DARE Doctoral Fellows

Richard Anantua, Physics, ranantua@stanford.edu

Richard Anantua is a Stanford Physics Ph.D candidate and member of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC). Richard’s broad research interests in theoretical physics have culminated in cosmology, phenomenology and string theory publications. Richard's thesis project under high energy astrophysicist Roger Blandford involves tracing photon geodesics in general relativistic magentohydrodynamic simulations of plasma accretion flows onto black hole/jet systems. Richard primarily deals with the hosting and manipulation of data on dense matrices and rotating spacetime lattices to produce movies from a far greater range of perspectives and higher resolutions than could be achieved through traditional radio astronomy.

Allison Anoll, Political Science, apanoll@stanford.edu

Allison Anoll is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Stanford University with a focus in American Politics and Political Theory. Her research works to identify the mechanisms – psychological, social, and structural – that facilitate citizen engagement in politics, from voting to social movements. Specifically, Allison’s dissertation demonstrates that residential and institutional segregation moderate political norm formation, shaping political participation across race and class in the United States. Her research uses multiple methods including observational data, original experiments, and careful ethnographic studies to provide evidence for this theory.

Jesse Bateman, Environmental Earth System Science, jbateman@stanford.edu

Jesse Bloom Bateman is a PhD Candidate in the Environmental Earth System Science department at Stanford. His research focuses on terrestrial biogeochemistry, soil chemistry, and ecosystem level nutrient cycling. Jesse’s dissertation, tentatively titled: “Impacts of Climate in Intermediate Aged Volcanic Soils of Hawai’i”, explores the chemical patterns that develop in soils after 20,000 years of pedogenesis by utilizing a naturally occurring rainfall gradient. These patterns are further compared to patterns from rainfall gradients on soils of various ages. Jesse’s research seeks to refine the conceptual understanding of soil development and nutrient cycling through the use of this Age-Climate matrix.

Adrian Buganza-Tepole, Mechanical Engineering, abuganza@stanford.edu

Adrian Buganza-Tepole is a PhD Candidate in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford. His research focuses on computational models of soft tissue biomechanics. Adrian's dissertation, tentatively titled "Computational Models of Skin Mechanics and Mechanobiology", explores situations in which skin deforms, grows and remodels, in response to mechanical stimuli. Adrian has modeled skin growth during tissue expansion, a technique used to create local skin flaps. An ongoing collaboration with reconstructive surgeons has lead to animal experiments that aim at validating these models. Adrian has also explored computational simulations of wound healing. Very recently, Adrian has started to collaborate with the Stanford School of Medicine to characterize the mechanics of Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Isla Flores-Bayer, Linguistics, islaflor@stanford.edu

Isla Flores-Bayer is a PhD Candidate in the Linguistics department at Stanford. Her research examines the social significance of linguistic variation. Her research focuses on Chicano English and Spanish in the U.S. Isla’s dissertation, tentatively titled: “The Social and Attitudinal Internal Boundaries of Chicano English in ‘El Barrio,’ Austin, Texas”, examines the social and attitudinal internal boundaries of a Chicano English speech community, analyzing how members of the community are differentiated with respect to these features, both individually and collectively, and how speakers use these features to create/effect social meaning.

Blake Francis, Philosophy, bfrancis@stanford.edu

Blake Francis is a PhD Candidate in the Philosophy department at Stanford University. His research interests include political philosophy and environmental ethics. His dissertation, “Climate change and the moral significance of harm,” develops an apparatus for identifying the harms of climate change and assessing their moral significance by working within the ethics literature on the nature of harm. This apparatus is then used to compare the diverse impacts of climate change to different people at different times. Blake's project both contributes to the literature on the ethics of climate change and presents a framework for evaluating climate change policy.

Eduardo Gonzalez-Maldonado, Developmental Biology, egm25001@stanford.edu

Eduardo González-Maldonado is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Developmental Biology. His research interests include the interpretation of morphogenetic signals during cell-fate specification, symmetry-breaking events during early embryogenesis, and regeneration. His thesis, "Investigating SMAD 2/3 signaling in the Xenopus embryo”, uses a powerful combination of classic embryological assays with next-generation sequencing technologies in order to understand how different levels of a morphogen are interpreted at the chromatin level to specify different fates along a vertebrate axis. Eduardo is also studying the interaction between transcription factor activity and the recruitment of chromatin modifiers.

