Meet the Fellows

Faculty host: Zhenan Bao

Affiliated with: Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering

Lili Chen earned a doctorate in chemistry from Tsinghua University in 2024. In her studies, she designed and realized a brand-new pearl-necklace polymer network and multifunctional soft materials. Through regulating dynamic intermolecular interactions, she unraveled intricate relationships between microscopic structure and macroscopic mechanical properties of materials, then grasped underlying principles to create functional materials with unprecedented mechanical properties. At Stanford, she will use creative materials design to solve practical problems of stretchable electronics and aim to deepen understanding of functional materials and devices by bridging disciplines in physical, chemical, and material science.

Faculty hosts: Susan Clark and Risa Wechsler

Affiliated with: Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC)

Jesse Han will earn his doctorate in astrophysics from Harvard University in May 2025. His research focuses on the dynamics of stars in the outer regions of the Milky Way to probe the distribution of dark matter. During his graduate studies, he uncovered evidence for a previously unknown supermassive black hole in the Large Magellanic Cloud, our nearest galactic neighbor. At Stanford, Jesse will further explore the nature of galactic dark matter using data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, the Magellan telescopes, and the upcoming Roman Space Telescope.

Faculty host: Laura Schaefer

Affiliated with: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Doerr School of Sustainability

Michelle Hill will obtain her doctorate in Earth and planetary science from the University of California, Riverside in May 2025. During her graduate work, she investigated the conditions that could make exoplanets habitable, considering both their physical size and their position within planetary systems to better understand the range of worlds that might sustain life. Her interdisciplinary research combines astronomy, geophysics, planetary science, and atmospheric science. At Stanford, she will further investigate the lower planet size boundary of habitability. 

Faculty host: Andrea Montanari

Affiliated with: Department of Statistics, School of Humanities and Sciences

Brice Huang will earn a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in May 2025. His research studies spin glasses, which are disordered systems arising in probability and physics that model optimization, sampling, and inference problems from statistics and machine learning. His graduate work includes an exact characterization of how well algorithms can optimize a broad class of random objectives and a proof of Krauth and Mézard's conjecture on the storage capacity of the binary perceptron, a model of a neural network. At Stanford, he will continue this work with the goal of understanding the fundamental computational and information–theoretic limits of statistical problems.

Faculty host: Jonathan Luk

Affiliated with: Department of Mathematics, School of Humanities and Sciences

Warren Li will earn a doctorate in mathematics from Princeton University in May 2025. His studies centered on partial differential equations and differential geometry, particularly in the context of general relativity and mathematical physics. His research relates to understanding the structure of singularities in general relativity, such as those inside black holes or at the Big Bang. At Stanford, he plans to continue these investigations while also exploring singularities in other systems from mathematical physics, such as those of gas dynamics and particle physics. He is passionate about mentoring younger mathematicians and physicists and bridging the gap between these disciplines.

Faculty host: Jonathan Long                   

Affiliated with: Department of Pathology, School of Medicine

Truong Ly will earn a doctorate in neuroscience from the University of California, San Francisco in August 2025. His graduate research revealed how neural networks in the brain stem promote satiety after a meal. Ly is interested in research questions at the intersection of physiology and neuroscience. At Stanford, he will identify mechanisms for physiological adaptations in organisms living in extreme environments and study the molecular and cellular logic of these evolutionary innovations. Outside of the lab, Ly enjoys mentoring young scientists and supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds.

Faculty hosts:  Yakov Eliashberg and Mohammed Abouzaid

Affiliated with: Department of Mathematics, School of Humanities and Sciences

Thomas Massoni earned his doctorate in mathematics from Princeton University in 2024. Before coming to Stanford, he was a C.L.E. Moore Instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research is focused on symplectic topology and its connections to low-dimensional topology and dynamical systems. In his doctoral studies, he proved a converse to a famous result of Eliashberg and Thurston, developing a new method to construct taut foliations from contact structures. At Stanford, he will pursue research on the interplay among Anosov flows, taut foliations, and symplectic geometry, using tools from Floer theory to investigate fundamental questions about these structures. He will also work on developing a framework for studying general contact manifolds via a new class of invariants he calls wrapped sutured bimodules. 

Faculty hosts: Ben Feldman and Zhi-Xun Shen

Affiliated with:  Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials and the Office of the Vice Provost and Dean of Research 

Heonjoon (“Joon”) Park will earn his doctorate in physics from the University of Washington, Seattle in August 2025. In his doctoral studies, he explored the rich interplay between topology and strong correlations in two-dimensional quantum materials. His work was instrumental in the experimental discovery of the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect—a long-theorized phenomenon that hosts exotic quasiparticles with fractional charge, even in the absence of a magnetic field. At Stanford, Park will leverage advanced microscopic techniques to probe novel topological orders, with the goal of uncovering states that could significantly lower error rates in quantum computing. 

