Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability
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Katie Wu
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2022
Ph.D. Minor, Civil and Environmental EngineeringBioKatie's research explores how community-driven social interventions and infrastructure development impact community and climate resilience in informal settlements. Her work advances how we operationalize resilience to better inform community-based strategies, policy, and investments that support urban transformation for vulnerable populations. She incorporates participatory methods essential for driving community-led efforts, ensuring a community's deep participation in every step of the iterative analysis, planning, and decision-making processes, in collaboration with multi-sectoral partners and decision-makers. Katie integrates advanced data science techniques, including network science and graph neural networks (GNNs), with community-generated, ground-truthed data to redefine how resilience is measured and applied for more equitable, community-driven strategies for sustainable development. She uses unconventional data sources, such as satellite imagery and citizen-sourced data, to model the built and natural environment in areas with limited conventional data.
Prior to Stanford, Katie studied data science and AI for Product Innovation at Duke University, where she obtained a Master of Engineering Management (MEM). She was a Sustainability Graduate Intern at Lyft, Inc., where she completed and rebuilt their 2020 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory and Report and designed an air quality model forecasting potential health benefits of EV adoption for underserved communities. She received an M.S. in Medical Science from the University of Colorado School of Medicine and a B.S. in Animal Science with Distinction in Research from Cornell University. Katie is a Dean's Graduate Scholar in the Doerr School of Sustainability, an Emerson Consequential Scholar with the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP), a Graduate Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI (HAI), and a Stanford Dalai Lama Fellow. -
Flora Jiaxuan Xu
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2023
Student Summer Research Assistant, Environmental Social SciencesBioFlora Jiaxuan Xu is a PhD candidate in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) at Stanford University, working at the intersection of environmental psychology, civil and environmental engineering, urban design, and behavioral science. Her research investigates how people define, experience, and internalize “nature” as part of the self, and how psychological, cultural, and built-environment factors shape human–nature relationships in contemporary cities.
Drawing on theories of identity, perception, cultural psychology, and ecological systems, Flora proposes Nature Identity as a new interdisciplinary framework for understanding how nature becomes woven into self-concept and everyday meaning-making. She employs a broad mixed-methods approach—including qualitative interviews, quantitative modeling, ecological momentary assessment, photovoice, and human-centered design—to examine how urban nature influences wellbeing, identity formation, and environmental behavior. In parallel, she develops creative, design-driven solutions such as immersive installations, biophilic illusions, narrative and sensory interventions, and technology-enabled building features that aim to strengthen nature connection and promote climate engagement in urban settings.
Flora works with the Social Ecology Lab and the Billington Lab, as well as external partners in urban design, behavioral science, and immersive storytelling. Her work seeks to bridge scientific research with real-world application, advancing strategies that integrate psychology, culture, and design to foster healthier and more nature-responsive cities.
Prior to Stanford, Flora completed an M.S. in Environmental Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and holds B.A. degrees in Sustainable Environmental Design and Cognitive Science from the University of California, Berkeley. -
Sandeep Yadav
Postdoctoral Scholar, Energy Science and Engineering
BioSandeep Yadav is a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. His research focuses on advancing sustainable energy systems, with an emphasis on techno-economic analysis and modeling of carbon capture retrofits for industrial decarbonization and energy efficiency. He earned his Ph.D. in Energy Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, where he specialized in the techno-economic assessment of carbon capture technologies, data center cooling, and combined cooling and power systems. Sandeep is committed to supporting the global transition to low-carbon energy and is passionate about mentoring the next generation of scientists and engineers.
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Da Yang
Assistant Professor Geophysics
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy research focuses on atmospheric convection and clouds—the major sources of uncertainty in predicting future climate change. Key questions in this field include: What makes air rise to form clouds? How do individual convective clouds organize into expansive rainstorms? How does convection work in warmer climates? I combine theory, observations, numerical models, and machine learning methods to address these most fundamental yet challenging questions.
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Audrey Yau
Director, Stanford Energy Postdoctoral Fellowship, Precourt Institute for Energy
BioAs a Director in the Precourt Institute for Energy in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Audrey is responsible for the overall strategic and operational leadership for the Stanford Energy Postdoctoral Fellowship. In her role, Audrey develops educational experiences that connect academic learning with real world impact for postdoctoral scholars in Stanford's newest school.
