Summer 2011 Newsletter

Congratulations to all E-IPER graduates!

PhD: Adam Millard-Ball, Amy Pickering, Narasimha Rao

Joint MBA-MS: Edward Castaño, Felice Gunawan, Sam Hodges, Yohei Iwasaki, Jay Ryu, Anna Veit, and Florian Weidinger

Joint JD-MS: Sarah Greer, Megan Herzog, Kimiko Narita

Pictured at left: Len Ortolano (CEE), Adam Millard-Ball, Amy Pickering, Narasimha Rao, Peter Vitousek (Biology), and Jenna Davis (CEE) after the School of Earth Sciences graduation ceremony on June 12, 2011.
Doctoral Graduates Launch Careers
Adam Millard-Ball, PhD 2011: Why Do Cities Care About Climate Change? Essays on Carbon Offsets and Climate Action Plans
Committee: Lawrence Goulder (Economics, lead advisor), Leonard Ortolano (Civil and Environmental Engineering, lead advisor), Lee Schipper (Precourt Energy Efficiency Center), Michael Wara (Law), Steven Gorelick (Environmental Earth System Science, defense committee chair)

Adam will be an assistant professor at McGill University in Montreal, in a joint position between the Department of Geography and the McGill School of Environment. Adam's research will continue to focus on the links between climate change, transportation, and local government.

Amy Pickering, PhD 2011: Water Access, Hand Hygiene, and Child Health in Sub-Saharan Africa
Committee: Jenna Davis (Civil and Environmental Engineering, lead advisor), Ali Boehm (Civil and Environmental Engineering, lead advisor), Grant Miller (Medicine), Pavani Ram (University of Buffalo), Abby King (Stanford Medical School, defense committee chair)

Amy will be starting as a post-doctoral scholar at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment with professor Jenna Davis. She will be conducting research in collaboration with the International Center of Diarrheal Diseases Research in Bangladesh and with water.org in Kenya.

Narasimha Rao, PhD 2011: Distributional Impacts of Climate Change Mitigation in India: National and Global Implications
Committee: Lawrence Goulder (Economics, lead advisor), Debra Satz (Philosophy, lead advisor), Joshua Cohen (Political Science, Philosophy, and Law), David Victor (UC San Diego), John Weyant (Management Science and Engineering, defense committee chair)

Narasimha received a fellowship from the 2011 International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) Postdoctoral Program in Vienna Austria, and will begin his fellowship in September.

Capstone Projects Explore Global Sustainability Issues
E-IPER Joint MS students use their Capstone Projects to tackle challenging environmental problems and explore future career options. They presented their Capstone Projects at the Feigenbaum Nii Foundation Symposium on June 2, 2011. Students have selected projects that are of personal interest and relevance to them and, as the list of project below demonstrates, they have taken on a wide range of impressive challenges. The Feigenbaum Nii Foundation Capstone Prize was awarded to Ashish Jhina, Dan Tuttle, and Florian Weidinger for their project on stimulating creative funding investments in freshwater and sanitation infrastructure.

photo: Edward Castano, John Krzywicki, Yohei Iwasaki, Megan Herzog at graduation.Edward Castaño, John Krzywicki, Yohei Iwasaki, and Megan Herzog at the School of Earth Sciences graduation ceremony. Courtesy of Helen Doyle.
Edward Castaño, Joint MBA-MS: Scaling Residential Energy Efficiency Retrofits

Sarah Greer, Joint JD-MS: State Mandated Energy Efficiency Measures: A Comprehensive Survey

Felice Gunawan, Joint MBA-MS: Water Re-use at a Sweater Manufacturing Company in Indonesia

Megan Herzog, Joint JD-MS: The Practical Utility of Rights to Water: Lessons from the Water Controversy in Phiri, South Africa

Sam Hodges and John Krzywicki, both Joint MBA-MS: Assessing the Viability of Integrated Wind Power Generation and Transmission Systems

Yohei Iwasaki, Joint MBA-MS: Plan for Commercializing a Novel Hydrogel Technology

Ashish Jhina, Dan Tuttle, and Florian Weidinger, all Joint MBA-MS: Creating Ecosystem Innovation in Water and Sanitation Infrastructure

Kimiko Narita, Joint JD-MS: Looking Forward: Creating a Framework for Federal Marine Spatial Planning in the Gulf of Mexico in Light of the BP Oil Spill

Jay Ryu, Joint MBA-MS: A Thermolytic Approach to Diesel Pollution Abatement

Anna Veit, Joint MBA-MS: Carbon Lighthouse: Impact Analysis for California Commercial Buildings
Students and Alumni Recognized for Research, Innovation, Teaching, and Mentoring
Dane Klinger and Valentina Zuin (both PhD 3rd) were awarded the three-year Stanford Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship in recognition of their "pursuit of questions that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries."

