand and engineer redox reactions at the levels of electrons, ions, molecules, particles and devices using a bottom-up approach?” Our approach integrates novel synthesis, fabrication, characterization, modeling and analytics to understand molecular pathways and interfacial structure, and to bridge fundamentals to energy storage and conversion technologies by establishing new design rules.
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Dylan Marshall Crain
Ph.D. Student in Energy Resources Engineering, admitted Autumn 2022
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy current research revolves around optimizing the monitoring design of Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) projects in such a way that the posterior (after data assimilation) predictions are as close to reality as can be hoped for.
In CCS projects within the U.S., it is important to have monitoring plan, which can consist of wells with pressure, saturation, salinity, et cetera sensors, seismic lines, or gravimetric above-ground measurements, before any injection has begun into the subsurface. This is due to the permitting requirements that must be satisfied before operations are begun.
Due to this constraint, any monitoring optimization (at least initially) needs to be determined using only a prior (highly uncertain) understanding of the subsurface. This makes the optimization much more challenging. We utilize a prior optimization scheme from a previous student which allows us to optimize a monitoring plan using only prior information to get the minimized, expected uncertainty reduction in the posterior models for a given quantity of interest. This scheme is limited by some Gaussian assumptions. We optimize it using a genetic algorithm.
From this point, with the monitoring plan established, the information gathered from the optimized monitoring scheme (using only monitoring wells at the moment) is used to history match (data assimilate) our understanding of the subsurface. The results can be used to predict the CO2 plume flow and behavior into the future.
This work was initially developed to assist a project in Illinois that is currently seeking Class VI injection well permits in the self-same state in order to begin injecting CO2 produced from two companies paying for the work from the Illinois Geological Survey. -
Yi Cui
Fortinet Founders Professor, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, of Energy Science and Engineering, of Photon Science, Senior Fellow at Woods and Professor, by courtesy, of Chemistry
BioCui studies fundamentals and applications of nanomaterials and develops tools for their understanding. Research Interests: nanotechnology, batteries, electrocatalysis, wearables, 2D materials, environmental technology (water, air, soil), cryogenic electron microscopy.
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David Danielson
Adjunct Professor
BioDavid T. Danielson became a Precourt energy scholar at Stanford in 2016. With Stuart Macmillan and Joel Moxley, Dave co-teaches the yearlong course "Energy Transformation Collaborative." This project-based course provides a launchpad for the creation and development of transformational energy ventures. Interdisciplinary student teams research, analyze and refine detailed plans for high-impact opportunities in the context of the new energy venture development framework offered in this course.
Since January 2017, Dave has been managing director of Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a $1 billion fund focused on fighting climate change by investing in clean energy innovation.
From 2012 to 2016, Dave was assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. There, he directed the U.S. government’s innovation strategy in the areas of sustainable transportation, renewable power, energy efficiency and clean-energy manufacturing, investing about $2 billion annually into American clean-energy innovation. He is considered a global expert in the development of next generation clean-energy technologies and the creation of new R&D and organizational models for high-impact clean energy innovation.
Prior to being appointed by President Obama as assistant secretary, Dave was the first hire at DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency– Energy (ARPA-E), a funding agency that focuses on the development of high-risk, high-reward clean-energy technologies. Prior to his government service, he was a clean-energy venture capitalist and, as a PhD student at MIT, was the founder and president of the MIT Energy Club. -
Jacques de Chalendar
Adjunct Professor
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsIntegrated Energy Systems
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Louis Durlofsky
Otto N. Miller Professor in the School of Earth Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsGeneral reservoir simulation, optimization, reduced-order modeling, upscaling, flow in fractured systems, history matching, CO2 sequestration, energy systems optimization
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Sahar El Abbadi
Phys Sci Res Assoc, Energy Science & Engineering
BioSahar El Abbadi was a post-doctoral researcher in Energy Resources Engineering from Jan 2022 - Aug 2023. Her research focuses on developing circular economies by transforming waste methane into useful products. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is emitted atmosphere by industrial sources (wastewater treatment plants, landfill, fossil fuel extraction) because it is uneconomical to capture, clean and use. However, methane-consuming bacteria can transform this harmful pollutant into protein-rich cells and biodegradable polymers. Sahar's PhD research evaluated the economic potential of using these bacteria to reduce methane emissions while providing a new source of high-quality protein that can be used as a feed for agriculture and aquaculture. Sahar continues to expand on this work in considering the path to industrialization in both the United States and Bangladesh using methane produced at landfills. Sahar completed her Bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley (2012) in Environmental Engineering Science, and her MS (2015) and PhD (2021) in Civil & Environmental Engineering at Stanford.
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Josue Fonseca
Ph.D. Student in Energy Resources Engineering, admitted Autumn 2019
BioI consider myself a pragmatic, easy-going, and technical persona. I am always trying to be with good humor, which helps to reduce natural aging. My goal is to understand energy resources in order to use technical concepts when harvesting them for human development.