Brendan Hamel-Bissell, Electrical Engineering, bhhb@stanford.edu

Brendan Hamel-Bissell is a PhD Candidate in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. His research interests are high-speed optical communications and multimode imaging. Brendan's research focuses on inventing low-cost solutions to increase the data rate and density of multimode VCSEL-based optical links for datacenters and supercomputers. His dissertation focuses on using wavelength division multiplexing and modified VCSEL launch to improve the usable bandwidth of multimode fiber. It also includes using transmitter equalization to overcome the limitations of optoelectronics. The long-term objective of his research is to demonstrate methods that can assist the proliferation of optical links in supercomputers for improved performance.

Julie Huang, Microbiology and Immunology, jyhuang@stanford.edu

Julie Huang is a PhD Candidate in the Microbiology and Immunology Department at Stanford. Her research interests are in host-microbe interactions and pathogenesis. Julie's dissertation, tentatively titled "Finding its Niche: The Survival Strategies of Helicobacter pylori in the Stomach”, investigates the mechanisms that the bacterium, H. pylori, employs to persist in the stomach. Julie's research aims at elucidating how H. pylori senses key signals in the stomach in order to find a niche where it can survive and cause disease. The long-term objective of her research is to provide insight into the complex interactions between H. pylori and the host.

Sharon Jank, Sociology, sjank@stanford.edu

Sharon Jank is a PhD Candidate in the sociology department at Stanford. Her areas of specialization include social psychology, the sociology of gender, and group dynamics within meritocratic settings. Sharon's dissertation examines how competition and cooperation influence team dynamics and performance. Sharon’s broader research program investigates structural and social psychological factors that guide judgments of value within merit-based contexts. For more information visit www.sharonjank.com.

Destin Jenkins, History, destinj@stanford.edu

Destin Jenkins is a PhD candidate in Stanford’s History Department. His research explores the history of American capitalism, with special emphasis on race, urban space, and African Americans. Tentatively titled, “Bonded Metropolis: Race, Redevelopment, and the Search for Capital in Postwar San Francisco,” Destin’s dissertation both historicizes and uses the municipal bond market to understand how cities financed redevelopment projects, the centrality of race to the usage of credit, and the relegation of African Americans to spaces of inequality. Blending political economy with social history, his work traces the constitutive trajectories of capitalism and the city, race and wealth.

Jeremy Jimenez, Education, ximenez@stanford.edu

Jeremy Jimenez is a PhD Candidate in the International and Comparative Education program. His research interests include social studies education, empathy, historical thinking, sociology, technology, and international textbook research. Jeremy's 3-part dissertation examines the development of empathic discourse in history textbooks. His first article utilizes quantitative methods to analyze empathic discourse in roughly 1000 textbooks, from 120 countries, during the past century. His second article focuses on an in-depth qualitative analysis of empathic discourse in U.S. textbooks. His final study examines empathic discourse employed by high school social studies students that are tasked to create their own digital history textbooks.

Sandra Kjono, Electrical Engineering, kjono@stanford.edu

Sandra N. Kjono is a PhD Candidate in the electrical engineering department at Stanford. Her research interests focus on the improvement of microscope size, utility, and speed by investigating miniaturization techniques and effects on optical devices. Sandra’s dissertation, tentatively titled, “Miniaturization of Microendoscope Optics Enabling Optical Biopsy Diagnostics for Kidney Disease”, focuses on designing and implementing novel scanning and focusing mechanisms to decrease the size of the tissue imaging probe. The long-term objective of her research is to develop technologies capable of constructing quantitative, three-dimensional images of microscopic structures in previously inaccessible places.

Uchechukwuka Monu, Electrical Engineering, udmonu@stanford.edu

Uche Monu is a PhD Candidate in the Electrical Engineering Department at Stanford. Her research interests are in signal and image processing, quantitative MRI and osteoarthritis (OA). Uche’s dissertation tentatively titled “Quantitative Visualization Techniques for MRI”, focuses on developing a tool to visualize quantitative knee joint tissue data from 3D volumetric MRI acquisitions on a 2D surface. OA remains a multi-factorial, multi-tissue disease that affects over 630 million people worldwide and has no cure. Uche’s research developments aim to improve our understanding of OA etiology and help evaluate disease modifying treatment strategies, with the ultimate goal of eradicating OA.

Taylor Phillips, Business, taylorp@stanford.edu

Originally from Kentucky, Taylor is in the Organizational Behavior (Micro) PhD program at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. She is advised by Dr. Brian Lowery and also works with labs in the Department of Psychology (SPARQ; Ambady IPC Lab). Broadly, her research examines how people’s motivations and beliefs about inequality, race, and diversity influence intergroup behavior and social inequality. This research program focuses especially on understanding the psychology of advantage, as well as ways to reduce unfair advantages and increase group equality. Her dissertation work considers how experiencing privilege or privileged group membership influences beliefs and behavior towards social hierarchies.