Faculty host: Benjamin Good

Affiliated with: Bio-X; the Office of the Vice Provost and Dean of Research; and Department of Applied Physics, School of Humanities and Sciences

Andrew Pyo will earn his doctorate in physics from Princeton University in May 2025. His research combines physics and mathematical modeling to uncover fundamental principles governing biological systems. At Stanford, he will use tools from eco-evolutionary dynamics, control theory, and statistical mechanics to investigate the mechanisms that drive diversity, robustness, and efficiency in the immune system.

Faculty host: Manu Prakash

Affiliated with: Department of Bioengineering, School of Engineering

Noah Toyonaga is a physicist and artist. They will earn their PhD in physics from Harvard University in May 2025. They are drawn to the mysteries and delights of the everyday, which they explore, and try to explain, through theory, computation, and experiment—driven by geometric intuition. Their doctoral work reflects upon the genius of nature (the fatal mechanism of viral infection), the wisdom of craft (the fecundity of origami), and the beauty of the quotidian (the complexity of wrinkles in a piece of cloth). At Stanford, Noah will study the geometry and mechanics of soft membranes decorated by seams, a geometric motif that underlies the patterns drafted by a tailor and the microscale mechanisms evolved by single-celled organisms alike. 

Faculty host: Noah Diffenbaugh

Affiliated with: Department of Earth System Science, Doerr School of Sustainability 

Peidong Wang will earn a doctorate in climate science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in May 2025. His research interests lie at the intersection of atmospheric chemistry and climate internal variability. By integrating observations and model simulations, he quantifies the signal and noise of stratospheric ozone, revealing significant Antarctic ozone recovery driven by reductions in anthropogenic emissions. At Stanford, he will investigate the detection and attribution of climate extreme events and explore the role of chemistry–climate interactions in modulating climate variability.

Faculty host:  Steven Boxer

Affiliated with: Department of Chemistry, School of Humanities and Sciences

Mojgan Asadi obtained her doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Southern California in 2023. During her graduate work, she studied the relationship between the structure and function of enzymes using quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics simulations. Her research interests lie in the intersection of computational simulations and experimental investigations of enzyme catalysis and covalent inhibitor design. At Stanford, she investigates the use of vibrational Stark effect probes to study the catalytic activity and covalent inhibition of enzymes that are important targets of drug development.

Faculty host:  Fiorenza Micheli

Affiliated with: Department of Oceans, Doerr School of Sustainability

Veronica Frans earned a dual-degree doctorate in fisheries and wildlife and in ecology, evolution, and behavior from Michigan State University in 2024. She is a quantitative ecologist who studies biodiversity–human relationships. She combines statistical modeling, ecological theory, and synthesis research to build accessible tools for conservation and push forward new ideas for ecology and sustainability. Her award-winning research has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Smithsonian magazine. She also speaks with Christian communities about biodiversity and conservation. At Stanford, Frans is developing a new framework for predicting human–wildlife relationships under global change.

Faculty host:  Jennifer Dionne 

Affiliated with: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Engineering

Yuanwei Li earned her doctorate in chemical and biological engineering in 2023 from Northwestern University, where she studied the self-assembly of nanoparticles and their optical and mechanical properties. She works at the intersection of chemistry, nanophotonics, and materials science. Her work has been published in the journals Nature and Science. At Stanford, she focuses on developing new optical nanomaterials and modular molecular probes for biosensing and detection with applications in medical diagnostics and therapeutics. She is also dedicated to the design and synthesis of novel nanoparticles and their assemblies for photocatalysis and Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS). She is passionate about mentoring and committed to inspiring the next generation of scientists.

Faculty host:  Christine Jacobs-Wagner

Affiliated with: Department of Biology, School of Humanities and Sciences and Sarafan ChEM-H

Rafael Rivera-Lugo earned a doctorate in molecular and cell biology from the University of California, Berkeley in 2022. His interests lie in bacterial pathogenesis and host immune responses. His work highlighted the importance of bacterial metabolism in how diseases develop and progress (pathogenesis). At Stanford, Rivera-Lugo is investigating how Borrelia burgdorferi, the pathogen that causes Lyme disease, persists in mammalian hosts and the influence of the microbiome on Borrelia pathogenesis. As a Puerto Rican and first-generation student, he cares deeply about promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in science and has been involved in various outreach activities where he has served as a mentor and advocate for minority students.

