 Veena Srinivasan interviewing a farmer in Chennai, India |
The Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources was launched in October 2001 with a commitment not only to train new scholars and pursue new knowledge, but also to contribute to solutions for local, regional, and global problems. Read about the innovative research currently underway by IPER students, below.
IPER's Inaugural Class
Jason Funk
Jason is investigating the alignment of reforestation policy incentives with other economic and cultural drivers in New Zealand. He hopes to link farm-scale choices with the local-to-global-scale implications of forest recovery. Through his close work with indigenous Maori people, Jason has gained a deep appreciation of the importance of their sustainable land-use ethic.
Read more about Jason >>
Elizabeth Richards
Beth returned to graduate school after more than twenty years working on energy sustainability issues, in particular the development and application of solar and other renewable energy technologies. Since coming to Stanford, she became deeply interested in water resource sustainability issues and decided to make a career shift in that direction.
Read more about Beth >>
Veena Srinivasan
With the help of a National Talent Search Scholarship from the government of India, Veena earned her undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology. Veena's dissertation research involves developing an integrated model of urban water supply in the city of Chennai in South India. She's modeling the linkages between the public water distribution system, the groundwater aquifer and water markets, hoping that her research will improve understanding of urban water sustainability and security in the developing world. Read more about Veena >>
Xuehua Zhang
Xuehua is originally from China, where she attended Sichuan University. Xuehua is currently investigating the role of judicial review in local environmental enforcement through reviewing court case files and interviewing a variety of parties involved in lawsuits in Hubei province of China. Her dissertation will be the first empirical analysis of the effects of environmental administrative lawsuits on China's environmental enforcement. Read more about Xuehua >>
IPER's Second Class
Kim Nicholas Cahill
Kim's agricultural roots in Sonoma County have inspired her doctoral research which analyzes the potential impacts of climate change on the economically important, climatically sensitive, and culturally significant winegrowing industry in Northern California. Read more about Kim >>
Rebecca Goldman
Rebecca spent her childhood living around the globe, and acquired an appreciation for the role of local culture in the development of environmental policy. At Stanford, Rebecca is researching the effectiveness of conservation investments on working landscapes. Read more about Rebecca >>
Rebeca Hwang
Rebeca's doctoral thesis, with fieldwork based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, focuses on the role of social capital and social networks on the performance of double bottom line organizations, such as water cooperatives. She currently leads the BASES Social E-Challenge competition at Stanford University and serves as the judging chair and co-chair of Stanford Relations for the California CleanTech Open Business competition. Read more about Rebeca >>
Geoff Shester
Geoff's background in marine science and management has led him to focus his dissertation research on the fisheries production functions of marine habitats and how destructive fishing activities like bottom trawling affect their productive capacity. Focusing on Pacific deep sea coral ecosystems, Geoff is combining ecology and economics to develop frameworks to analyze the interactions between human activities and the marine ecosystem. Geoff is a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow. Read more about Geoff >>
Justin Warren
Justin's work and field study in Germany, France, Chile, and along the southern California coastline earned him USC's Renaissance Scholar Award. Justin's current research focuses on the influence of near-shore circulation, internal waves and warning compliance on management policies aimed at reducing the health impacts of authochonous water-borne bacteria at public beaches in Southern California. Justin is a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellow.
Read more about Justin >>
IPER's Third Class
Kate Brauman
Kate's independent undergraduate major paved the way for a Center for the Study of Science and Religion now thriving in Columbia University's Earth Institute. Kate spent 3 years working for the NRDC as a Public Education Senior Associate, and she is now focused on river restoration potential after dam removal and on hydrologic ecosystem services as conservation incentives. Kate is an NSF Graduate Fellow and a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Stanford Graduate Fellow.
Read more about Kate >>
Heather Lukacs
Heather has studied the bioremediation of soils contaminated with petroleum in Mendoza, Argentina, the biogeochemical cycling of arsenic in a pond in Arlington, MA, and modeling the fate of combined sewer overflow discharges in the Merrimack River. Heather's current research examines how organizational learning can promote local management and valuation of common-pool resources, particularly water, in underserved communities. Read more about Heather >>
Linh Pham
Linh worked for the Vietnam Environmental Agency where she developed and monitored the implementation of environmental policies affecting wetlands. Linh is now examining how decentralization, accountability and social capital affect development projects in the water sector, specifically in the Mekong Delta. Read more about Linh >>
Hilary Schaffer
Since joining the IPER program, Hilary has continued to pursue her interest in public participation in environmental decision-making. Her current research focuses on the factors and processes shaping community mobilization around proposals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities along the California Coast. In addition, she is working as part of a larger team of researchers from Stanford's Collaboratory for Research on Global Projects, examining drivers of conflict in international infrastructure projects. Hilary is a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Stanford Graduate Fellow.
