Stanford University

International Development

FSI researchers consider international development from a variety of angles. They analyze ideas such as how public action and good governance are cornerstones of economic prosperity in Mexico and how investments in high school education will improve China’s economy.

They are looking at novel technological interventions to improve rural livelihoods, like the development implications of solar power-generated crop growing in Northern Benin.

FSI academics also assess which political processes yield better access to public services, particularly in developing countries. With a focus on health care, researchers have studied the political incentives to embrace UNICEF’s child survival efforts and how a well-run anti-alcohol policy in Russia affected mortality rates.

FSI’s work on international development also includes training the next generation of leaders through pre- and post-doctoral fellowships as well as the Draper Hills Summer Fellows Program.

Chemical and Isotopic Signatures in Nuclear Forensics

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About the Topic: Analysis of environmental samples collected for nuclear forensics purposes typically involves determination of isotopic composition, which can sometimes (but not always) reveal information about nuclear events or processes that resulted in the anthropogenic radioactivity. This information is referred to as the “isotopic signature”.  Sequential extractions have been used for many years to determine chemical forms of contaminants for environmental regulatory purposes and clean-up decisions, and they can reveal “chemical signatures” about the events or processes that resulted in contamination.  Coupling sequential extractions with isotopic determinations in nuclear forensics analyses provides an opportunity to link isotopic and chemical signatures, which can improve confidence in identifying the relevant nuclear event or process. This approach shows promise, particularly when coupled with nuclear fuel cycle process knowledge.  Examples involving contaminated nuclear sites in the US and Russia will be discussed.

About the Speaker: Sue B. Clark is the regents distinguished professor of chemistry with tenure at Washington State University. She also holds an appointment to the US Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, appointed in 2011 by President Barack Obama. Her current research areas include the environmental chemistry of plutonium and other actinides, chemistry of radioactive waste systems, and actinide separations. She has over 100 peer-reviewed publications in these areas. 

Her research support includes grants and contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science and National Nuclear Security Administration. Prof. Clark is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Chemical Society (ACS), and is the 2012 recipient of the ACS’s Olin-Garvan Medal. Prof. Clark is an editor for the journal Radiochimica Acta. Professor Clark holds a BS degree in Chemistry from Lander College (Greenwood, SC) and MS and PhD degrees in Chemistry from Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL). 

CISAC Conference Room

Sue B. Clark Professor and Chair, Chemistry Department, Washington State University Speaker
Seminars

Cyber Operations: A Look into the 5th Domain

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About the Topic: Air, sea, land, and space are the traditional domains of military operations. Now, as the Information Age unfolds, cyberspace has become the fifth domain. The relative newness of cyberspace and the interdependencies between it and the preexisting domains pose many challenges, both in terms of the wise integration of cyber into ongoing operations and the creation of personnel with the right combination of technical and non-technical knowledge to apply activities on computers and networks in ways consistent with high-level policy. Cyber operations include both the defense of networks and computers, but also actions to achieve specific effects on adversaries.  These effects may extend to the physical world, or may be circumscribed entirely to cyber systems. Through examples and observations, this unclassified talk will illustrate the complexity of our quest to use cyber space.

About the Speaker: Dr. Cynthia Irvine is the chair of the Cyber Academic Group and director of the Center for Information Systems Security Studies and Research (CISR) at the Naval Postgraduate School where she is a professor of computer science. Her research centers on the design and construction of secure high assurance systems and multilevel security, and now cyber systems and operations. She is an author on over 160 papers and reports and has supervised the research of over 140 Masters and PhD students. Dr. Irvine is a recipient of the Naval Information Assurance Award and the William Hugh Murray Founder’s Award from the Colloquium for Information Systems Security Education. She is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery, a lifetime member of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and a Golden Core Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). From 2005 through 2009, she served as Vice- Chair and subsequently as Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Security and Privacy.

CISAC Conference Room

Cynthia Irvine Chair, Naval Postgraduate School Cyber Academic Group; Professor of Computer Science and Director, Center for Information Systems Security Studies and Research (CISR), Naval Postgraduate School Speaker
Seminars

Ling Cao

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Ling Cao completed her Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Trained as an agronomist and environmental scientist, she has focused on interdisciplinary research at the interface between the sustainability of food and natural systems. Her dissertation research quantitatively assessed the sustainability of emerging shrimp farming systems and technologies, and in particular focused on applying these results to producers and consumers in China and US. In early 2018, Cao was selected as a recipient of the “National Thousand Talents Program for Distinguished Young Scholars,” an initiative of the Chinese government to attract high-level talent from overseas to work full-time in China. In addition, she was also selected as a fellow of the “Shanghai Thousand Talents Program” which aims to recruit top-talent who are leaders in their fields to help enhance Shanghai's future development and sustainable competitiveness. Cao currently works as an associate professor in the Institute of Oceanography at Shanghai Jiao Tung University and continues to work with Roz Naylor and colleagues on fisheries and aquaculture research.

