Stanford University
Showing 41-50 of 84 Results
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Susannah Herz
Ph.D. Student in Earth and Planetary Sciences, admitted Autumn 2023
Masters Student in Earth and Planetary Sciences, admitted Spring 2026Current Research and Scholarly InterestsI am interested in investigating the impacts of ocean anoxia through the end Permian mass extinction. My work utilizes a variety of isotope geochemistry techniques, including investigations of the sulfur, calcium, and thallium systems through both modeling and lab-based approaches.
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Mathis Heyer
Ph.D. Student in Energy Science and Engineering, admitted Autumn 2024
BioMathis Heyer, from Kiel, Germany, is pursuing a Ph.D. in Energy Science & Engineering at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master’s degree in Process Systems Engineering from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, as well as a master’s degree in Management Science and Engineering from Tsinghua University in Beijing.
His research in the Environmental Assessment and Optimization Group at Stanford (https://eao.stanford.edu/) focuses on advancing the understanding of complex energy and process systems through mathematical modeling and optimization. Mathis' work builds on his previous research experiences at the Climate Policy Lab at ETH Zurich and the Sustainable Reaction Engineering Group at Cambridge University. Outside of his academic pursuits, Mathis enjoys volunteering with organizations such as "Engineers Without Borders" and "Europe Meets School" both involved in promoting intercultural exchange.
Mathis has been recognized as a Klaus-Murmann Fellow by the Foundation of German Business (sdw) while at RWTH Aachen and is currently an ERP Fellow with the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and a recipient of the SGF Fellowship. -
Lynn Hildemann
Wayne Loel Professor of Sustainability and Senior Associate Dean for Education
On Leave from 04/01/2026 To 06/30/2026BioLynn Hildemann's current research areas include the sources and dispersion of airborne particulate matter indoors, and assessment of human exposure to air pollutants.
Prof. Hildemann received BS, MS, and PhD degrees in environmental engineering science from the California Institute of Technology. She is an author on >100 peer-reviewed publications, including two with over 1000 citations each, and another 6 with over 500 citations each. She has been honored with Young Investigator Awards from NSF and ONR, the Kenneth T. Whitby Award from the AAAR (1998), and Stanford's Gores Award for Teaching Excellence (2013); she also was a co-recipient of Atmospheric Environment’s Haagen-Smit Outstanding Paper Award (2001).
She has served on advisory committees for the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and for the California Air Resources Board. She has been an Associate Editor for Environmental Science & Technology, and Aerosol Science and Technology, and has served on the advisory board for the journal Environmental Science & Technology.
At Stanford, Prof. Hildemann has been chair of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, and served as an elected member of the Faculty Senate. She has chaired the School of Engineering Library Committee, the University Committee on Judicial Affairs, and the University Breadth Governance Board. -
Michelle Hill
Postdoctoral Scholar, Earth and Planetary Sciences
BioMichelle's work addresses a fundamental question in exoplanet habitability: determining the minimum planetary size required to maintain an atmosphere, a critical prerequisite for life as we know it. She found that stagnant lid (no plate tectonics) planets Earth sized and below orbiting in the habitable zone (HZ) of a Sun-like star need to be ≥ 0.8 Earth radii to maintain their atmosphere past 1 billion years. As a Stanford Science Fellow, Michelle will advance her research and expand her planetary habitability models to look at how tectonic regime, initial volatile content, stellar type, tidal locking and tidal heating effect the results of whether a planet smaller than Earth can hold onto it's atmosphere. Her faculty host is Laura Schaefer, Assistant Professor in the department of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
Michelle also detects and refines the masses and orbits of exoplanets using a combination of radial velocity (RV), transit and astrometry. She is currently observing 10 known planet systems that have shown indications of additional planets in orbit in order to detect the long period outer companions. These observations have lead to the discovery of 3 planets so far.
Michelle recently completed her PhD in Earth and planetary sciences at the University of California, Riverside, where she developed research on exoplanet habitability while supported by the NASA FINESST award. She lead a catalog paper on the demographics of all the known planets in HZ of their star where she found evidence of the sub-Saturn valley in the HZ. During this time she was also a member of the TESS-Keck Survey (TKS) team that conducted RV followup of TESS Objects of Interest (TOIs) and she lead the discovery paper of TOI-1386 b and c.
Michelle completed her post bachelor honours in astrophysics at University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Here Michelle worked on the occurrence rates of giant exoplanets in the habitable zone of their star and found that while giant planets are less likely to be found in the habitable zone than terrestrial planets, if each giant planet is host to more than one moon then exomoons could be more numerous than terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of their star. This work has direct implications for the fraction of stars in the galaxy that may host habitable terrestrial worlds.
Prior to this Michelle completed her bachelors in physics at University of New England, Australia where she attended San Francisco State University during her year abroad. Here she contributed to a study of the Kepler habitable zone planets where she found that the distribution of planets within the habitable zone closely mirrored the distribution of all known planets. This discovery had major implications for the opportunities of statistical analysis of this relatively small group of habitable zone planets.
Michelle loves flying! She was a commercial pilot before returning to school to study physics. She currently holds an Australian ATPL with plans to (one day!) convert this to an FAA APT.