Nine E-IPER PhD students were awarded the School of Earth Sciences' inaugural Certificate of Achievement in Mentoring in recognition of their commitment to mentoring undergraduates, high school students and teachers, more junior graduate students, and research assistants in the field: Austin Becker (3rd) Marilyn Cornelius (4th), Rachael Garrett (3rd), Rachelle Gould (4th), Noa Kekuewa Lincoln (3rd), Amy Pickering (4th), Dan Reineman (1st), Mehana Blaich Vaughan (5th), and Valentina Zuin (3rd).

Noa Kekuewa Lincoln (PhD 3rd) received an Education Scholar Award from the Ecological Society of America, recognizing "leaders in ecology education interested in learning, practicing and promoting active learning approaches and digital resources in the classroom."

Austin Becker (PhD 3rd) received the Centennial Teaching Assistant Award, awarded by the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education "to honor TAs who display unusual commitment to, and excellence in, teaching."

Amanda Cravens (PhD 2nd), Marilyn Cornelius (PhD 4th), and Nicola Ulibarri (PhD 1st) were awarded a Student Projects for Intellectual Community Enhancement (SPICE) grant from the Vice Provost for Graduate Education for their project, Research as Design: Integrating Design Thinking into Interdisciplinary Academic Research. Read more about the project exploring the intersection between research methodologies and design thinking in our Spring newsletter.

Brenden Millstein (Joint MBA-MS 2010) and Raphael Rosen were awarded an Echoing Green fellowship recognizing "outstanding emerging social entrepreneurs launching new organizations that deliver bold, high-impact solutions to society's most difficult problems" to help grow their fledgling company Carbon Lighthouse that aims to help companies profitably eliminate their carbon footprint.

Faculty and Students Explore the South Seas
photo: Barb Block, Dane Klinger, Rob Dunbar, Austin BeckerBlock, Klinger, Dunbar, and Becker on the science deck of the Robert C. Seamans while anchored off Palmyra. Courtesy of Austin Becker.
E-IPER affiliated faculty Barbara Block (Biology) and Rob Dunbar (Environmental Earth Systems Science) were joined by Dane Klinger and Austin Becker (both PhD 3rd) for the Stanford at SEA Program this spring. Austin sailed as 3rd mate and Dane served as one of the program's teaching assistants. The 10-week program brought 21 Stanford undergraduate and Masters students on a 3000-mile voyage from Hawaii to the remote islands of Palmyra, Kiritimati (Republic of Kiribati), and tiny Kingman Reef. Along the way, the students carried out scientific research using the 135-foot brigantine Robert C. Seamans' extensive laboratory and deep-water deployment facilities. They swam with sharks and manta rays, snorkeled pristine reefs of remote atolls, and practiced the art of celestial navigation. The Stanford at SEA Program highlights the best of interdisciplinary research, as students explore oceanography, coral reef ecology, nautical science and more. Block and Dunbar created the program jointly with the Sea Education Association in 2003 and have since brought over 110 Stanford students to sea. Relive the voyage through their blog.

E-IPER Thanks Faculty and Student Leaders
We are tremendously grateful to the many faculty and students who volunteered their time and energy this year through teaching, advising, committee membership, event coordination, and many other activities essential to the program:

Teaching and Committee Service: Nicole Ardoin (Education), Jon Christensen (Bill Lane Center for the American West), Lisa Curran (Anthropology), Jenna Davis (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Gretchen Daily (Biology), Noah Diffenbaugh (Environmental Earth System Science), Chris Field (Carnegie), Zephyr Frank (History), David Freyberg (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Mark Jacobson (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Don Kennedy (Woods and Biology), Eric Lambin (Environmental Earth System Science), Gil Masters (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Mike Mastrandrea (Carnegie and Woods), Len Ortolano (Civil and Environmental Engineering), Steve Palumbi (Hopkins), Erica Plambeck (Business), Buzz Thompson (Law), Terry Root (Woods), Peter Vitousek (Biology)

Student Leaders: Nikit Abhyankar, Austin Becker, Marilyn Cornelius, Amanda Cravens, Danny Cullenward, Rachael Garrett, Lizzy Goldsmith, Rachelle Gould, Robert Heilmayr, Ashish Jhina, Michael Ovadia, Amy Pickering, Dan Reineman, Charlotte Stanton, Nicola Ulibarri, Valentina Zuin

Many thanks also to our donors and supporters!
E-IPER Team Transitions
photo: Haley Kingsland at graduation.Haley at the School of Earth Sciences graduation. Courtesy of Helen Doyle.

Katie Phillips, E-IPER’s Joint MS program manager, will move to our sister program, Earth Systems, as a lecturer starting in September. Katie has led the Joint MS program through significant growth and curricular changes and leaves the program in fantastic shape for the new program manager.

Haley Smith Kingsland, E-IPER’s web intern for several years, graduated with her MS from Earth Systems and will be a Lokey Fellow at the Environmental Defense Fund. Haley has helped shepard our website through many changes and contributed significantly to our newsletter and other communications projects. Her cheerful patience will be missed.

Congratulations to Katie and Haley!
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