Faculty host: Jon Simon

Affiliated with: Department of Physics, School of Humanities and Sciences

Adam Shaw earned a doctorate in physics in 2024 from Caltech, where he studied quantum computing at the atomic scale. Using lasers and magnetic fields, he trapped individual atoms and made them interact to reveal the emergence of chaos and randomness, emulate the physics of materials and particles, and simulate phenomena beyond the capabilities of classical computers. At Stanford, he will improve upon the platform used in his previous research to make it process information up to a million times faster. This accelerated system will enable practical applications in computing as well as fundamental studies of quantum gravity, metrology (the study of measurement), and information science.

Faculty Hosts: Risa Wechsler and Steven Allen

Christian Aganze earned his doctorate in physics from UC-San Diego in June 2023. Aganze is a galactic archaeologist. His research identifies brown dwarfs—cryptic celestial objects sometimes called “failed stars” because their temperatures and pressures did not become high enough to sustain hydrogen fusion and create stars. At Stanford, he hopes to identify brown dwarfs and low-mass stars (known as ultracool dwarfs) deep in the Milky Way using archival data from space-based missions and ground-based surveys (e.g., the James Webb Space Telescope and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory). Using this data, he will make predictions about the Milky Way’s structure and star formation history over time.

Faculty hosts: Chaitan Khosla and Justin Du Bois

Antonio Del Rio Flores earned a doctorate in chemical and biomolecular engineering from UC-Berkeley in 2023. Del Rio Flores studies natural products with the aim of developing new treatments for human diseases and uncovering novel enzymology. He works with Chaitan Khosla to study the biosynthesis of a natural product (NOCAP) produced by bacteria associated with clinical cases of nocardiosis, a potentially life-threatening pulmonary disease. By researching the biological activity of NOCAP, Del Rio Flores plans to further our understanding of host–pathogen interactions to uncover new ways to treat nocardiosis.

Faculty host: Eva Silverstein

Yuk Ting Albert Law earned a doctorate in physics from Columbia University in 2021 and was a postdoctoral scholar at Harvard. Law’s research focuses on a theoretical curved space (called “de Sitter space”) that undergoes an accelerating expansion just like our own universe. His work has contributed to the knowledge of black holes and Euclidean path integrals in de Sitter space, an important tool in studies of semiclassical quantum gravity. Law works with SSF faculty host Eva Silverstein to explore a bottom-up approach to developing a microscopic model of quantum gravity in de Sitter space.

Faculty hosts: Amir Dembo and Sourav Chatterjee

Theo McKenzie earned a doctorate in mathematics in 2022 from UC-Berkeley, where he studied probability and spectral theory with applications in the fields of statistical physics and computer science. As an SSF, he is building on his previous work investigating the structure of eigenvectors of linear operators on graphs for both deterministic and random models. His goal is to advance research in quantum chaos and probability theory. McKenzie has been the lead instructor of for-credit mathematics classes for incarcerated students in California and Massachusetts and has continued this work at Stanford.

Faculty host: Kristy Red Horse

Mira N. Moufarrej earned a doctorate in bioengineering from Stanford in 2021. Her research is among the first to demonstrate the clinical utility of RNA liquid biopsies for comprehensive prenatal care. Her research shows that studying circulating, cell-free RNA (RNA present in blood plasma) in the context of multifactorial syndromes like preeclampsia can yield a more nuanced understanding of complex health conditions. As a Stanford Science Fellow, Moufarrej is working to holistically characterize RNA biology in the cell and circulation with the aim of discovering and ultimately engineering new therapies.

Faculty hosts: Daniel Fisher and Benjamin Good

Avaneesh Narla will earn a doctorate in physics from UC-San Diego in May 2023. The focus of Narla’s research has been understanding how microbial populations respond to and shape their environment. At Stanford, he works with faculty hosts Daniel Fisher and Benjamin Good to study the adaptations of microbial populations in changing environments. This research will be used to help understand how biological collectives respond to climate change and biodiversity crises. Narla also plans to extend what he has learned from studying microbial populations to collective adaptation and resilience to environmental changes in social-insect colonies, such as ant mounds and bee swarms.

Faculty hosts: Alison Hoyt and Leo Hollberg

Newton H. Nguyen will earn a doctorate in environmental engineering science from Caltech in the summer of 2023. Nguyen’s graduate research revealed that global measurements of methane emissions can be improved by accurately representing their atmospheric lifetimes. At Stanford, Nguyen will develop and deploy novel laser-based instruments to measure methane emissions at the scale of ecosystems. This research aims to improve the accuracy and cost-effectiveness of ecosystem monitoring while providing insights into how ecosystem carbon dynamics respond to climate change. Nguyen is also an advocate for the blind STEM community. He mentors blind students and co-founded multiple organizations to help disabled students in STEM. 