Crowdsourcing in Policy-Making: The Impact of Blended Expertise on Law-Making Process

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Abstract
This talk reports on a study about the impact of crowdsourcing on a law-making process in Finland. In the studied process, the reform of off-road traffic law was opened for public participation in Finland. The citizens were first asked to share their experiences and problems with off-road traffic and the regulating law on an online platform. Then the participants were asked to share solutions for those problems. Crowdsourcing resulted into 500 ideas, over 4,000 comments and 24,000 votes, which were analyzed and evaluated both with citizens and experts and using an algorithmic consensus tool. The talk discusses deliberative aspects in crowdsourcing and the usefulness of blended expertise, i.e. the mixture of the crowd's and experts' knowledge, in law-making.

Tanja Aitamurto is a visiting researcher at the Program on Liberation Technology at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford. In her PhD project she examines how collective intelligence, whether harvested by crowdsourcing, co-creation or open innovation, impacts incumbent processes in journalism, public policy making and design process. Her work has been published in several academic publications, such as the New Media and Society. Related to her studies, she advises the Government and the Parliament of Finland about Open Government principles, for example about how open data and crowdsourcing can serve democratic processes.

Aitamurto has previously studied at the Center for Design Research and at the Innovation Journalism Program at Stanford. She is a PhD Student at the Center for Journalism, Media and Communication Research at Tampere University in Finland, and she holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy, and a Master of Arts in Humanities. Prior to returning to academia, she made a career in journalism in Finland specializing in foreign affairs, doing reporting in countries such as Afghanistan, Angola and Uganda. She has also taught journalism at the University of Zambia, in Lusaka, and worked at the Namibia Press Agency, Windhoek. More about Tanja’s work at www.tanjaaitamurto.com and on Twitter @tanjaaita.

Wallenberg Theater

Tanja Aitamurto

Encina Hall
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Visiting Researcher
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Tanja Aitamurto was a visiting researcher at the Program on Liberation Technology at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. In her PhD project she examined how collective intelligence, whether harvested by crowdsourcing, co-creation or open innovation, impacts incumbent processes in journalism, public policy making and design process. Her work has been published in several academic publications, such as the New Media and Society. Related to her studies, she advises the Government and the Parliament of Finland about Open Government principles, for example about how open data and crowdsourcing can serve democratic processes. Aitamurto now works as a postdoctoral fellow at the Brown Institute for Media Innovation at Stanford.

Aitamurto has previously studied at the Center for Design Research and at the Innovation Journalism Program at Stanford University. She is a PhD Student at the Center for Journalism, Media and Communication Research at Tampere University in Finland, and she holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy, and a Master of Arts in Humanities. Prior to returning to academia, she made a career in journalism in Finland specializing in foreign affairs, reporting in countries such as Afghanistan, Angola and Uganda. She has also taught journalism at the University of Zambia, in Lusaka, and worked at the Namibia Press Agency, Windhoek.

She also actively participates in the developments she is studying; she crowdfunded a reporting and research trip to Egypt in 2011 to investigate crowdsourcing in public deliberation. She also practices social entrepreneurship in the Virtual SafeBox (http://designinglibtech.tumblr.com/), a project, which sprang from Designing Liberation Technologies class at Stanford. Tanja blogs on the Huffington Post and writes about her research at PBS MediaShift. More about Tanja’s work at www.tanjaaitamurto.com and on Twitter @tanjaaita.

 

 

Publications:

Tanja Aitamurto Visiting Researcher Speaker Stanford University
Seminars
Liberation Technology Seminar Series

Brian Johnsrud

450 Serra Mall Bldg. 460, Room 219
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-2022

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PhD candidate in the Program in Modern Thought and Literature, Stanford
Former Anna Lindh Fellow, The Europe Center
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Brian Johnsrud is finishing his PhD in Stanford’s interdisciplinary Program in Modern Thought and Literature, under the supervision of Amir Eshel (Comparative Literature), Fred Turner (Communication), Sam Wineburg (Education and History), Lina Khatib (Middle Eastern Studies), and Sandra S-J Lee (Medical Anthropology). 

Brian’s research considers how the Crusades and other violent histories have served as popular metaphors for relations between the U.S. and Middle East since the First Gulf War. In particular, he explores how those analogies are employed and mediated to affect realms like U.S. national intelligence reports, conspiracy theory novels like Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code, genetic ancestry studies conducted by IBM and National Geographic's Genographic Project in Lebanon, and Iraqi primary school textbook revision by the U.S. after 2003. 

Brian's research interests in digital humanities have led to a platform he is currently developing through a collaboration between Stanford University and MIT: LacunaStories.com. The mixed-media, online platform creates an collaborative research ecosystem for academics, students, and the general public to engage with and respond to texts, media, and other resources related to 9/11.

Group Coordinator, The Contemporary Research Group

Analyzing the role of subsidies in growing the Kenyan aquaculture sector

Food insecurity remains a critical issue across much of sub-Saharan Africa. In certain parts of the region, fish is sometimes the most accessible or affordable source of animal protein. Yet many wild fish stocks are threatened or in decline, and Africa is the only continent in which per capita fish supply is decreasing. To ward off future supply shortfalls, regional governments are investing in their aquaculture (fish farming) sectors using a variety of policy tools, including fish feed subsidies.