Read more about Hilary >>
IPER's Fourth Class
Jeremy Carl
Jeremy is studying the environmental, geopolitical, and economic aspects of energy development, with a particular focus on China and India. Jeremy spent several years in the technology industry before moving into the environmental field, where he served as a staff member at Environmental Defense and a board member at WildAid. Jeremy is a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Stanford Graduate Fellow. Read more about Jeremy >>
Joanne Gaskell
Joanne's research explores the interplay between food production and environmental quality. As a research assistant at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington D.C., Joanne contributed to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment as an author on both the Food and Cultivated Systems chapters. Joanne's research at Stanford analyzes the water and nutrient implications of intensive livestock production. Read more about Joanne >>
Kristen Honey
For her interdisciplinary research at Stanford, Kristen intends to combine mathematical modeling, laboratory research and fieldwork to better understand the life history characteristics of aquatic populations to inform resource management decisions. Kristen is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency STAR Fellow. Read more about Kristen >>
Michael Hooper
Michael’s research interests focus on urban and environmental governance, comparative politics, and organizational theory. In addition to pursuing the Ph.D. in IPER, he is a graduate student in the Department of Political Science and a Fellow in the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation. Read more about Michael >>
Adam Leising
Topics covered in Adam's studies and papers include the impact of distributed electricity generation on consumer behavior, the effects of aircraft emissions on the global climate and the capacity of economic policy for mitigating these impacts, and the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. Adam is currently exploring the role of distributed generation's applicability to urban energy systems and potential for facilitating the management of energy consumption.
Read more about Adam >>
Andrew Perlstein
Andrew's focus has been on environment and development in China's southwestern province of Yunnan. At Stanford, still looking at China and building upon his degree in urban and regional planning, Andrew is interested in land-use policy, urbanization and the relationship between cities and sustainability. Andrew is a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Stanford Graduate Fellow. Read more about Andrew >>
Carolyn Snyder
Carolyn is investigating methods to better constrain and quantify the major uncertainties in our understanding and predictions of anthropogenic climate change. She is also interested in how such scientific knowledge can be represented for accurate and effective audience interpretation and to inspire action. Carolyn is a joint National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow and Gabilan Stanford Graduate Fellow. Read more about Carolyn >>
IPER's Fifth Class
Mehana Blaich Vaughan
Mehana comes from Kalihiwai and Namahana, Kaua’i. Her research interests focus on how to bring diverse parties together to create community-based systems of education and land use that integrate indigenous ecological knowledge while contributing towards a sustainable future for Hawaii’i and for the world. Read more about Mehana >>
Andrew Gerhart
Andrew Gerhart is interested in studying the intersection of aquaculture policy and marine environmental history, with an aim to inform the responsible stewardship of marine resources through environmental education.
Read more about Andrew >>
Adam Millard-Ball
Adam's planned research focuses on the local dimension to climate change: how cities can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through planning and participation in carbon trading. Before joining IPER, he was an urban planner, working on traffic reduction and Smart Growth planning. Adam is a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Stanford Graduate Fellow. Read more about Adam >>
Narasimha Rao
Narasimha's research interests lie in policy design and implementation in developing countries related to climate change. With a focus on electricity policy on India, Narasimha is interested in exploring how global emission abatement mechanisms would get implemented, including their equity and economic impacts. Read more about Narasimha >>
Caroline Scruggs
A licensed engineer, Caroline intends to integrate this knowledge with policy, risk analysis, environmental anthropology, and ethics to develop a responsible, sustainable, and scientifically-sound plan to minimize emerging contaminants in the environment to address wildlife and human health concerns. Read more about Caroline >>
Kaitlin Shilling
Building upon her work in post-crisis environments in Afghanistan, Liberia and Indonesia, Kaitlin's doctoral research relates to post-crisis reconstruction with a focus on incorporating natural resource management into program design. Read more about Kaitlin >>
IPER's Sixth Class
Nikit Abhyankar
Nikit is interested in the political economy of energy policy, energy markets and climate policy from an institutional and governance perspective with a focus on India and other developing countries. He intends to identify institutional alternatives for sustainable, equitable and just energy and climate policies. Read more about Nikit >>
Marilyn Cornelius
Marilyn has worked with the United Nations Development Program on various environmental projects in 10 Pacific Island countries. At Stanford she intends to investigate how ecological principles can inform value systems with the purpose of improving cooperation and environmental policy making. Read more about Marilyn >>