Lupita Ruiz-Jones, Biology, gjrj@stanford.edu

Lupita Ruiz-Jones is a PhD candidate in the Biology department at Stanford. Her dissertation focuses on reef-building corals in American Samoa and their response to environmental variability. The reef there has daily fluctuations in temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen concentration. Using transcriptome sequencing she has studied how corals regulate gene expression differently during the day and night. Lupita is now investigating gene expression and calcification to understand how sensitive corals are to environmental variability. She thinks that understanding how organisms adjust their physiology to maintain homeostasis in the face of anthropogenic change will enhance our ability to predict ecosystem consequences.

Adam Simon, Philosophy, acsimon@stanford.edu

Adam Simon is a PhD Candidate in Philosophy at Stanford. His research interests lie broadly in philosophy of language, the sub-field that studies linguistic meaning as well as related notions (e.g., truth, reference, and communication). Adam’s dissertation, tentatively titled “Proper Names and Improper Language”, assesses the extent to which two sorts of natural language expression—proper names on one hand and derogatory words on the other (e.g., slurs, general pejoratives)—resist accommodation into our best semantic theories. Adam’s research provides novel accounts of both sorts of expressions while reconciling two allegedly conflicting approaches to the study of linguistic meaning.

Chris Suh, History, chrissuh@stanford.edu

Chris Suh is a Ph.D. candidate in History at Stanford specializing in Asian American history and US-East Asia relations. His dissertation explores the intersections of these two fields, in particular how American conceptions of the Japanese colonial project in Korea shaped the lives of Korean and Japanese immigrants in the United States, and vice versa, in the first half of the 20th century. Chris serves as the Graduate Student in Residence for Undergraduate Research Support at the Asian American Activities Center (A3C) at Stanford, as well as the Special Forums editor for the Journal of Transnational American Studies (JTAS).

Brenda Torres, Immunology, bytorres@stanford.edu

Brenda Torres is a PhD candidate in the Immunology Program at Stanford. Her research interests are host-pathogen interactions and data analysis. Brenda’s dissertation, tentatively titled "In sickness and in health: the path to recovery” studies host resilience using a mouse malaria model to create diagnostic disease maps. Brenda’s research aims to better understand the path-recovering hosts create and how their paths differ from host suffering adverse effects. The long-term objective of her research is to develop disease maps as a diagnostic tool and provide a fresh perspective in analyzing the relationship between health and disease.

Meredith Townsend, Geological and Environmental Sciences, mtown@stanford.edu

Meredith Townsend is a PhD candidate in Geological and Environmental Sciences at Stanford, minoring in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her geological interests include structural geology, geomechanics, and physical volcanology. Her thesis research uses a combination of field work and numerical modeling to understand the causes of rock deformation around magmatic intrusions and how this deformation influences the evolution of volcanic eruptions. Outside of her thesis work, she is interested in causes of under-representation of women in the sciences and how scientific cultures and stereotypes can be changed to be more welcoming and appealing to women.

Jasmaine Williams, Cancer Biology, jasmaine@stanford.edu

Jasmaine Williams is a PhD Candidate in the Cancer Biology Program at Stanford, and completed the Masters in Medicine program in March 2012. Her research interests are in public health, women's health, cancer biology, and health disparities in cancer. Jasmaine's dissertation, tentatively titled "Elucidating the Role of Vitamin D in Breast Cancer Progression", examines the role of the multifunctional hormone in breast cancer progression and metastasis. Jasmaine's research aims to identify new vitamin D/VDR signaling pathways that impact the aggressiveness of this disease. The long-term objective of her research is to develop cost-effective agents for the treatment of breast cancer, while promoting health justice through her academic work.

Francisco Zarama, Civil and Environmental Engineering, fjzarama@stanford.edu

Francisco is a PhD Candidate in environmental fluid mechanics at Stanford. His research interests are experimental techniques in fluid mechanics, turbulence, and fluid mechanics in natural systems. His thesis, tentatively titled “Development of Turbulence Downstream of Submerged Aquatic Vegetation,” focuses on the decay and adjustment of the turbulence characteristics downstream of a model patch of vegetation. The work will be conducted at both the unidirectional and wave-dominated flow limits that are present in nature. The results of this work will aid environmental managers when making decisions with regards to ecosystem restoration and coastal management.