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
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
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