Postdocs build knowledge through community service

"This was the most engaged class I've ever taught," says Lev Tsypin, describing his experience teaching biology to incarcerated students at San Quentin State Prison.

"Kids are naturally curious," Yukio Cho observes. "You don't need to push them to adopt your worldview. You just show up, be yourself, and walk alongside them toward whatever sparks their curiosity."

"Getting someone to run an experiment is probably my favorite thing to do with people," explains Liat Adler, who got four high schoolers interested in tiny plants called hornworts.

For these three current Stanford Energy Postdoctoral Fellows, science extends beyond research and publications to opening doors for those just beginning their journeys.

Teaching biology in prison

Postdoc Lev Tsypin spent much of this past summer co-teaching introductory biology at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (formerly San Quentin State Prison) through Mount Tamalpais College, the only accredited U.S. community college serving incarcerated students exclusively. All faculty are volunteers.

"I really want to help people gain access to science when they have been historically excluded from doing so," Tsypin explains. The course included lectures and labs. All supplies had to be pre-approved months in advance, from pipettes to two kilograms of mud.

That mud became the core of Tsypin's favorite experiment: microbial fuel cells. Students layered sediment, added electrodes, and watched as bacteria generated enough current to make LEDs blink.

"When the light starts flashing, you can see the electrons moving," Tsypin says. "It's a direct, visible way to connect metabolism to energy."

The class of 20 students ranged in age from their early 20s to mid 70s. Engagement was the highest Tsypin had seen in any classroom. One student stood out in particular: he wrote his final paper on sunflower heliotropism, inspired by his daughter's favorite flower, and regularly called his mother, a phlebotomist, after class to share what he had learned.

"Living inside a prison is extremely boring – you're starved for intellectual stimulation," Tsypin explains. "Having the chance to learn biology is not just about earning credit. It's about having something meaningful to do." Studies of the program support this: Graduates have a near-zero recidivism rate.

High schoolers and hornworts

Liat Adler designed and taught a course for high school students through the Rainstorm Initiative, a nationwide program where researchers share expertise in online workshops.

As a teenager in England, Adler spent free time attending museums and public science workshops, including one where she built a very inexpensive polymerase chain reaction machine to replicate DNA. "That was the first time I felt like I was really doing science," she recalls. "I want to give students that same kind of access."

Through her Rainstorm workshop, Adler taught students about hornworts, tiny plants that represent an evolutionary bridge between algae and land plants. The plants fascinate her because they retain algal photosynthesis mechanisms while living on land, making them highly efficient at carbon uptake despite their small size.

The class was small – just four students – but rewarding. She started by showing students how to distinguish between hornworts and grass, from far away and then under a magnifying glass, and then guided them into open questions. 

"Why have hornworts kept their algal traits? Could those traits be transferred into crops?" she says. "Those are exactly the kinds of questions scientists are still asking."

At Stanford, Adler works on algal biofuels, engineering algae to produce more lipids for biodiesel production. Her research extends to improving crop photosynthesis by potentially transferring efficient algal mechanisms to other plants.

"My goal is to uncover new knowledge and then teach that to people," Adler says. Students who chose her specialized topic were engaged. "Everyone got the answers right on the quiz."

Her teaching philosophy centers on helping students discover hidden complexity in everyday environments. "It was just kind of trying to get people to think about what's actually under our feet and what's out there that you might not see at first glance."

Science through letters  

Yukio Cho studies lithium–sulfur batteries and writes letters to 6th-12th graders across the Bay Area through Stanford’s Science Penpals program. Cho grew up in Japan, excelling at math and physics but struggling with languages. Through Science Penpals, he now uses clear, simple language to explain complex chemistry to students.

"Writing to middle schoolers forces clarity," Cho explains. "You have to really tune down what you talk about to be understood. You cannot say 'a lithium ion conductor.' What is this, right? Instead, you could say, ‘a material that moves energy from left to right.’ You have to break it down to easy language."

Cho joined the program almost two years ago, motivated by gratitude for his own mentors. "I was really fortunate to have a lot of opportunities to learn and practice in different programs from people who are role models to me," he says.

His research journey took him from fuel cells at Tohoku University to MIT, where he developed battery interfaces that dissolve "like cotton candy" in organic solvents, allowing components to be recycled rather than destroyed. At Stanford, he studies similar atomic-scale interfaces in lithium–sulfur batteries.

The same bottom-up approach shapes his correspondence with students. Questions range from technical – "Why do flames change colors when you burn different elements?" – to casual – "Do you play video games?" Cho says his responses focus less on delivering answers than on showing how scientists build understanding step by step.

Students share school projects while asking questions that sometimes stump him. "Then we explore together," Cho says. "I show them how I would investigate something new." What strikes him most is how curiosity endures. "Impact is unpredictable. It can be zero, it can be substantial. My job is to be as helpful as I can to people interested in STEM."

Each fellow’s experience reflects the fellowship's broader mission to cultivate energy leaders who understand both technical challenges and societal needs. Whether through handwritten letters, online workshops, or prison classrooms, these fellows have found that explaining science often means learning it more deeply themselves.

The Stanford Energy Postdoctoral Fellowship is sponsored by Stanford’s Precourt Institute for Energy, TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Bits & Watts Initiative, StorageX Initiative, and several philanthropic donors.