My academic background is in physics, with B.Sc., and M.Sc. degrees from Universidade Federal de Pernambuco - Brazil. Before I start my Ph.D. program, I have worked for 9 years in the petroleum industry at Petrobras. At that time, my job encompassed a variety of quantitative methods applied to geosciences, such as rock physics, seismic reservoir characterization, geomodeling applications, quantitative seismic interpretation, and geologic velocity model building.
As a geophysicist and researcher, my main objective is to combine concepts from several disciplines and data from different sources to extract valuable information about the Earth's subsurface. I am a firm believer that this sort of integration must be achieved by means of computational models along with geological expertise. Moreover, uncertainty quantification is required to fully characterize the output of any built model which mimics the subsurface. Therefore, I focus on evaluating interdisciplinary workflows that forecast rock properties in addition to its uncertainty quantification. -
Cedric Fraces
Ph.D. Student in Energy Resources Engineering, admitted Autumn 2017
BioPhD candidate in Energy Resources Engineering with over 10 years of experience in the Energy industry. Covered a variety of roles from field engineering to project management in consulting, service and operating companies. Worked on major oilfields in China, Iraq, Kuwait, Mexico, Colombia and interacted with top executives in corresponding National Oil Companies.
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Matteo Frigo
Postdoctoral Scholar, Energy Resources Engineering
BioMatteo Frigo has been a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at Stanford University since August 2023.
He received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in civil engineering from the University of Padua in 2014 and 2017, respectively.
In 2020, he received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Padua, with a major in Numerical Analysis.
During his Ph.D., he spent a period as a Visiting Researcher Student at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), California, USA.
His leading scientific interests include mathematical and numerical modeling of multiphysics problems mainly related to poromechanics and fracture mechanics.
His research mainly focuses on studying numerical linear algebra problems and preconditioning techniques.
He has experience in implementing high-performance parallel codes on supercomputers with distributed memory and GPU accelerators. -
Margot Gerritsen
Professor of Energy Resources Engineering, Emerita
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch
My work is about understanding and simulating complicated fluid flow problems. My research focuses on the design of highly accurate and efficient parallel computational methods to predict the performance of enhanced oil recovery methods. I'm particularly interested in gas injection and in-situ combustion processes. These recovery methods are extremely challenging to simulate because of the very strong nonlinearities in the governing equations. Outside petroleum engineering, I'm active in coastal ocean simulation with colleagues from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, yacht research and pterosaur flight mechanics with colleagues from the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, and the design of search algorithms in collaboration with the Library of Congress and colleagues from the Institute of Computational and Mathematical Engineering.
Teaching
I teach courses in both energy related topics (reservoir simulation, energy, and the environment) in my department, and mathematics for engineers through the Institute of Computational and Mathematical Engineering (ICME). I also initiated two courses in professional development in our department (presentation skills and teaching assistant training), and a consulting course for graduate students in ICME, which offers expertise in computational methods to the Stanford community and selected industries.
Professional Activities
Senior Associate Dean, School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, Stanford (from 2015); Director, Institute for Computational and Mathematical Engineering, Stanford (from 2010); Stanford Fellow (2010-2012); Magne Espedal Professor II, Bergen University (2011-2014); Aldo Leopold Fellow (2009); Chair, SIAM Activity group in Geosciences (2007, present, reelected in 2009); Faculty Research Fellow, Clayman Institute (2008); Elected to Council of Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) (2007); organizing committee, 2008 Gordon Conference on Flow in Porous Media; producer, Smart Energy podcast channel; Director, Stanford Yacht Research; Co-director and founder, Stanford Center of Excellence for Computational Algorithms in Digital Stewardship; Editor, Journal of Small Craft Technology; Associate editor, Transport in Porous Media; Reviewer for various journals and organizations including SPE, DoE, NSF, Journal of Computational Physics, Journal of Scientific Computing, Transport in Porous Media, Computational Geosciences; member, SIAM, SPE, KIVI, AGU, and APS -
Stephan Graham
Welton Joseph and Maud L'Anphere Crook Professor of Applied Earth Sciences & by courtesy, of Geophysics & of Energy Science Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsSedimentary basin analysis; petroleum geology
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Halldora Gudmundsdottir
Ph.D. Student in Energy Resources Engineering, admitted Autumn 2014
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy PhD research focuses on developing predictive models for geothermal systems. I am interested in direct predictions of the future performance of geothermal reservoirs as well as characterization of the subsurface flow behavior that can aid in operational decision making. Currently, I am incorporating principles from statistics and artificial intelligence into workflows that can be used for production and injection optimization.
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Emily Gwynn
Program Coordinator, Energy Science & Engineering
Current Role at StanfordProgram Coordinator, Energy Science & Engineering, Doerr School of Sustainability