Stanford University
Showing 91-100 of 120 Results
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Adam Pines
Postdoctoral Scholar, Psychiatry
BioAdam Pines, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow with Drs. Anish Mitra and Nolan Williams, PhD. Adam completed his Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Adam’s work centers on neurodevelopment and the role of hierarchical brain function in mood disorder emergence and remission.
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Jack Pink
Postdoctoral Scholar, Environmental Social Sciences
BioI am primarily a marine researcher; my PhD is in maritime archaeology specifically focusing on the archaeology of ships. I have been fascinated by the sea and by shipwrecks since reading Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World as a child. The combination of diving and archaeology seemed to me then, and still seems to me now, an unusually fortunate way to make a living.
I read Archaeology and then Maritime Archaeology at the University of Southampton. I then spent two years as Assistant Rural Surveyor at the National Trust's Lanhydrock estate in Cornwall. Whilst that might look like a tangent (and it felt like it at the time) it was an experience that proved more formative than I had anticipated. My responsibilities covered a substantial portion of the Trust's Cornish portfolio, including areas of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape UNESCO World Heritage Site. Managing working harbours and conservation sites in an operational context, answerable to communities as much as to institutional objectives, gave me an understanding of coastal and marine heritage that you frankly cannot get as an academic.
I completed my PhD in 2023, under the supervision of Professor Jon Adams and Dr Julian Whitewright. I examined an assemblage of two hundred merchant vessels through the integration of archaeological remains and historical records, using this dataset to explore the impact of changing systems within the British Empire on merchant shipping and the development of shipbuilding technologies across the nineteenth century. During and around this period I worked to build the practical experience that underpins good maritime archaeology. Underwater, this took me to Roman harbour sites and anchorages in Lebanon (at Anfeh, Batroun, and Tyre) to an underwater excavation in Kalmar, Sweden, to survey projects across the British Isles from the Isle of Lewis to the Pembrokeshire coast, and to geophysical work in Uruguay. On land I directed and contributed to geophysical surveys across Europe, including at Ephesus in Turkey and at a British Museum excavation of an Indo-Roman trade site in northwest India. The range of these projects was deliberate: I was trying to become the kind of archaeologist who could work anywhere and with anything, and fieldwork in different countries and conditions is the only reliable way to do that. Something worked because I found myself being consulted on the archaeological standards for the wreck of Shackleton's Endurance following its discovery in 2022.
A period at Historic England followed, first as Senior Policy Advisor for Underwater Cultural Heritage where I supported the development of government legislation and prepared guidance on the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage. I moved to Technical Manager of the Marine Data Exchange Heritage Accelerator, where I led a team integrating offshore heritage data from commercial contractors and wind farm corporations into the National Marine Heritage Record. This work required collaborating with the Crown Estate, DCMS, and DEFRA, and gave me an understanding of how the marine sector operates commercially that sits alongside but distinct from my research background.
I joined Stanford in September 2025 as a Postdoctoral Scholar holding a joint appointment between the Stanford Robotics Center and the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. At the Robotics Center I manage the Oceans Flagship, a programme developing next-generation remotely operated vehicle capabilities for scientific discovery at depth, working with Professor Oussama Khatib and Dr. Steve Cousins. In parallel, I work with Dr. Krish Seetah on research into the environmental impacts of shipwrecks, exploring the interactions between anthropogenic material and the marine ecosystem within the developing field of Maritime Heritage Ecology. -
Julia Rachel Plank
Postdoctoral Scholar, Psychiatry
BioI am a postdoctoral researcher in the BRain Imaging, Development, and GEnetics (BRIDGE) Laboratory in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Currently my work focuses on the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for improving understanding of the neuropathophysiology underlying neuropsychiatric disorders with a genetic basis.
My PhD investigated the use of neuroimaging techniques (diffusion MRI, quantitative magnetization transfer, magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging, electroencephalography) for detection of neuroinflammation in human participants.
My research interests are centered on the clinical applications of MRI for elucidation of pathology and improving diagnosis and treatment. -
Natalia Plewa Juraszek
Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford Cancer Institute
BioDr. rer. nat. Natalia Plewa-Juraszek is a postdoc in the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine in Prof. Sabine Heitzeneder and Prof. Crystal Mackall Labs. She is leading a collaborative project focused on designing cancer-specific T cell-based immunotherapies for pediatric solid tumors. Her 9 years hands-on experience, supported by 8 scholarships, including Fulbright, is dedicated to translating innovative technologies from the lab to patient care. Ownership mindset with strong communication and management skills. Critical thinker living the idea “Follow your heart but take your brain with you”. Outside of science, Natalia is a professional Bachata Sensual Instructor and International Dance Judge who transformed a dance business into a global brand, earning over 70 teaching invitations in 15+ countries worldwide.
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Jana Pocrnja
Postdoctoral Scholar, Comparative Literature
BioJana Pocrnja holds a Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures from the University of Vienna and is currently serving as a Max Kade Postdoctoral Scholar at the Department of Comparative Literature. Her ongoing research explores the intersection between philosophy and literature, with a particular focus on the concept of poetic reasoning in the works of María Zambrano. Previously, she has conducted research on 19th- and 20th-century Spanish/Latin American and French literature, as well as literary theory, particularly in the field of poetology and reader’s response theory.
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Alexandra LaPat Polasko
Postdoctoral Scholar, Urology
BioDr. Alexandra Polasko is a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Urology in Dr. James Brooks's lab. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. from UCLA in Civil and Environmental Engineering in Dr. Shaily Mahendra's lab and bachelors from UC Berkeley. Before coming to Stanford, she was a postdoctoral fellow at UCLA in the School of Dentistry, Oral Biology Division under Dr. Hung Ton-That where she studied the role motility plays as a virulence factor in oral pathogens. Currently, Dr. Polasko's research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms that drive benign prostate hyperplasia, which is the abnormal growth of the prostate and affects nearly 80% of men over eighty and can result in impaired urine storage and voiding as well as renal failure. She is a co-inventor on two patents and received UCLA's prestigious Distinguished Teaching Award for Teaching Assistants (2021).
