Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
Showing 101-120 of 135 Results
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Ashley Prow Fleischer
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth and Planetary Sciences
BioI earned a PhD in Earth Science with a focus in paleoclimatology from Syracuse University, where my research focused on reconstructing past environmental change and biotic responses using microfossils and geochemical proxies. My work integrates stratigraphy, paleobiology, geochemistry, and climate modeling to better understand Earth's climate dynamics during the intervals of rapid change, like the Late Devonian and end Triassic mass extinctions.
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Matthew Reinhold
Ph.D. Student in Earth and Planetary Sciences, admitted Autumn 2025
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPlanetary habitability, specifically looking into the effects of tidal heating as both a source of energy to maintain habitable climates, and as a means of keeping small, terrestrial worlds warm, and thus geologically active for long periods of time. In addition, I am interested in the physical, geological and chemical processes on exotic worlds, like Saturn's moon Titan. How do the climates of such worlds evolve, and what kinds of geologic features would they produce on the landscape?
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Laura Schaefer
Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences and, by courtesy, of Geophysics
Current Research and Scholarly Interestsearly Earth atmosphere; planetary differentiation; rocky exoplanet atmospheric chemistry; planetary interiors; atmosphere-interior exchange on Earth-like planets; planetary habitability; Venus atmospheric evolution; volcanic gases on Io and volatile loss
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Allegra Hosford Scheirer
Physical Science Research Scientist
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch
Allegra Hosford Scheirer is a research geophysicist at Stanford University, specializing in basin and petroleum system modeling. Her work is centered on the strong belief in the integration of geological, geochemical, and geophysical data in a unified working environment.
Teaching
She co-teaches courses and co-advises several graduate students with a focus on basin and petroleum system modeling and investigative methods for exploring conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons.
Professional Activities
Prior to joining Stanford, Allegra was a member of the Geophysical Unit of Menlo Park and the Energy Resources Program at the U.S. Geological Survey, where she constructed three-dimensional geologic models for use in the resource assessment process. Allegra has led and participated in numerous field programs at sea and in the United States. She is the editor of U.S.G.S. Professional Paper 1713 and a past Associate Editor of Journal of Geophysical Research. -
Eva L. Scheller
Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences
BioProf. Scheller leads the Planetary Chemistry and Spectroscopy group. Her research focuses on working with and developing instrumentation (spectroscopy and stable isotope mass spectrometry) on spacecraft missions designed to study the chemistry of planetary surfaces and materials, combining laboratory spectroscopy experiments with spacecraft dataset analysis and instrument development. She has a keen interest in exploring limitations and detectability challenges in spacecraft instrumentation, such as refining organic detection methods for spacecraft instrumentation. The main focus of her research is using these datasets and experiments in order to understand the global volatile cycles of planetary bodies and their effects on controlling the evolution of atmospheres, crusts, and habitability of planets.
Prof. Scheller is currently developing the Stanford Planetary Chemistry and Spectroscopy computational and experimental laboratory, which will focus on UV to longwave infrared spectroscopy at ambient and ultrahigh vacuum, cryogenic conditions as well as AI methodologies applied to the analysis of spectral datasets. -
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. -
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
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Sonia Tikoo-Schantz
Assistant Professor of Geophysics and, by courtesy, of Earth and Planetary Sciences
BioI utilize paleomagnetism and fundamental rock magnetism as tools to investigate problems in the planetary sciences. By studying the remanent magnetism recorded within rocks from differentiated planetary bodies, I can learn about core processes that facilitate the generation of dynamo magnetic fields within the Earth, Moon, and planetesimals. Determining the longevities and paleointensities of dynamo fields that initially magnetized rocks also provides insight into the long-term thermal evolution (i.e., effects of secular cooling) of planetary bodies. I also use paleomagnetism to understand impact cratering events, which are the most ubiquitous modifiers of planetary surfaces across the solar system. Impact events produce heat, shock, and sometimes hydrothermal systems that are all capable of resetting magnetization within impactites and target rocks via thermal, shock, and chemical processes. Therefore, I am able to use a combination of paleomagnetic and rock magnetic characterization to investigate shock pressures, temperatures, structural changes, and post-impact chemical alteration experienced by cratered planetary surfaces.
