Stanford physicians, lawyers, engineers, food security experts, geophysicists, and others soon will collaborate to develop an early warning system for wildfire smoke pollution, make agriculture more sustainable, uncover industrial slavery, and more.
The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment is awarding nearly $5 million to 24 faculty teams pursuing solutions to major environmental challenges through interdisciplinary research and translation of discoveries. In addition to six Big Ideas for Oceans projects and two Human and Planetary Health Early Career Award projects receiving Woods support, the Environmental Venture Projects (EVP) and Realizing Environmental Innovation Program (REIP) will support 16 innovative projects.
EVP provides up to $250,000 per faculty research team for interdisciplinary research that seeks to identify solutions to pressing problems of the environment and sustainability. REIP provides up to $500,000, and is intended to provide next stage funding to move existing interdisciplinary environmental research projects toward solutions implemented by public stakeholders and private market actors. Since EVP began in 2004 and REIP began in 2015, Woods has awarded more than $30 million in grants to 182 research teams representing all seven of Stanford’s schools and working in 37 different countries. These projects have gone on to receive more than $90 million in additional funding from other sources.
2024 Realizing Environmental Innovation Program awards
Reducing methane emissions from rice fields
Methane emissions from rice fields contribute to climate change on a scale comparable to the global aviation industry. Current sustainable rice farming practices cannot reduce methane without affecting yields and increasing emissions of other harmful gases. This project investigates the use of cable bacteria, which function like living electric wires, to keep methane in the soil rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. Researchers will validate the effectiveness of cable bacteria in reducing emissions and develop methods for applying them in real-world conditions.
Scott Fendorf (Earth System Science)
Anne Dekas (Earth System Science)
Alison Hoyt (Earth System Science)
Using data science to enhance environmental law enforcement
Environmental laws protect our air, water, and land, but enforcement agencies often struggle with budget and resource limitations. This project, in partnership with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state partners, aims to modernize clean water enforcement using data science and machine learning. The project will develop and implement a model that uses satellite imagery to identify facilities lacking proper permits and exceeding permitted levels of pollutant discharge. It will also create natural language processing tools to help the EPA process tips about environmental crimes. This long-term collaboration seeks to improve environmental compliance and protection through advanced data analysis and infrastructure.
Daniel Ho (Law)
Julian Nyarko (Law)
Developing eco-friendly sunscreen with natural nanoparticles
Exposure to solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a growing public health concern, leading to skin damage and cancers. Current UV-protection products like sunscreen contain harmful ingredients that accumulate in the environment. This project aims to create eco-friendly sunscreen using naturally occurring bacteriophages that absorb UV light. Researchers will finalize the process to incorporate these natural nanoparticles into topical products, creating a sustainable and biodegradable alternative to traditional sunscreens. The goal is to develop a marketable product and establish a company to license and distribute the technology.
Paul Bollyky (Medicine)
Reinhold Dauskardt (Materials Science & Engineering)
Giulio De Leo (Oceans)
Combating illegal fishing with satellite data and analytics
Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing threatens fisheries sustainability, national revenues, livelihoods, and food security. This project combines satellite data with Chilean government tracking and enforcement data to analyze IUU fishing risks. By assessing vessel behavior and identifying high-risk areas, researchers will co-design enforcement strategies with national fisheries organizations. The project aims to develop effective, resource-efficient governance approaches for combating IUU fishing, with applications extending beyond Chile to other global fisheries facing similar challenges.
Rosamond Naylor (Social Sciences)
Fiorenza Micheli (Oceans)
2024 Environmental Venture Projects awards
Designing resilient and sustainable infrastructure for communities
Natural disasters and climate change pose significant risks to communities. This project uses inverse analysis and multi-objective optimization to design infrastructure that balances resiliency and sustainability. Researchers will identify design solutions that maximize post-event recovery while minimizing global warming potential. The project focuses on optimizing a mass timber building designed for low damage and self-centering during earthquakes, aiming to reduce repair costs and embodied carbon. This seed funding will also explore other performance goals, such as building affordability and regional-scale risk assessment.
Barbara Simpson (Civil & Environmental Engineering)
Madeleine Udell (Management Science & Engineering)
Sarah Fletcher (Civil & Environmental Engineering)
Developing low-cost sensors for ocean research
Conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) sensing is crucial for understanding marine ecosystems, ocean dynamics, and interactions with ice sheets. Traditional CTD profilers are resource-intensive, limiting large-scale data collection. This project aims to develop ultra-low-cost, lightweight expandable CTD sensors that can be deployed from small to medium fixed-wing drones. This innovation will revolutionize oceanographic data collection, enabling more frequent and extensive observations, particularly in challenging polar environments.
Zerina Kapetanovic (Electrical Engineering)
Dustin Schroeder (Geophysics)
Managing groundwater sustainably in California’s San Joaquin Valley
Sustainable groundwater management is crucial to avoid adverse effects such as water level depletion, water quality degradation, and land subsidence. Using advanced airborne and satellite data, this project will develop decision-support models to identify necessary groundwater management actions in California’s San Joaquin Valley. These models will help state and local water agencies adopt a transformative, data-driven approach to sustainable groundwater management throughout California, serving as a global example for similar initiatives.
