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Alumni of the Physics Program

This page is under construction.  If you are a UC Merced physics alumnus/a and we missed you in the list below, please get in touch with Dr. Kinjal Dasbiswas. We would love to hear from you and your current whereabouts!

Undergraduate Physics Major Alumni

B.S. 2022

Nolan Kelly
Thesis research: Strubbe lab
Current position: Postbaccalaureate researcher, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
 
Elsa Vazquez
Thesis research: Strubbe lab
Current position: Postbaccalaureate researcher, UC Merced
Jonathan Loera
Thesis research: Hratchian lab
Current position: PhD student in physics, University of California, Los Angeles
Zachary Mauri
Thesis research: Pribram-Jones lab
Current position: PhD student in materials science and engineering, Stanford University

Radoslav Iliev
Thesis research: Bin Liu
Current position: 

 

B.S. 2021

Tomas Virgen
Thesis research:  Loebman lab
Current position:  APS Bridge Masters student, CSU Long Beach

Ernesto Padilla
Thesis research: Beller lab
 

Christina Valletta
Thesis research:  Beller lab
Current position:   Ph.D. student at UC Davis (NSF Graduate Research Fellow)
 

Ethan Custodio
Thesis research:  Mitchell group
Current position: Ph.D. student at Purdue University

 

Grace Newman
Thesis research:  Muñoz lab
Current position: Ph.D. student in bioengineering, UC Merced

 

Matias Lopez
Thesis research:  Kleckner lab
Current Position: PhD student at University of Connecticut, Physics

 

Sean Deocampo
Thesis research:  Xu lab

 

Robert Gomez
Thesis research:  Xu lab

 

Stefan Faaland
Thesis research: Kleckner lab
Current Position: Programmer at LBNL

 

Ashley Argueta
Thesis research: Scheibner lab

 

Trevor Gammill
Thesis research: Sharping lab

 

Peter Athey
Thesis research: Ghosh lab

 

 

B.S. 2020

Ibrahim Abu-Hijleh
Thesis research: Hirst and Beller Labs
Current position: Ph.D. student, Georgia Tech Physics

Luis Arteaga-Castaneda
Thesis research: Xu Lab

 

Florence Lucey
Thesis research: Sharping Lab

 

Katie Tyler
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab

 

Jorge Arteaga
Thesis research: Gopinathan Group
Current position: Ph.D. student, UC Merced Physics

 

Erick Cedillo
Thesis research: Mitchell Group

 

B.S. 2019


Steven Nguyen
Thesis research: Chien Group

 
Tony Nguyen
Thesis research: Chien Group
 

Ulyses Alvarado Olvera

 

Yogev Gluzman

 

Harrison Mausolff
Thesis research: Strubbe Group

 

Joshua Roe
Thesis research: Kleckner Lab

 

Angel Rubalcava

 

B.S. 2018


Ernesto Alvarado  

Noah Bessard
Thesis research: Kleckner Lab

 

Jonas Lo
Thesis research: Sharping Lab

 

Denzal Martin
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Current position: Ph.D. student, Stanford Physics

Maria Martinez 
Thesis research: Xu Lab
Current position: Intern at UC Berkeley

Joshua Maynard

 
Maeve O'Brien
Thesis research: Sharping Lab
Current position: Ph.D. student, UC Irvine MSE
Jacob Parker
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Current position: Ph.D. student, WSU Physics

Daniel Parra
Thesis research: Sharping Lab

 

Cristian Ramos
Thesis research: Sharping Lab

 

Diego Tapia Silva
Current position: Ph.D. student, UC Merced Physics

 

De Zhen Zhou
Thesis research: Kleckner Lab
Current position: Ph.D. student, UC Merced Physics

 

B.S. 2017


Bieito De La Fuente
Thesis research: Sharping Lab

 

William Delmas
Thesis research: Sharping Lab
Current position: Ph.D. student, UC Merced Physics

 

Steven Jones
Thesis research: Sharping Lab

 

Kyle Kabasares
Current position: PhD student in Astrophysics at UC Irvine,Physics & Astronomy 

 

Laura Miller

 

Blaz Serna
Thesis research: Tian group
Current Position: CSU Long Beach MS program

 

Najma Zahbihi

 

B.S. 2016


Jeremias Gonzalez
Thesis research: Sharping Lab
Current position: Ph.D. student, UC Merced Physics

 

Janelle Hobbs
Thesis research: Sharping Lab 

 

B.S. 2015


Dominic Pellegrino 
Thesis research: Sharping Lab

 
Winnie H. Liang
Thesis research: Xu Lab
Current position: Graduate student, University of Oregon

Alumni prior to 2015


Dr. Leily Kiani 
Ph.D. UC Merced Physics, 2015
Current position: LLNL National Ignition Facility and Photon Science Fiber Technologies Group
 

Matt Wilson
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Current position: Ph.D. student, UC Riverside Physics

John Harvey Paredes
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Current position: Master's program, Applied Physics, University of Oregon

 

Jacky Wan
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Current position: Ph.D. student, UC Riverside Physics

Corinne Gray
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Current position: Ph.D. student, U. Pittsburgh Mech Eng & Mat Sci

