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Undergraduate Physics Major Alumni

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 Tom Martinez, tmartinez@ucmerced.edu. We would love to hear from you and your current whereabouts!

See also our graduate alumni.

B.S. 2024

Mark Serrata
Thesis research: Strubbe lab
Aaron Fuentes
Thesis research with Utter and Stone
Position immediately after graduation: MS student in physics, San José State University
Izaiha Martinez
Thesis research: Loebman lab
Position immediately after graduation: PhD student in physics, University of Alabama
Hamad Afzal
Thesis research: Loebman lab
Position immediately after graduation: PhD student in physics, UC Merced
Valerie Larios
Position immediately after graduation: intern at QuantumScape
Sheindel Gamerberg
Position immediately after graduation: MS student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego
Tianfei Zhang
Thesis research: Scheibner lab
Position immediately after graduation: MS student in Applied Physics at California State University, Long Beach

B.S. 2023

Maria Gamez
Thesis research: Gopinathan lab
Position immediately after graduation: PhD student in Quantum Science and Engineering, University of Delaware

Nathan Simons
Thesis research: Strubbe lab

B.S. 2022

Calista Lum
Thesis research: Ghosh lab
Position immediately after graduation: PhD student in physics, University of California, Irvine
Nolan Kelly
Thesis research: Strubbe lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postbaccalaureate researcher, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; then PhD student in physics, Iowa State University
Elsa Vazquez
Thesis research: Strubbe lab
Position immediately after graduation: PhD student in physics, UC Merced
Jonathan Loera
Thesis research: Hratchian lab
Position immediately after graduation: PhD student in physics, University of California, Los Angeles
Zachary Mauri
Thesis research: Pribram-Jones lab
Position immediately after graduation: PhD student in materials science and engineering, Stanford University

Radoslav Iliev
Thesis research: Bin Liu

B.S. 2021

Tomas Virgen
Thesis research:  Loebman lab
Position immediately after graduation: APS Bridge Masters student, CSU Long Beach; later: lecturer, Cypress College

Ernesto Padilla
Thesis research: Beller lab
 

 
Christina Valletta
Thesis research:  Beller lab
Position immediately after graduation:  Ph.D. student at UC Davis (NSF Graduate Research Fellow)
 

Ethan Custodio
Thesis research:  Mitchell group
Position after graduation: Ph.D. student in physics at UC Merced

 

Grace Newman
Thesis research:  Muñoz lab
Position immediately after graduation: Ph.D. student in bioengineering, UC Merced

 

Matias Lopez
Thesis research:  Kleckner lab
Position immediately after graduation: Ph.D. student at University of Connecticut, Physics

 

Sean Deocampo
Thesis research:  Xu lab

 

Robert Gomez
Thesis research:  Xu lab

 

Stefan Faaland
Thesis research: Kleckner lab
Position immediately after graduation: Programmer at LBNL

 

Ashley Argueta
Thesis research: Scheibner lab
Position immediately after graduation: PhD student, New York University

 

Trevor Gammill
Thesis research: Sharping lab

 

Peter Athey
Thesis research: Ghosh lab
Position immediately after graduation: Engineer, Gecko Materials (SF Bay Area)

 

 

B.S. 2020

Ibrahim Abu-Hijleh
Thesis research: Hirst and Beller Labs
Position immediately after graduation: 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
Position immediately after graduation: 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
Position after graduation: MS student in physics, California State University, Fresno

 

Joshua Roe
Thesis research: Kleckner Lab
Positions after graduation: Physics teacher, El Capitan High School, Merced; PhD student in physics, UC Merced

 

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
Position immediately after graduation: Ph.D. student, Stanford Physics

Maria Martinez 
Thesis research: Xu Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Intern at UC Berkeley

Joshua Maynard

 
Maeve O'Brien
Thesis research: Sharping Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Ph.D. student, UC Irvine MSE
Jacob Parker
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Ph.D. student, WSU Physics

Daniel Parra
Thesis research: Sharping Lab

 

Cristian Ramos
Thesis research: Sharping Lab

 

Diego Tapia Silva
Position immediately after graduation: Ph.D. student, UC Merced Physics

 

De Zhen Zhou
Thesis research: Kleckner Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Ph.D. student, UC Merced Physics

 

B.S. 2017


Bieito De La Fuente
Thesis research: Sharping Lab

 

William Delmas
Thesis research: Sharping Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Ph.D. student, UC Merced Physics

 

Steven Jones
Thesis research: Sharping Lab

 

Kyle Kabasares
Position immediately after graduation: PhD student in Astrophysics at UC Irvine Physics & Astronomy 

 

Laura Miller

 

Blaz Serna
Thesis research: Tian group
Position immediately after graduation: CSU Long Beach MS program

 

Najma Zahbihi

 

B.S. 2016


Jeremias Gonzalez
Thesis research: Sharping Lab
Position immediately after graduation: 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
Position immediately after graduation: Graduate student, University of Oregon

 

Alumni prior to 2015


Dr. Leily Kiani 
Ph.D. UC Merced Physics, 2015
Position immediately after graduation: LLNL National Ignition Facility and Photon Science Fiber Technologies Group

Matt Wilson
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Ph.D. student, UC Riverside Physics

John Harvey Paredes
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Master's program, Applied Physics, University of Oregon

 

Jacky Wan
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Ph.D. student, UC Riverside Physics

 

Corinne Gray
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Ph.D. student, U. Pittsburgh Mech Eng & Mat Sci

 

Patrick Talbot 
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Lecturer, CSU Fresno Physics

 
Michael Tennenbaum
B.S. 2011
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Ph.D. student, Georgia Tech Physics
 
 

Dr. Jessica Clayton 
B.S. 2011, Ph.D. UCSB Physics 2017
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Senior engineering technical writer, MathWorks

 

Dr. Richard Inman
B.S. 2010, Ph.D. UCSD 2019
Thesis research: Ghosh Lab
Position immediately after graduation: 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
Position immediately after graduation: Bioengineer, Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub

 

Alan Blatt 
B.S. 2011
Position immediately after graduation: Software engineer, Apple