Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability


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  • Laura Mansfield

    Laura Mansfield

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science

    BioI am interested in how machine learning and Bayesian statistics can assist our understanding and prediction of the climate and weather. My current research focuses on improving gravity wave parameterizations in atmospheric circulation models, which are necessary to capture the subgrid-scale gravity waves that influence the middle atmosphere dynamics. Machine learning can be used to either improve existing physics-based parameterizations, i.e. through calibration, or to replace these entirely with novel machine learning alternatives. I work on both of these approaches and am particularly interested in exploring uncertainties arising from parameterizations.

    Previously, I completed my PhD at the University of Reading, which focused on emulating climate models to estimate the surface temperature response to changes in anthropogenic forcings, including both long-lived greenhouse gases and short-lived aerosol pollutants. Prior to this, I completed the Mathematics of Planet Earth MRes at University of Reading, after coming from an undergraduate degree in Physics at Imperial College London. Outside of work, my interests include cycling, running and being outdoors in California.

  • Pamela Matson

    Pamela Matson

    Richard and Rhoda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute, Emerita

    BioPAMELA MATSON is an interdisciplinary sustainability scientist, academic leader, and organizational strategist. She served as dean of Stanford University’s School of Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences from 2002-2017, building interdisciplinary departments and educational programs focused on resources, environment and sustainability, as well as co-leading university-wide interdisciplinary initiatives. In her current role as the Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies and Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment, she leads the graduate program on Sustainability Science and Practice. Her research addresses a range of environment and sustainability issues, including sustainability of agricultural systems, vulnerability and resilience of particular people and places to climate change, and characteristics of science that can contribute to sustainability transitions at scale.

    Dr. Matson serves as chair of the board of the World Wildlife Fund-US and as a board member of the World Wildlife Fund-International and several university advisory boards. She served on the US National Academy of Science Board on Sustainable Development and co-wrote the National Research Council’s volume Our Common Journey: A transition toward sustainability (1999); she also led the NRC committee on America’s Climate Choices: Advancing the Science of Climate Change. She was the founding chair of the National Academies Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability, and founding editor for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources. She is a past President of the Ecological Society of America. Her recent publications (among around 200) include Seeds of Sustainability: Lessons from the Birthplace of the Green Revolution (2012) and Pursuing Sustainability (2016).

    Pam is an elected member of the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a AAAS Fellow. She received a MacArthur Foundation Award, contributed to the award of the Nobel Prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, among other awards and recognitions, and is an Einstein Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

    Dr. Matson holds a Bachelor of Science degree with double majors in Biology and Literature from the University of Wisconsin (Eau Claire), a Master degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Doctorate in Forest Ecology from Oregon State University, and honorary doctorates from Princeton, McGill and Arizona State Universities. She spent ten years as a research scientist with NASA-Ames Research Center before moving to a professorship at the University of California Berkeley and, in 1997, to Stanford University.

  • Anna M. Michalak

    Anna M. Michalak

    Professor (By Courtesy), Earth System Science

    BioDr. Anna M. Michalak is the Founding Director of the Carnegie Climate and Resilience Hub at the Carnegie Institution for Science, where she has been a Faculty Member since 2011 and served as Director of the Department of Global Ecology for 2020-2023. Michalak also holds appointments as Professor (by courtesy) in the Department of Earth System Science at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and the Department of Biology at Stanford University. Prior to joining Carnegie, she was the Frank and Brooke Transue Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor at the University of Michigan. She holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University, and a B.Sc.(Eng.) in Environmental Engineering from the University of Guelph, Canada.

    Dr. Michalak studies the cycling and emissions of greenhouse gases at the Earth surface at urban to global scales – scales directly relevant to informing climate and policy – primarily through the use of atmospheric observations that provide the clearest constraints at these critical scales. She also explores climate change impacts on freshwater and coastal water quality via influences on nutrient delivery to, and on conditions within, water bodies. Her approach is highly data-driven, with a common methodological thread being the development and application of spatiotemporal statistical data fusion methods for optimizing the use of limited in situ and remote sensing environmental data.

    She is the lead author of the U.S. Carbon Cycle Science Plan, Co-Chair of the National Academies committee for the midterm assessment of the NASA decadal survey for Earth system observations from space, Co-Chair of the carbon and water advisory boards for Schmidt Sciences, Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society, and Visiting Faculty Researcher at Google Research. Previously, she was Editor of the journal Water Resources Research and Chair of the scientific advisory board for the European Integrated Carbon Observation System. She is the recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (nominated by NASA), the NSF CAREER award, the Leopold Fellowship in environmental leadership, and the American Geophysical Union’s Simpson Medal.