 

Patrick Talbot 
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Current position: Lecturer, CSU Fresno Physics

 
Michael Tennenbaum
B.S. 2011
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Current position: Ph.D. student, Georgia Tech Physics
 

Dr. Jessica Clayton 
B.S. 2011, Ph.D. UCSB Physics 2017
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Current position: Senior engineering technical writer, MathWorks

Dr. Richard Inman
B.S. 2010, Ph.D. UCSD 2019
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Current position: Director of Data Analytics at CleanSpark LLC

Nancy Duque

 

Michael Lee

 

Erick Watanabe

 

Bryce Kornreich

 

Jeremy Sanborn

 

Enemisio Cano

 

Michael Lum

 

Tina Kuang

 

Raymond Cheung

 

Robert Puccinelli
B.S. 2014
Current position: Bioengineer, Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub

Alan Blatt 
B.S. 2011
Current position: Software engineer, Apple

 

 

Ph.D. Program Alumni 


Dr. Kuntal Talit
Ph.D. 2022:  Strubbe lab
Current position: Postdoctoral scholar, materials science, UC Merced

 

Dr. Enrique Guerrero
Ph.D. 2022:  Strubbe lab
Current position: Lecturer, West Hills College

 

Dr. Mojdeh Banafsheh
Ph.D. 2022:  Strubbe lab

 

Dr. Md. Imran Khan
Ph.D. 2021:  Ghosh lab
Current position: Research Scientist, Intel. 

 

Dr. Alessandro Monteros
Ph.D. 2020:  Tian group
Current position: Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics, Pepperdine University

 

Dr. Benaz Mendewala
Ph.D. 2020:  Ghosh lab
Current Position: Adjunct Faculty, Mills College.

 

Dr. Mark Bartolo
Ph.D. 2020: Ghosh lab
Current Position: Systems Engineer, AgTech.

 

Dr. Som Sarang 
Ph.D. 2020: Ghosh lab
Current Position: Research scientist, Intel. 

 

Dr.  Tom Kim
Ph.D. 2019:  Chien Group

 
Dr. Tayebeh Riahinasab
Ph.D. 2019: Hirst Lab
Qiaochu Li
Dr. Joe Lopes
Ph.D. 2019, Hirst Lab
Current position: Postdoc at Brandeis University
Dr. Katerina Nikolaidou
Ph.D. 2019: Ghosh lab
Current position: Researcher, INESC Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias,
Lisbon, Portugal
 

Dr. Mekena Metcalf
Ph.D. 2018, Chien Group
Current postion: Postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
 

 
Dr. Qiaochu Li
Ph.D. 2018, Xu Lab
Current position: Software Engineer at Apple's Special Projects Group
 
Qiaochu Li
Dr. Nathan Melton
Ph.D. 2018, Hirst Lab
Current position: Postdoc at the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
 
 

Dr. Makiko Quint
Ph.D. 2017, Ghosh Lab
Current position: Systems Engineer at KLA-Tencor

Dr. Dan Hu
Ph.D. 2015: Tian lab
Current position:  Engineer at Google

 
Dr. Chai Lor
Ph.D. 2015, Hirst Lab
Current position: R&D Chemist Intern at DigiLens Inc.

Dr. Xiu-Hao Deng
Ph.D. 2015, Chiao lab
Current position: Associated researcher at SUSTech, China

 
Dr. Leily Kiani 
Ph.D. 2015, Sharping Lab
Current position: LLNL National Ignition Facility and Photon Science Fiber Technologies Group

Dr. Ron Pandolfi
Ph.D. 2014, Hirst Lab
Current position: Computer Systems Engineer at CAMERA, Berkeley Lab

Dr. Andrea Rodarte
Ph.D. 2014, Ghosh and Hirst Labs
Current position: Staff Scientist at Sandia National Laboratory

Dr. Tessa Pinon
Ph.D. 2013
Current position: Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)

Dr. Lam Nguyen
Ph.D. 2012, Hirst Lab
Current position: Postdoc in the Jensen lab at Caltech

Dr. Luis Martinez
Ph.D. 2014, Sharping Lab
Current position: Postdoctoral staff scientist, LLNL Quantum Device Physics Group

 

Dr. Chenji Gu
Ph.D., Sharping Lab
Current position: Lumentum

 

Dr. Alison Huff
Ph.D., Sharping Lab
Current position: Professor of Physics & Physical Sciences, Merced College

 

Dr. Alessandro Castelli 
Ph.D., Sharping Lab
Current position: LLNL

 

Dr. Jonathan Thompson
Ph.D., Sharping Lab
Current position: ATT Government Solutions Santa Barbara

 

Dr. Jacob Pate
Ph.D., Sharping Lab

 

Dr. Katherine Copenhagen
Ph.D., Gopinathan Group
Current position: Postdoctoral researcher, Shaevitz Lab, Princeton Physics

 

Dr. David Ando
Ph.D., Gopinathan Group
Current position: LBNL

 
Dr. Igor Goncharenko
Ph.D. 2010, Gopinathan Group
Current position: Team Lead - Data Science at Sberbank