Stanford University
Showing 351-400 of 5,104 Results
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Eric Van Belcea
MD Student, expected graduation Spring 2031
BioHello! I am Eric Văn (VahN) Belcea (BEL-cha), a medical student with experience across a range of domains, including healthcare, finance, music, and community service. I am a passionate leader who seeks to make a positive impact through my professional and academic engagements. As I pursue a career in medicine, I’m eager to learn in an environment that integrates both the science of medicine and the systems that shape health outcomes. I am particularly interested in advancing preventive care through research, exploring the responsible use of technology to improve clinical decision-making, and identifying tools to drive meaningful systemic reform in pursuit of lower cost, higher quality, and greater accessibility for all people.
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Rodrigo Bello Carvalho
Ph.D. Student in Biology, admitted Autumn 2023
BioI am a field biologist deeply passionate about wildlife ecology and conservation. My academic and professional journey bridges research, fieldwork, and environmental stewardship across some of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems.
My work focuses on understanding the functional role of megafauna (large-bodied vertebrates) in shaping tropical ecosystems through processes such as frugivory, herbivory, and seed dispersal. I am particularly interested in how savanna biodiversity, structure, and functioning respond to the loss of megafauna (defaunation), and how ecological insights can inform restoration and conservation strategies in a rapidly changing world.
I hold a Master’s degree in Biodiversity Conservation and Management from the University of Oxford (2021), and graduated with honors in Biological Sciences (B.Sc., 2017) and Biology Teaching (B.Ed., 2018) from the University of Brasília (UnB). My ecological journey began at UnB’s Ecosystem Ecology Lab (2014–2018) under Prof. Mercedes Bustamante, where I first engaged with savanna ecology in the Cerrado.
Driven by pursuing applied conservation, I worked at the Brasília Zoological Garden Foundation (2018) and taught Science and Biology in Brasília’s private schools (2019), experiences that deepened my belief in connecting ecology and conservation with communities.
At Oxford’s Ecosystems Lab (2020–2021), I studied defaunation and seed dispersal in the Cerrado, working under Dr. Imma Oliveras and Prof. Yadvinder Malhi. I later joined Brazil’s Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) as an environmental analyst and park ranger (2022–2023), where I was based in the Western Brazilian Amazon, engaging in biodiversity monitoring, sustainable management of natural resources, and frontline conservation enforcement of three Conservation Units within the Purus River Basin.
Currently, I am pursuing a PhD in Biology at Stanford University in the Dirzo Lab, where my research explores megafauna-ecosystem interactions across Brazilian and African savannas, with a focus on how defaunation reshapes ecosystems. I also collaborate with UNESP’s Bird Ecology Lab on frugivory, seed dispersal, and ecological restoration in the Atlantic Forest. -
Noah Benjamin-Pollak
Ph.D. Student in Management Science and Engineering, admitted Autumn 2022
BioNoah Benjamin-Pollak (noahabp@stanford.edu) is a PhD candidate in Management Science & Engineering at Stanford University. He is a member of the Center for Work, Technology, and Organization (WTO). His research focuses on how different professions interact, particularly how authority and expertise are utilized in cross-occupational contexts. His current research uses ethnographic methods to understand cross-occupational collaboration between engineers and traditional business employees. Additionally, he is focused on understanding how expertise and expert authority are built and communicated between experts and non-expert audiences.
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Samantha Bents
Ph.D. Student in Environment and Resources, admitted Autumn 2024
Masters Student in Epidemiology and Clinical Research, admitted Autumn 2026BioSamantha Bents (she/her/hers) is an E-IPER PhD student interested in studying the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases across changing temporal and spatial scales. She plans to investigate how these dynamics can be leveraged to design public health interventions targeting inequities in both the built and natural environment. Prior to beginning her PhD, she was a researcher at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Fogarty International Center (FIC) NIH where her work focused on predictive disease modeling. She holds a B.A. from Princeton University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a concentration in Global Health and Health Policy.
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Brandon Bergsneider
Resident in Neurosurgery
BioBrandon Bergsneider was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. Brandon earned a BS in Human Biology from Stanford and an MSc in Bioinformatics and Theoretical Systems Biology from Imperial College London as a Fulbright Scholar. Prior to medical school, he also received the NIH Cancer Research Training Award to pursue a yearlong research fellowship at the NIH Neuro-Oncology Branch. He received his MD from the Stanford University School of Medicine as a Knight-Hennessy Scholar, and conducted research under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Lim and Dr. Christina Jackson, using multi-omic technologies to characterize the brain tumor microenvironment, elucidate predictors of response to immunotherapy, and identify novel immunotherapeutic targets. Brandon’s work has been published in several high-impact journals including Science, Immunity, Cancer Immunology Research, Oncoimmunology, Journal of Neuro-Oncology, Neuro-Oncology Advances, and Bioinformatics. Prior to pursuing medicine, Brandon used to work as a surf instructor, and in his free time he enjoys going surfing and sharing his love for the sport with others.