  • Diana Moanga

    Diana Moanga

    Lecturer

    BioDiana Moanga is a Lecturer and the Manager of the Spatial Analysis Center in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. She teaches the Remote Sensing of Land class and the Fundamentals of Geographic Information Science class. Her research includes studying land use land cover change processes using remote sensing and spatial analysis, focusing on the effects of environmental and anthropogenic stressors on coastal socio-environmental systems. She is particularly passionate about furthering our understating of climate equity for coastal communities and mapping coastal hazards at various scales. She has a Ph.D. in Environmental Science Policy and Management from UC Berkeley in 2020. Her dissertation research used geospatial techniques to study land use and land cover changes across California. Specifically, her research explored management impacts on California’s coastal lands, agricultural transitions in the Central Valley, and wildfire activity under future climate regimes. Diana also earned a Master’s in Science in Marine Affairs and Policy from the University of Miami in 2015. For her master's research she examined the spatial and temporal characteristics of harmful algal blooms and studied coastal zone management and coral conservation.

  • Josheena Naggea

    Josheena Naggea

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsJosheena is an André Hoffmann Fellow at the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions and the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Her current work is focused on centering blue justice and equity for ocean innovations in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture. Her community-engaged research has focused on climate change adaptation, marine protected area management, disaster impacts and recovery, and the valorization of natural and cultural heritage in ocean governance. She has a keen interest in understanding people-ocean connections and how they influence coastal livelihoods, local environmental stewardship, and food security.

    She is also an IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) fellow on the Transformative Change Assessment, investigating the determinants of transformative change and pathways for achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.

    Josheena holds a Ph.D. in Environment and Resources from the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) at Stanford University. Her doctoral work aimed to support ocean governance in the Western Indian Ocean, with a focus on the Republic of Mauritius, her home country. She is presently a national steering committee member of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP), implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Mauritius, where she continues to support community-led efforts for sustainability, biodiversity conservation, and poverty alleviation.

  • Alireza Namayandeh

    Alireza Namayandeh

    Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth System Science

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsDr. Namayandeh's research interests are centered around three primary areas: 1) the formation and transformation of natural nanoparticles, 2) their interaction with contaminants and nutrients in the Earth's surface environment, and 3) how these interactions impact human health. He is currently studying the generation of toxic metals in soils at extremely high temperatures. He is also involved in solving global and environmental health problems, particularly in low-income countries. He is working on a project in Bangladesh focusing on lead exposure.

    He is also interested to integrate environmental justice into his research. He conducts Eco-theater workshops at Stanford, in which participants create performing arts about the social aspects of California wildfires, including the impact on underrepresented groups such as inmate firefighters.

  • Rosamond Naylor

    Rosamond Naylor

    William Wrigley Professor, Professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute, at the Freeman Spogli Institute and Professor, by courtesy, of Economics and of Earth System Science

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch Activities:
    My research focuses on the environmental and equity dimensions of intensive food production systems, and the food security dimensions of low-input systems. I have been involved in a number of field-level research projects around the world and have published widely on issues related to climate impacts on agriculture, distributed irrigation systems for diversified cropping, nutrient use and loss in agriculture, biotechnology, aquaculture and livestock production, biofuels development, food price volatility, and food policy analysis.

    Teaching Activities:
    I teach courses on the world food economy, food and security, aquaculture science and policy, human society and environmental change, and food-water-health linkages. These courses are offered to graduate and undergraduate students through the departments of Earth System Science, Economics, History, and International Relations.

    Professional Activities:
    William Wrigley Professor of Earth Science (2015 - Present); Professor in Earth System Science (2009-present); Director, Stanford Center on Food Security and the Environment (2005-2018); Associate Professor of Economics by courtesy (2000-present); William Wrigley Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Woods Institute for the Environment (2007-2015); Trustee, The Nature Conservancy CA program (2012-present); Member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Beijer Institute for Ecological Economics in Stockholm (2011-present), for the Aspen Global Change Institute (2011-present), and for the Aldo Leopold Leadership Program (2012-present); Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellow in Environmental Science and Public Policy (1999); Pew Fellow in Conservation and the Environment (1994). Associate Editor for the Journal on Food Security (2012-present). Editorial board member for Aquaculture-Environment Interactions (2009-present) and Global Food Security (2012-present).