Rachelle Gould
Rachelle, an aspirant naturalist, is fascinated by the natural world. Her previous experience has provided her with evidence that the natural world deserves more credit than it often gets, and she is focusing her work at IPER on gaining it that credit through the mechanism of Ecosystem Services. Read more about Rachelle >>
Amy Janel Pickering
Amy intends to investigate affordable and practical solutions that can be scaled up to effectively address the urgent public health issues linked with inadequate water and sanitation services in developing countries. Read more about Amy >>
Rodrigo Pizarro
Rodrigo has extensive policy and NGO work experience. He is interested in the political economy of environmental policy in developing countries, He will pursue his interest in the relationship between food systems and the environment, especially aquaculture, through his affiliation with Stanford's Program on Food Security and the Environment (FSE). Read more about Rodrigo >>
IPER's Joint Masters Students
John Joseph
John is a joint MS/MBA student studying sustainability issues in supply chain and technology to help businesses understand and implement sustainable environmental practices into the core of their strategy, mission and values. Read more about John >>
Jason Kaminsky
Jason is a joint MS/MBA student interested in environmental finance, manipulating financial markets and mechanisms to align incentives for more environmentally friendly investments in areas such as renewable energy, emerging technology and sustainable forestry. Read more about Jason >>
David Mount
Dave is a joint MS/MBA student interested in learning more about the fundamentals of energy processes, natural resource economics and building design as he pursues a career in energy-related investing and entrepreneurship. Read more about Dave >>
Brian Shillinglaw
Brian is a joint MS/JD student interested in developing innovative approaches to conservation finance and natural resource ownership to facilitate land conservation, ecosystem service markets, and sustained rural development. Read more about Brian >>
Emma Wendt
Emma is a joint MS/MBA stdent interested in the intersection of climate change and the built environment, and will focus her course work in engineering and climate policy. She ultimately hopes to serve as a facilitator between industry and environmental organizations to identify common ecologically and financially sustainable goals. Read more about Emma >>
Rachel Zwillinger
Rachel is a joint MS/JD student interested in the impacts of water quality and distribution on human health. Through her studies, she hopes to understand how domestic and international legal structures can be used to improve access to safe, clean water. Read more about Rachel >>
Alumni
Joshua Goldstein, PhD (June 07)
Josh is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in Economics and Conservation Finance with the Natural Capital Project here at Stanford. Josh's dissertation work entailed: (1) the identification of business strategies to make reforestation projects with the native, high-value hardwood, Acacia koa, economically attractive for private landowners, (2) the identification of cost-effective restoration opportunities for Hawaii's native forest birds, and (3) the development of financial strategies to pay for landscape-scale restoration projects. Read more about Josh >>
Holmes Hummel, PhD (Dec 06)
With an IPER PhD in hand, Holmes' ultimate aim is to work with decision-makers who influence capital investments in the energy sector - on a scale that matters and in a time frame that can make a difference. Presently, Holmes serves on Capitol Hill as a Congressional Science Fellow selected by AAAS. Read more about Holmes >>
Mark Hayes, PhD (Dec 06)
After earning his PhD, Mark served as interim Executive Director of Stanford's Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD). Mark has since left Stanford to work with RREEF Infrastructure, a group making private investments in power plants, ports, rail and other infrastructure assets. In the long term, Mark hopes to bring his IPER skills to influence the energy policy debate. Read more about Mark >>
Peter Morgan, JD/MS (Dec 06)
Peter is the first graduate of IPER's Joint MS program, offered in conjunction with Stanford's professional Schools, through which he earned an IPER MS and a JD from Stanford Law School. Peter is interested in the intersection between science and law and the ways in which these elements inform land conservation decisions. His IPER work included a project exploring and integrating the science and policy of sage-grouse conservation by public and private landowners. Peter is now completing a clerkship with the Supreme Court of Alaska. Read more about Peter >>
Michael Mastrandrea, PhD (Sept 04)
Michael holds the distinct honor of being the first graduate of IPER's Ph.D. program, where his dissertation consisted of several papers (including publications in Science, Climate Policy, and PNAS) dealing with climate change impacts and the development of quantitative tools to analyze climate risks and policy implications. Michael is now a research associate at the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford. Read more about Michael>>
Kirsten Oleson, PhD (Sept 07)
IPER's most recent grad is now serving as a Teaching Fellow with Stanford's new Masters in Public Policy Program. Kirsten's dissertation research investigated the discrepancy between market and social prices of natural resources, looking at the sustainability of direct and indirect exports of natural resources. Read more about Kirsten >>
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