Caldeira Lab

Michael Dioha (Postdoctoral Fellow)

Michael Dioha is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Carnegie Institution for Science Department Of Global Ecology, located at the Stanford University campus. His main research areas include energy systems analysis & modelling and socioeconomic development for a sustainable energy transition. Michael develops integrated energy system models to project energy supply-demand mixes, associated costs, and environmental emissions over a long-term planning horizon for a defined region. He also apply these models to study the implications of energy efficiency improvements as well as the implementation of renewable and advanced energy technologies.

Before joining the Carnegie Institution for Science, Michael was a Research Analyst at the TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi, where he did research on net-zero emission pathways for India. He has worked on many international projects with people from different nationalities and disciplines. Beyond academic research, Michael also advocates for innovative approaches that promote inclusive and just socioeconomic development especially, in Africa. Michael holds an interdisciplinary PhD in Energy & Environment and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering. Outside of work, Michael enjoys playing football, running and art.

David Farnham (Postdoctoral Fellow)

David Farnham is an environmental engineer and hydroclimatologist interested in how climate affects our engineered water and energy systems. David’s work can broadly be described as the development of statistical models to estimate and/or predict climate risks at time scales ranging from daily to seasonal to multi-decadal.

With regard to water systems, David has authored papers on topics ranging from the prediction of urban water contamination, to the estimation of future regional riverine flooding hazard, to the climate drivers of seasonal precipitation variability in water scarce regions such as the Southwestern, United States.

Within energy systems, David has been focusing on weather/climate dependent renewable energy technologies; namely solar, wind, and hydro power. For example, David has recently been investigating the implications of yearly to decadal fluctuations in potential wind and solar energy supply for energy system planning.

Manoela Romano de Orte (Postdoctoral Fellow)

Manoela Romanó de Orte is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in in the Caldeira Lab at the Carnegie Institution for Science's Department of Global Ecology. She is a marine scientist, studying the fate and the effects of pollutants in the coastal environment. Her research considers traditional pollutants, such as heavy metals, alongside emerging contaminant threats. These emerging threats include plastics and the global effects of humans dumping carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, which warms and acidifies the ocean. Manoela's latest work focuses on the response of coral reef ecosystems to climate change and to plastic pollution.