Vice Provost and Dean of Research


Showing 71-80 of 114 Results

  • Carl Wieman

    Carl Wieman

    Cheriton Family Professor and Professor of Physics and of Education, Emeritus

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Wieman group’s research generally focuses on the nature of expertise in science and engineering, particularly physics, and how that expertise is best learned, measured, and taught. This involves a range of approaches, including individual cognitive interviews, laboratory experiments, and classroom interventions with controls for comparisons. We are also looking at how different classroom practices impact the attitudes and learning of different demographic groups.

  • Dan Wilkins

    Dan Wilkins

    Affiliate, KIPAC

    BioI am a research scientist, astronomer and astrophysicist in the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University. My research focuses on how material spiralling into a supermassive black hole in the centre of a galaxy is able to release huge amounts of energy, powering some of the brightest objects we see in the Universe.

    My research bridges the divide between observational and theoretical studies of black holes, using state of the art space telescopes, developing novel data analysis techniques and designing computer simulations of how light travels around black holes. I am using the X-rays that are emitted and measurements of how they reflect off of the material in its final moments before it falls in to create a 3D map of the extreme environment just outside the event horizon. I am interested in what happens to material and light just before it is lost into the black hole, how the corona that produces the radiation we see is powered, and how black holes are able to launch jets at almost the speed of light.

    I am passionate about teaching and communicating science to the general public. I regularly give public lectures to a wide variety of audiences and am the founder and host of the Discover Our Universe public lecture series from Stanford's Kavli Institute of Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. I have made a number of appearances on TV and radio, and am actively involved in a number of initiatives to involve the public in astronomy and physics.

  • Francis Robert Willett

    Francis Robert Willett

    Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery

    BioFrank Willett is co-director of the Neural Prosthetics Translational Laboratory. Our group develops brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to restore movement and communication to people with neurological disorders. Recent contributions include handwriting and speech-based BCIs that set new records for communication speed and accuracy in people with paralysis. More broadly, we are interested in computational approaches to understanding brain function and recordings, with a focus on how the human brain represents movement and language.

  • Leanne Williams

    Leanne Williams

    Vincent V.C. Woo Professor and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Major Laboratories and Clinical Translational Neurosciences Incubator)

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur research advances precision mental health by measuring individual brain circuit function to improve treatment selection. Precision Circuit Mapping (PCM) integrates standardized resting-state and task-based imaging with automated, norm-referenced patient-level circuit quantification. We study treatment-relevant circuit differences across pharmacologic, behavioral, neuromodulatory and emerging therapeutics, translating them through explainable, human-centered AI into clinical decision support.

  • Michelle Williams, ScD

    Michelle Williams, ScD

    Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health

    BioMichelle A. Williams, ScD, is Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health and Associate Chair for Academic Affairs in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Stanford University, School of Medicine.

    Dr. Williams' research focuses primarily on reproductive and perinatal epidemiology. Over three decades, she has integrated epidemiological, biological, and molecular approaches into rigorously designed research that has advanced understanding of placental abruption, gestational diabetes, and preeclampsia. Her research methodology includes: (1) identifying literature gaps; (2) developing robust epidemiological data systems across North America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and South America; and (3) integrating biochemical and molecular biomarkers into these platforms. She has effectively utilized various epidemiology study designs to investigate adverse reproductive and perinatal outcomes. Her consistent goal has been using biological and molecular biomarkers as objective measures of exposures and validated pre-clinical determinants of outcomes with clinical and global health significance. In 2019, in partnership with Apple Inc. and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, she co-designed and currently co-leads the Apple Women's Health Study, a large-scale digital national study examining determinants of women's gynecological health.

    Dr. Williams has advanced knowledge of understudied gynecological, obstetric, and perinatal outcomes while identifying novel risk factors. Her research has been funded by multiple NIH R01s, R03s, an SBIR, and HRSA grants, and she has served as co-investigator on numerous other grants. She has published over 560 peer-reviewed scientific articles and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2016. In 2020, she received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and was recognized by PR Week as one of the top 50 health influencers of the year.

    Dr. Williams has been recognized for her excellence in teaching, as the recipient of the 2015 Harvard Chan School’s Outstanding Mentor Award, the UW’s Brotman Award for excellence in teaching (2007), the American Public Health Association’s Abraham Lilienfeld Award for education in epidemiology (2007), and the White House’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (2012).

    Before joining Stanford, Dr. Williams served as Dean of the Faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Prior to her deanship, she was Professor and Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard Chan School and Program Leader of Population Health and Health Disparities Research Programs at Harvard's Clinical and Translational Sciences Center.

    Dr. Williams previously had a distinguished career at the University of Washington School of Public Health. She holds an undergraduate degree in biology and genetics from Princeton University, a master's in civil engineering from Tufts University, and master's and doctoral degrees in epidemiology from the Harvard Chan School.