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Graduate alumni

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!

Graduate Program Alumni 


Dr. Devika Gireesan Sudha
Ph.D. 2024: Hirst Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoc, Yale University

 

Dr. Samuel Erickson
Ph.D. 2024: Ghosh Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Post Doctoral Associate at the University of Toledo's Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC)

 

Dr. Aaron Wheeler
Ph.D. 2024: Kurtz Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Physics teacher, Savannah Country Day School

 

Dr. Albert Dibenedetto
Ph.D. 2024: Sharping Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Optical Physicist, Washington State University

 

Dr. Davoud Masoumi
Ph.D. 2024: Winston and Loebman Labs
Position immediately after graduation: Lecturer, UC Merced

 

Dr. Jeremias Gonzalez
Ph.D. 2024: Liu Lab

 

Dr. Patrick Noerr
Ph.D. 2024: Dasbiswas Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoc, UC San Diego

 

Dr. Nabaraj Pokhrel
Ph.D. 2024: Nowadnick Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoc, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

 

Dr. Mark Woodall
Ph.D. 2023: Scheibner Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Intel

 

Lutfun Nahar
M.S. 2023: Cai Lab
Position immediately after graduation: PhD student, Arizona State University

 

Dr. Rijan Karkee
Ph.D. 2023: Strubbe Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoc, Los Alamos National Laboratory

 

Dr. Fereshteh Memarian
Ph.D. 2023: Hirst Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Project scientist, Bosch Inc.

 

Dr. Dimitrius Khaladj 
Ph.D. 2022: Hirst Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoctoral researcher, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

 

Dr. Niranjan Sarpangala
Ph.D. 2022: Gopinathan Group
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoctoral researcher, Katifori Lab, University of Pennsylvania, Physics

 

Dr. Ritwika VPS
Ph.D. 2022: Gopinathan Group
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoctoral researcher, Warlaumont Lab, UCLA

 

Dr. Imtiaz Ali
Ph.D. 2022: Gopinathan Group
Position immediately after graduation: Quant, Chicago Stock Exchange

 

Dr. Farnaz Golnaraghi
Ph.D. 2022: Gopinathan Group
Position immediately after graduation: Computational Physics Staff, University of Chicago

 

Dr. Jefferey Miller
Ph.D. 2022: Sharping lab
Position immediately after graduation: Senior Project Manager, Pacific Northwest Labs

 

Dr. Nabin Raut
Ph.D. 2022: Sharping lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoctoral Researcher, Jefferson Lab

 

Dr. William Delmas
Ph.D. 2022: Ghosh lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoctoral scholar, Sandia National Laboratory

 

Dr. Kuntal Talit
Ph.D. 2022:  Strubbe lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoctoral scholar, materials science and engineering, UC Merced

 

Dr. Enrique Guerrero
Ph.D. 2022:  Strubbe lab
Position immediately after graduation: Visiting professor, California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt

 

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

 

Dr. Deepak Sapkota
Ph.D. 2021:  Sharping lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoctoral Scholar, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

 

Dr. Md. Imran Khan
Ph.D. 2021:  Ghosh lab
Position immediately after graduation: Research Scientist, Intel. 

 

Dr. Joshua Arenson
Ph.D. 2021:  Mitchell lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoctoral Scholar, Hokkaido University. 

 

Dr. Amanda Tan
Ph.D. 2020:  Hirst group
Position immediately after graduation: Scientist, Codexis Inc.

 

Dr. Alessandro Monteros
Ph.D. 2020:  Tian group
Position immediately after graduation: Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics, Pepperdine University

 

Dr. Benaz Mendewala
Ph.D. 2020:  Ghosh lab
Position immediately after graduation: Adjunct Faculty, Mills College; later Los Medanos College.

 

Dr. Mark Bartolo
Ph.D. 2020: Ghosh lab
Position immediately after graduation: Systems Engineer, AgTech.

 

Dr. Som Sarang 
Ph.D. 2020: Ghosh lab
Position immediately after graduation: Research scientist, Intel. 

 

Dr. Bryan Maelfeyt
Ph.D. 2019: Gopinathan lab
Position immediately after graduation: Lecturer, UC Merced

 

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
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoc at Brandeis University

 

Dr. Katherine Copenhagen
Ph.D. 2019: Gopinathan Group
Position immediately after graduation:  Postdoctoral researcher, Shaevitz Lab, Princeton Physics

 

Dr. Katerina Nikolaidou
Ph.D. 2019: Ghosh lab
Position immediately after graduation: Researcher, INESC Microsistemas e Nanotecnologias,
Lisbon, Portugal

 

Dr. Mekena Metcalf
Ph.D. 2018, Chien Group
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory

 

Dr. Qiaochu Li
Ph.D. 2018, Xu Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Software Engineer at Apple's Special Projects Group

 

Dr. Nathan Melton
Ph.D. 2018, Hirst Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoc at the Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

 

Dr. Nader Inan
Ph.D. 2018, Chiao Lab
Position after graduation: Lecturer, California State University, Fresno

 

Dr. Makiko Quint
Ph.D. 2017, Ghosh Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Systems Engineer at KLA-Tencor

Dr. David Ando
Ph.D. 2016: Gopinathan lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoctoral researcher, LBNL

 

Dr. Dan Hu
Ph.D. 2015: Tian lab
Position immediately after graduation:  Engineer at Google

 

Dr. Chai Lor
Ph.D. 2015, Hirst Lab
Position immediately after graduation: R&D Chemist Intern at DigiLens Inc.

 

Dr. Xiu-Hao Deng
Ph.D. 2015, Chiao lab
Position immediately after graduation: Associated researcher at SUSTech, China

 

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

Dr. Ron Pandolfi
Ph.D. 2014, Hirst Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Computer Systems Engineer at CAMERA, Berkeley Lab

 

Dr. Andrea Rodarte
Ph.D. 2014, Ghosh and Hirst Labs
Position immediately after graduation: Staff Scientist at Sandia National Laboratory

 

Dr. Tessa Pinon
Ph.D. 2013
Position immediately after graduation: Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)

 

Dr. Lam Nguyen
Ph.D. 2012, Hirst Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoc in the Jensen lab at Caltech

 

Dr. Luis Martinez
Ph.D. 2014, Sharping Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoctoral staff scientist, LLNL Quantum Device Physics Group

 

Dr. Jennifer Kirchhoff
Ph.D. 2011, Hirst Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Academic Editor at Research Square Company

 

Dr. Chenji Gu
Ph.D., Sharping Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Senior Engineer, Lumentum

 

Dr. Alison Huff
Ph.D., Sharping Lab
Position immediately after graduation: Professor of Physics & Physical Sciences, Merced College

 

Dr. Alessandro Castelli 
Ph.D., Sharping Lab
Position immediately after graduation: LLNL

 

Dr. Jonathan Thompson
Ph.D., Sharping Lab
Position immediately after graduation: ATT Government Solutions Santa Barbara

 

Dr. Jacob Pate
Ph.D., Sharping Lab

 

Dr. Katherine Copenhagen
Ph.D., Gopinathan Group
Position immediately after graduation: Postdoctoral researcher, Shaevitz Lab, Princeton Physics

 

Dr. Igor Goncharenko
Ph.D. 2010, Gopinathan Group
Position immediately after graduation: Team Lead - Data Science at Sberbank