Faculty hosts: Shanhui Fan and Jelena Vuckovic

Charles Roques-Carmes earned a doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT in 2022. The focus of his work is free-electron light-matter interaction, inverse design, and nanophotonics—how light behaves on the nanometer scale and the interaction of nanometer-scale objects with light. At Stanford, Roques-Carmes works with SSF faculty hosts Shanhui Fan and Jelena Vuckovic to research the fundamental interactions between X-rays and matter, with a focus on developing new X-ray imaging modalities for use in medical imaging and nondestructive imaging (such as airport security scanning devices). His research aims to enhance X-ray imaging’s sensitivity, compactness, safety, and robustness.

Faculty host:  Todd Martinez

Diptarka Hait comes to Stanford from the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a doctorate in physical chemistry. His interests lie in computational quantum chemistry, and he has conducted research into how X-rays can be used to study chemical transformations. His graduate work was highly productive, leading to more than 20 publications. As a Science Fellow, Hait uses the tools of physics and mathematics to advance understanding of photocatalysts and chemistry in general. He also enjoys sharing his love of science as a teacher and mentor to younger scientists.

Faculty Host:  Anne Dekas

Alexander Jaffe studies microbial ecology and evolution, with a special interest in microbial metabolism. As a Stanford Science Fellow, he investigates how lifeforms in the deepest parts of the ocean contribute to the global carbon cycle, with implications for efforts to mitigate climate change. Jaffe earned a doctorate in microbiology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has was involved in the CLEAR Project, which encourages early-career scientists to communicate with the public and be involved in their communities. In collaboration with Girls Who Code/College Track, he offered an introductory course in Python programming for high school students in Oakland.

Faculty host:  Xiaojing Gao

Noa Katz earned a doctorate at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and came to Stanford as a postdoctoral scholar in 2021. As a Science Fellow, she pursues research at the intersection of physics, engineering, and the life sciences. Katz uses synthetic gene circuits to understand and manipulate the mechanics of neuro-regeneration in the human body, with therapeutic applications. She is the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and the Weizmann Institute of Science-Israel National Postdoctoral Award for Advancing Women in Science. She has long been involved in the iGEM international competition for students in synthetic biology, first as a participant and later as a mentor.

Faculty host:  Liqun Luo

Cheng Lyu studied physics and computational biology at Peking University and went on to a doctorate in neuroscience at the Rockefeller University, where his experimental research yielded discoveries about how the brains of fruit files help them better navigate in space via vector computations. As a Stanford Science Fellow, Lyu studies how neural circuits, specifically the fly’s olfactory circuit, are assembled during the brain’s development. He enjoys teaching and is eager to be a mentor to young scientists.

Faculty host:  Markus Covert and Chris Garcia

Rong Ma is interested in using nanotechnology to answer questions in cell biology. After studying environmental science, Ma earned a doctorate at Emory University with research bridging chemistry and biophysics to investigate T cells, which defend against infections and cancer. As a Science Fellow, Ma collaborates with researchers in medicine and bioengineering to pursue breakthroughs in immunotherapy and cancer immunology. Ma was awarded the Michelson Prize for Human Immunology and Vaccine Research in 2021.

Faculty host:  Jacob Fox

Jonathan Tidor earned a doctorate in mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His interests lie in the areas of discrete geometry and additive combinatorics. Tidor was part of a research team that solved a 70-year-old problem in geometry by determining the maximum number of equiangular lines for a given angle. He was active at MIT as an advisor and mentor in programs such as SPUR+, which aims to increase representation of women and underrepresented minorities in research mathematics. 

Faculty Host: Lauren O’Connell

Vicky Watson-Zink studies how marine animals made the transition to terrestrial modes of life beginning more than 300 million years ago. Her doctoral research at the University of California, Davis, assessed the genetic changes that have allowed crabs to adapt to living on land.  As part of that work, Watson-Zink is assembling the genome of the coconut crab, the planet’s largest terrestrial arthropod. Her published research has highlighted efforts to conserve the coconut crab and other threatened species.  As a Science Fellow, Watson-Zink explores the genetic basis of sea-to-land transitions by studying developmental transcriptomics in land crabs.

Faculty host:  Tom Devereaux

Zoe Zhu’s research uncovers the physical properties of systems across scales, from quantum materials to climate systems. At Stanford, she aims uses machine learning to design tunable quantum materials and to explore the connections between quantum systems and climate science. Zhu completed a doctorate at Harvard University in the fields of physics and computational science and engineering. She was part of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration that received the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2019. Zhu is dedicated to teaching and mentoring, especially students from backgrounds underrepresented in physics. She was awarded Harvard’s Certificate of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University in 2021.