Summer 2017 Newsletter

We wish you all a splendid summer! 

2017 Commencement
On Sunday June 18, 15 E-IPER graduates participated in the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences Diploma Ceremony.
 
Peter Vitousek , E-IPER Sykes Family Faculty Director, introduced the PhD graduates, who were hooded by their respective faculty mentors.  PhD recipients included: Cassandra Brooks , hooded by Larry Crowder ; Joann de Zegher , hooded by Roz Naylor ; Emily Grubert , hooded by Adam Brandt ; and Katrina ole-MoiYoi, hooded by Roz Naylor .   
 
Joint MS graduates were introduced by E-IPER Associate Director Susannah Barsom ; Peter Vitousek hooded MS-JD graduates   Laurel Mills , Rylee Kercher Olm , Jason Perkins , Mary Kathryn Rock ,  Lauren Tarpey , Elizabeth Vissers , and Michelle Wu , and MS-MBA graduate   Jana Hennig and  candidates Sruthi Baskaran, Samanthe Belanger and Apoorv Bhargava. 
 
2016-17 graduates who were unable to attend the ceremony include Joint MS-MBA students Marcos Ayestaran , Parker Barnes , Michael Glassman , Kenter Kuran , Nadine Lehner , James (Pitch) Lindsay , Robert Meister , Eugene Nho , Damien Scott , Felix Steinmeyer and Qing (Billy) Xia .


  2017 E-IPER PhD and Joint MS graduates and advisors 
Earlier in the day, during the 126th Commencement ceremony in Stanford Stadium, E-IPER alumnus Dan Reineman (PhD 2015) , lecturer in the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences , was the recipient of Stanford University's highest teaching honor, the  Walter J. Gores Award .  Dan was recognized for being "a knowledgeable, caring, enthusiastic and thoughtful mentor" and "a beacon of light and positivity for students."  

 Congratulations to all 2016-2017 E-IPER graduates!

MS-MBA Alumni Gathering

Bay Area MS-MBA alumni joined like-minded alumni from five peer institutions on July 26 for an evening of serious conversation and much laughter.  Held at The Nature Conservancy in San Francisco, the event brought together over 70 alumni from MBA-Environment programs at Stanford, Cornell's  Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise , Duke's Center for Energy, Development, and the Global Environment , Michigan's  Erb Institute , MIT's  Sustainability Initiative , and Yale's Center for Business and the Environment .  This was the third such event in as many years, in what is becoming a tradition for alumni from these institutions.  

E-IPER staff are grateful to MS-MBA alumna Marcela Ochoa and her colleagues at The Nature Conservancy , who were instrumental in hosting the event.



 Participating alumni and staff, from left: Billy Xia, Nicholas Flanders, Victoria Beasley, Anjana Richards, Jessica McClintock, Jana Hennig, Susannah Barsom, Benjamin Ha, Marcela Ochoa

Student and Alumni News
Elinor Benami (PhD 4th) was awarded a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation for her research on Coffee Farming, Drought, and the Effects of Eco-Certification on Farmer Resilience .
 
Nicholas Flanders (MS-MBA 2016) and his colleagues at Opus 12 launched their new website,  www.opus-12.com; they were also awarded two additional grants from DOE and the ARPA-e  REFUEL program, to support the development of their technology to convert CO2 emissions into valuable products.  This is in addition to their recent NASA grant to build a prototype system for converting CO2 on Mars into plastics and rocket fuel.

This summer, Julia Forgie (MS-JD 2014) is starting a new job in Los Angeles as a Deputy Attorney General in the Natural Resources Law Section of the California Office of the Attorney General.
 
In July 2018, Justin Mankin (PhD 2015) will be leaving his postdoctoral position at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University (and Visiting Research Scholar at Dartmouth College) to take a post at Dartmouth College as Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography, with appointments in Earth Sciences and Ecology, Evolution, Ecosystems & Society (EEES).  He wants to let the E-IPER community know that he will be looking for postdoctoral scholars and graduate students.
 
Amy Pickering (PhD 2011) has taken a position as Assistant Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Tufts University.
 
Kirsten Oleson (PhD 2007) is now a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa.
 
After years of service to E-IPER and the School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences, Dan Reineman (PhD 2015) will be leaving Stanford for CSU Channel Islands, where he is joining the faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Resource Management. 
 
Francisco Torrealba (MS-MBA 2013) and Valhalla, the energy company he co-founded, were featured in a recent MarketWatch article on Chile's increasing use of renewable energy.

Publications and Presentations
Marilyn Cornelius (PhD 2013) has recently published two books.  The first is Personal and Planetary Wellness: Addressing Climate Change, Health, and Social Justice Challenges, a collection of essays on these topics, as viewed through the lenses of behavioral science, design thinking, biomimicry and meditation.  The second is World of Love: Delicious Plant-Based and Gluten-Free Cooking Made Simple. A follow-up to her last cookbook, Food of Love, the new publication continues her theme of staying close to nature in the ways that people cook and eat for a healthier body, mind, spirit, and planet. 
 
Amanda Cravens recently published an article, "Defining ecological drought for the 21st century," in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
 
2017 has been a busy year for Rachael Garrett (PhD 2013), who has published several papers, including (1)  "Policies for reintegrating crop and livestock systems: A comparative analysis," published in Sustainability; (2) "Social and ecological analysis of commercial integrated crop livestock systems: Current knowledge and remaining uncertainty," in Agricultural Systems; (3) "The restructuring of South American soy and beef production and trade under changing environmental regulations," in World Development; and (4) "Corporate investments in supply chain sustainability: Selecting instruments in the agri-food industry," published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.
 
Michael Hooper , (PhD 2010) recently published an article on post-disaster humanitarian standards, drawing on a case study of Haiti. The article, titled "Humanitarian standards in urban, post-disaster contexts: a study of Sphere shelter standards in Haiti," appears in Humanitarian Exchange Magazine.
 
Justin Mankin (PhD 2015) has two papers in press in the Journal of Climate.  The first is titled "The curious case of projected 21st-century drying but greening in the American West," and the second, available by request at this time, is titled "A robust null hypothesis for the potential causes of megadrought in western North America."  

In a recent issue of Urban Studies , Aiga Stokenberga (PhD 2016) published an article titled "How family networks drive residential location choices: Evidence from a stated preference field experiment in Bogotá, Colombia."

In June, Tannis Thorlakson (PhD 4th) presented her forthcoming paper, "Improving environmental practices in agricultural supply chains: The role of company standards" at the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability Annual Research Conference in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
 
Nicola Ulibarri (PhD 2015) has published an article titled "Does collaboration affect the duration of environmental permitting processes?" in the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.

Edited by:
Susannah Barsom, Ann Marie Pettigrew, Benjamine Ha and Anjana Richards 

 
Thank you for your continued  support of E-IPER!

http://eiper.stanford.edu