News

We are pleased to announce and congratulate the 2026 cohort of Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance Graduate and Postdoctoral Scholars at Stanford. The program supports outstanding Stanford doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows engaged in human performance research by providing a collaborative and interdisciplinary community in which to conduct human performance research. They will conduct high-impact research projects with Stanford faculty mentors in the Schools of Engineering, Medicine, and Humanities & Sciences. 

From left to right: Sophia Shen, Georgia Tully, and Adrien Specht

Graduate Scholars

• Maiko Hermsmeier, Orthopaedic Surgery
  • Faculty Mentor: Nidhi Bhutani
  • Project Title: How B cells affect pain and performance in ACL injuries and Post-traumatic Osteoarthritis
• Adrien Specht, Institute for Computational & Mathematical Engineering
  • Faculty Mentor: Emmanuel Mignot
  • Project Title: Decoding Sleep and Circadian Dynamics from the Human Plasma Proteome
• Sophia Shen, Bioengineering
  • Faculty Mentor: Todd Coleman
  • Project Title: Non-invasive monitoring of uterine physiology throughout the menstrual cycle
• Georgia Tully, Chemistry
  • Faculty Mentor: William James Greenleaf
  • Project Title: A High-Dimensional DNA Aptamer Array for Steroid Hormone Monitoring
• Sydney Covitz, Bioengineering
  • Faculty Mentor: Scott Delp
  • Project Title: Video-derived Functional Movement Screen to Assess the Shoulder during Rehab

From left to right: Kris Evans, Ava Chen, and Lara Weed

Postdoctoral Scholars

• Raphael Bonetti, Psychology
  • Faculty Mentor: James J. Gross
  • Project Title: Optimizing Performance and Well-Being in Female Athletes
• Kristopher Evans, Psychology
  • Faculty Mentor: Alia Crum
  • Project Title: Mindsets, Meta-Awareness, and Well-being in Female Collegiate Athletes
• Lara Weed, Aeronautics and Astronautics
  • Faculty Mentor: Mykel Kochenderfer
  • Project Title: Circadian Digital Twin to Accelerate Jet Lag Adaptation in Female Athletes
• Ava Chen, Mechanical Engineering
  • Faculty Mentor: Allison Okamura
  • Project Title: On-field wearable haptic training to reduce knee injury risk during running cuts
• Ananya Goyal, Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine
  • Faculty Mentor: Kenneth A. Weber II
  • Project Title: Integrated Neural-Muscular Mechanisms of Fatigue Resistance in Human Performance

Learn about the Graduate and Postdoctoral Fellows Program