Rosemary Knight (Geophysics)
Eric Dunham (Geophysics)
Daniel Tartakovsky (Energy Science & Engineering)
Addressing hidden modern slavery in building materials
The built environment is growing rapidly, often overshadowing the natural environment. This growth can involve hidden modern slavery within the supply chains of building materials. Recent legislation aims to end imports made with forced labor, but enforcement is challenging due to supply chain opacity. This project will explore the geochemical “fingerprints” of imported cement and natural stone to verify their origin and assess risks of forced labor and environmental degradation. The framework will guide industry toward more responsible and transparent sourcing of building materials.
Sarah Billington (Civil & Environmental Engineering)
Tiziana Vanorio (Earth & Planetary Sciences)
Jonathan Payne (Earth & Planetary Sciences)
Assessing the impacts of beaver reintroduction
North American beavers significantly reshape rivers and riparian ecosystems, but their full hydrologic impact is not well understood. This project seeks to develop tools for assessing these impacts, integrating topographic and remote sensing data with computer vision techniques. Researchers aim to measure surface water storage, evaluate beavers’ role in drought resistance and forest fire refugia, and devise methods for assessing floodplain water storage. The findings will support beaver reintroduction efforts and enhance ecosystem management.
Katharine Maher (Earth System Science)
Jeannette Bohg (Computer Science)
Developing a sustainability curriculum for underserved students
Environmental literacy among American high schoolers has stagnated, with significant achievement gaps between socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged students. This project is developing a dual-credit introductory sustainability course for underserved high school and college students and working with the National Education Equity Lab to ensure its broad availability nationwide. The curriculum will focus on systems-level thinking, interdisciplinary problem-solving, sustainability values, and designing sustainable solutions using a project-based learning approach. Researchers will evaluate the curriculum’s impact on pro-environmental behaviors and sustainability competencies, aiming to create new models of sustainability education and empower students.
Daniel Schwartz (Education)
Rodolfo Dirzo (Biology)
Improving nitrogen management in agriculture
Synthetic nitrogen fertilizers are essential for agriculture but can lead to water pollution when nitrate-nitrogen leaches into surface and groundwater. This project aims to recover nitrogen within cropping systems using electrochemical treatment and cover cropping. Field experiments will investigate nitrogen uptake and release patterns, minimize losses, and recover nitrate from runoff. The project will develop a framework for nitrogen recycling and storage, promoting sustainable agriculture in California’s Salinas Valley.
Robert Jackson (Earth System Science)
Scott Fendorf (Earth System Science)
William Tarpeh (Chemical Engineering)
Alison Hoyt (Earth System Science)
Exploring AI’s impact on climate change
Artificial intelligence (AI) and climate change are two existential forces that intersect in various ways. This project, led by the Digital Civil Society Law initiative, will explore how AI can either mitigate or exacerbate climate change. The researchers will study entanglements between digital technologies and environmental goals, aiming to make these mutual dependencies visible and inform future actions that promote both technological and environmental health.
Angele Christin (Communication)
Patricia Bromley (Education)
Investigating kidney stone disease in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands experience a high burden of kidney stone disease, but specific data on contributing environmental factors are lacking. This interdisciplinary study will examine regional variations in stone disease prevalence between the wet and dry zones of Sri Lanka. Researchers will generate topographic water source maps and gather community perceptions of the regional water supply, aiming to identify risk factors for kidney stone disease and improve public health outcomes.
Alan Pao (Medicine)
Khalid Osman (Civil & Environmental Engineering)
Balancing conservation and fishing community needs
Marine conservation efforts often clash with the needs of fishing communities, leading to conflict and ineffective outcomes. This project aims to develop ocean management solutions that balance environmental and socioeconomic objectives. Researchers will work with fishing communities in Belau and the Galápagos to co-develop research and educational initiatives. The goal is to identify and implement community-led solutions that address the pressing challenges facing our oceans while respecting local knowledge and enhancing livelihoods.
Nicole Ardoin (Social Sciences)
Stephen Monismith (Civil & Environmental Engineering)
Fiorenza Micheli (Oceans)
Robert Dunbar (Oceans)
Addressing climate-induced migration through infrastructure
Climate change drives human mobility, necessitating improvements in critical infrastructure like transportation, electricity, and water systems. This project ultimately aims to address the environmental drivers of migration and improve adaptation strategies. In this initial phase, researchers will characterize human mobility and infrastructure needs, strengthening the partnership for future research on climate-induced migration and infrastructure resilience.
Gabrielle Wong-Parodi (Earth System Science)
Khalid Osman (Civil & Environmental Engineering)
Developing an early warning system for wildfire smoke pollution
Wildfire smoke pollution poses significant health risks. Current early warning systems have limitations in spatial resolution and real-time response. This project aims to develop an autonomous aerial tracking system that dynamically follows wildfire smoke plumes. Researchers will create a proof-of-concept for an aerial air pollution sampling system integrated into a real-time forecasting method. The system will be demonstrated in a prescribed wildfire at Berkeley Forests, aiming to improve early warnings and protect vulnerable communities.
Matthias Ihme (Mechanical Engineering)
Grace Gao (Aeronautics & Astronautics)