Climate variability and global food security, with an eye on France

Extreme weather events and climate variability threaten crop production, food prices, food security, and human lives at local and global scales. Ten years ago, a record heat wave killed over 30,000 people and seriously damaged crop yields in France and northern Italy; summertime heat waves and associated droughts have subsequently decimated maize and soy yields in the U.S. and wheat yields in Russia, causing global food prices to soar.

Ognen Stojanovski

616 Jane Stanford Way
Encina Hall East
Stanford, CA 94305

(415) 745-2636
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Research Affiliate at PESD
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Ognen Stojanovski has been affiliated with PESD since 2005 (while still a student at Stanford Law School) and returned to the program in 2012. He is charged with leading PESD’s research platform on low-income energy services, which studies the kinds of economic and institutional arrangements that can deliver modern energy services to the poor at scale and in a durable way (as opposed to whether a specific technology can be made to work on a one-off basis).

His current research focuses on measuring and quantifying the economic and social welfare impacts of solar PV products in developing countries, as well as identifying innovations in the off-grid solar industry that can improve business performance and maximize end-user benefits. He is also keenly interested in investigating the theory and practice of impact investing in social enterprises intended to both promote development and deliver financial returns. Stojanovski was previously part of PESD's research on national oil companies and authored the chapter on Pemex and the Mexican oil sector in the book Oil and Governance: State-owned Enterprises and the World Energy Supply.

Stojanovski has designed and carried out multiple randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and other field research projects in challenging environments. He has also been responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with both commercial and research partners that have enabled PESD to perform effective research in these settings. He authored successful research grant proposals to support this work.

Stojanovski developed the curriculum for Economics 121: “Social Science Field Research Methods,” a new course he has co-taught (along with Frank Wolak and Mark Thurber) since 2015. The course aims to equip students with strong foundations in research design and rigorous data analysis, along with the practical skills required for successful fieldwork implementation and project management. In the summer of 2015, he organized and led a group of selected students from the course to conduct an RCT in Puebla, Mexico. They explored how households use electricity and tested whether information about electricity pricing and conservation leads to changes in behavior.

Stojanovski’s research at the nexus of energy and development is motivated and informed by working, living, and traveling through over 20 developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, central and eastern Europe, and South America for four years (October 2007-October 2011).

Additionally, Stojanovski has extensive experience in the autonomous vehicles industry, starting as a competitor in the first DARPA Grand Challenge while in graduate school in 2003-04. Most recently, he helped launch Otto (a startup later acquired by Uber) where he spearheaded policy, internal research, and external advocacy efforts. He developed the company’s policy position and compiled research probing the potential safety, fuel-efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions, and productivity benefits of self-driving commercial motor vehicles. He also organized and led a team undertaking a detailed econometric analysis on the possible impacts of this technology on the trucking labor market (available here).

Stojanovski has worked closely with policymakers, regulators and law enforcement at the federal, state, and international levels to develop and implement autonomous vehicle policies. He cleared a regulatory path forward for major milestones, including: (1) the first-ever commercial delivery by an autonomous truck ; (2) the first series of interstate shipments by (SAE level 2) self-driving trucks; and (3) the first framework for the development and testing of self-driving trucks in California. Stojanovski continues to actively advise on policy and legal issues related to autonomous vehicles.

Stojanovski has a background is in law and engineering. He received his J.D. from Stanford (with distinction) and also holds masters and bachelor’s degrees from UC Berkeley in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research (with highest honors). He is an active member of the State Bar of California and has advised clients on a wide range of corporate legal issues.

 

Diane H. Steinberg

Encina Hall
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Visiting Scholar, 2013-14
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Diane H. Steinberg is a visiting scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and she is affiliated with Stanford’s Division of International, Comparative and Area Studies.  She provides instructional assistance to California community college faculty, who are selected to be Fellows in the Stanford Human Rights Education Initiative program, as they develop college-level interdisciplinary curricula related to international human rights.  She also serves as the Online Forum Coordinator for the Human Rights & International Criminal Law Online Forum.  Since 2003, Dr. Steinberg has been Research Director for Ed Research Group, an independent education research organization that evaluates the effectiveness of educational programs and policies.  Her recent research has focused on school reform policies that advance high quality, equitable education in urban school districts.  She has consulted with local, state, and federal government agencies and contributed to independent reviews of school desegregation plans for the Federal District Court in Northern California.  Dr. Steinberg received a B.A. in Psychology with honors and distinction from Stanford University, an M.A. in Education from the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Berkeley.

Wei Wang

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Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellow
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Wei Wang is a corporate affiliate visiting fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) for 2013-14.  She has worked at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) for 18 years. Currently, she is the Deputy General Manager of the Corporate Banking Deptartment II of ICBC's head office and a member of both the Senior Credit Review Committee and Senior INvestment Review Committee.  Wang holds a certification of Certified Public Accountants, received her master's degree in industrial management engineering from the Harbin Institute Technology of China, and an IMBA degree from the University of Hong Kong.

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