Stanford University
Showing 191-200 of 1,595 Results
-
Vijay Pande
Adjunct Professor, Structural Biology Department
BioVijay Pande, Henry Dreyfus Professor of Chemistry and, by courtesy, of Structural Biology and Computer Science, also currently directs of the Stanford Program in Biophysics and the Folding@home Distribtued Computing project. His research centers on novel cloud computing simulation techniques to address problems in chemical biology. In particular, he has pioneered distributed computing methodology to break fundamental barriers in the simulation of protein and nucleic acid kinetics and thermodynamics. As director of the Folding@home project (http://folding.stanford.edu), Prof. Pande has, for the first time, directly simulated protein folding dynamics, making quantitative comparisons with experimental results, often considered a “holy grail” of computational biology. His current research also includes novel computational methods for drug design, especially in the area of protein misfolding and associated diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s Disease.
Professor Pande studied physics at Princeton University (B.A. 1992), where he was first introduced to biophysical questions, especially in undergraduate research with Nobel Laureate P. Anderson. His doctoral research in physics under Profs. T. Tanaka and A. Grosberg at MIT (Ph.D. 1995) centered on statistical mechanical models of protein folding, suggesting new ways to design protein sequences for stability and folding properties. As a Miller Fellow under Prof. D. Rokhsar at UC Berkeley, Prof. Pande extended this methodology to examine atomistic protein models, laying the foundations for his work at Stanford University. Among numerous awards, Prof. Pande has received the Biophysical Society’s Bárány Award for Young Investigators and Protein Society’s Irving Sigal Young Investigator Award, and was named to MIT’s TR100 and elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
The Pande research group develops and applies new theoretical methods to understand the physical properties of biological molecules such as proteins, nucleic acids and lipid membranes, using this understanding to design synthetic systems including small-molecule therapeutics. In particular, the group examines the self-assembly properties of biomolecules. For example, how do protein and RNA molecules fold? How do proteins misfold and aggregate? How can we use this understanding to tackle misfolding related degeneration and develop small molecules to inhibit disease processes?
As these phenomena are complex, spanning molecular to mesoscopic lengths and nanosecond to millisecond timescales, the lab employs a variety of methods, including statistical mechanical analytic models, Markov State Models, and statistical and informatic methods. Other tools include Monte Carlo, Langevin dynamics, and molecular dynamics computer simulations on workstations and massively parallel supercomputers, superclusters, and worldwide distributed computing. The group has also done extensive work in the application of machine learning, pioneering traditional and deep learning approaches to cheminformatics, biophysics and drug design.
For example, simulations in all-atom detail on experimentally relevant timescales (milliseconds to seconds) have produced specific predictions of the structural and physical chemical nature of protein aggregation involved in Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases. These results have fed into computational small molecule drug design methods, yielding interesting new chemical entities.
Since such problems are extremely computationally demanding, the group developed a distributed computing project for protein folding dynamics. Since its launch in October 2000, Folding@Home has attracted more than 4,000,000 PCs, and today is recognized as the most powerful supercluster in the world. Such enormous computational resources have allowed simulations of unprecedented folding timescales and statistical precision and accuracy. For more details, please visit http://pande.stanford.edu. -
Kathryn Pandes
Communications Manager, John Gardner Center
Current Role at StanfordCommunications Associate, John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities, Stanford Graduate School of Education
-
Dilip Kumar Pandey
Affiliate, FSI
BioDilip Pandey is a Scholar-Practitioner of Human-Centred Democratic Governance whose work explores how democratic institutions can become more ethical, participatory, inclusive, and deeply human. Bringing together experience across legislative governance, public policy, political philosophy, literature, and civic engagement, his work focuses on democratic institutions, inclusive policy and governance, public ethics, and the role of culture in strengthening democratic societies. Born into a farming family in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, India, Dilip began his professional journey in the international technology sector after earning a Master's degree in Computer Applications (MCA). While technology shaped his systems thinking and organisational approach, he was increasingly drawn to questions of governance, public trust, and ethical leadership, leading him to transition into public life during India's anti-corruption movement. Between 2015 and 2017, he served as President of the Delhi unit of the Aam Aadmi Party. After contesting India's 2019 General Election, he was elected to the Delhi Legislative Assembly from Timarpur in 2020 and later served as Chief Whip of the ruling party. Working across legislative strategy, institutional coordination, public policy, and multiple government committees gave him first-hand insight into the opportunities and challenges of democratic governance, transforming governance from a profession into a subject of sustained intellectual inquiry.
Today, those experiences inform his doctoral research on democratic systems through the philosophical framework of Madhyastha Darshan (Coexistentialism). His work examines how ethics, coexistence, and citizen participation can contribute to more human-centred democratic institutions, bridging political philosophy with practical governance. Dilip's engagement with democratic thought extends beyond India. He is a Stanford Fisher Family Summer Fellow and served as First Vice President of the Global Council of Political Renewal (2022–2025), an international organisation dedicated to promoting ethical political leadership, democratic cooperation, and global peace. He is also associated with the United Nations Convention against Corruption network, reflecting his longstanding commitment to transparency, accountability, and integrity in public life.
Alongside scholarship and governance, Dilip is an author, poet, lyricist, and singer. His books include Dahleez Par Dil (Penguin Random House India), Khulti Girhein, Call Center, Tapki Aur Boondi Ke Laddu, and the bestselling historical novel Gulabi Khanjar. He believes literature and music help societies cultivate empathy and dialogue in ways that public policy alone cannot. His commitment to public service continues through the Radhika Prahlad Foundation, which supports underprivileged patients in accessing healthcare, and Music for All, through which his band, The Fakir Café, performs for socially marginalised communities to promote inclusion through artistic expression. Across scholarship, governance, literature, and public engagement, Dilip's work is guided by a simple conviction: democracy should be judged not only by the governments it elects or the institutions it creates, but also by its capacity to uphold human dignity, strengthen trust, and enable people to flourish together.
