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2023-2024 Physics Graduate Student News and Achievements

September 24, 2024
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Welcome to our first-year students!

  • Hamad Afzal – UC Merced. Rotation advisor: Sharping

  • Jonah Beurkens – Kalamazoo College, Michigan. Rotation advisor: Sharping

  • Julian Davis – California State University, East Bay. Rotation advisor: Liu

  • Tharushi Ekanayake – University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Rotation advisor: Tian

  • Dingyu Guo – Miami University, Ohio. Rotation advisor: Tian

  • Sean Ricarte – UC Santa Cruz. Rotation advisor: Kleckner

  • Joshua Roe – UC Merced. Rotation advisor: Kleckner

  • Keshab Sony – Leibniz University Hannover, Germany. Rotation advisor: Chien

  • Emmy Wisz – Bryn Mawr College. Rotation advisor: Wilson

Welcome to new postdocs who started in this past year!

  • Tobias Zier, Strubbe group (formerly on a DFG postdoctoral fellowship)

  • Lei Chen, Strubbe / Pribram-Jones / Ayyaswamy groups

  • Aurélien Henry, Wilson group

  • Mohamed Elhashash, Wilson group

Grad EXCEL peer mentors

Suraj Sahu and Arnab Roy

This year’s graduate student executive committee

Jonah Beurkens, Christopher Mastandrea, Kelvin Yip, Matthew Metcalf, Uday Panta

These students assist with grad group events and discuss issues in the grad program with the grad group chair.

 

PHYSICS GRADUATE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS IN 2023-2024 ACADEMIC YEAR

Congratulations to all the students below!

 

PhD, Fall 2023

  • Rijan Karkee, “Understanding the Structure, Electronic, Phononic and Mechanical Properties of Low-Dimensional Materials," advisor Strubbe → Postdoc, Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Mark Woodall, “On the response of delocalized optoelectronic states in semiconductor coupled quantum dots to remote charge fluctuations,” advisor Scheibner → Intel

PhD, Spring 2024

  • Jeremias Gonzalez, “Microflow Manipulation via Symmetries,” advisor Liu → TBD

  • Davoud Masoumi, “From Quark Confinement to Dynamical History of Stars,” advisors Winston and Loebman → Lecturer, UC Merced

  • Nabaraj Pokhrel, “Ferroelectricity and magnetism in layered oxides,” advisor Nowadnick → Postdoc, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

PhD, Summer 2024

  • Patrick Noerr, “Mechanical interactions in biological active matter,” advisor Dasbiswas → Postdoc, UC San Diego

  • Albert Dibenedetto, “Pulse Propagation and Parametric Oscillation in Microstructure Optical Fibers,” advisor Sharping → Optical physicist, Washington State University

  • Samuel Erickson, “An optical investigation of metal halide perovskite prototypes for space photovoltaics,” advisor Ghosh → Postdoc, University of Toledo Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization (PVIC)

  • Aaron Wheeler, “The impact of refractive index and cell size on the photovoltage of solar cells,” advisor Kurtz → Physics teacher, Savannah Country Day School

MS (thesis), Fall 2023

  • Lutfun Nahar, “Synthesis of Iron Germanium Telluride and Ni Doped Iron Germanium Telluride through Chemical Vapor Deposition,” advisor Cai → PhD program at Arizona State University

MS (non-thesis), Fall 2023

  • Harold Hart-Alesch, advisor Sharping

  • Joseph McTiernan, advisor Gopinathan

  • Micah Oeur, advisor Loebman

  • Sang-Hyun (Maverick) Oh, advisor Nierenberg

  • Maria Perez Mendoza, advisor Nierenberg

  • Jamie Quinn, advisor Loebman

 

Awarded Fellowships

 

Departmental Awards

  • Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award: Thomas “Teddy” Adams (advisor: Ghosh)

For his exceptional commitment by providing special accommodations for students facing various challenges, extending office hours and proctoring exams to accommodate their needs. His proactive support extended to peer counseling for students engaging in academic dishonesty, demonstrating outstanding maturity and leadership.

  • Outstanding Graduate Student Service & Outreach Award: Micah Oeur (advisor: Loebman)

For her commitment to diversity and equality in physics, for bringing in resources for the EquiTea event and hosting the event this year.

  • 1st Place Winner of 2024 Physics Poster Competition: Md Mehdi Masud (advisor: Strubbe)

  • 2nd Place Winner of 2024 Physics Poster Competition: Cole Cooper (advisor: Kleckner)

 

Other Awards

 

MacKenzie Scott Travel Awards from Graduate Council

  • Md Mehdi Masud (advisor: Strubbe): 1st National Conference on Advances in Science and Technology at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Bangladesh.

  • Sameen Yunus (advisor: Strubbe): 65th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society

  • (APS) Division of Plasma Physics in Denver, Colorado.

  • Davoud Masoumi (advisors: Winston and Loebman): “Surveying the Milky Way: The Universe in Our Own Backyard,” Conference in Pasadena, California.

  • Subhaya Bose (advisor: Dasbiswas), Jonathan Daniel (advisor: Sharping), Abhinav Kumar (advisor: Dasbiswas): 2024 American Physical Society (APS) Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

  • Diego Tapia Silva (advisors: Kleckner and Khatri): 77th American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics, Salt Lake City, Utah.

  • Charles Gannon (advisor: Nierenberg): Dark Matter Theory, Simulation, and Analysis in the Era of Large Surveys Workshop in Santa Barbara, California.

 

Graduate Group Travel Fellowships

Jorge Arteaga, Binod Bhattarai, Subhaya Bose, Jonathan Daniel, Harold Hart-Alesch, Devika Gireesan Sudha, Anuvetha Govindarajan, Abhinav Kumar, Davoud Masoumi, Md Mehdi Masud, Joseph McTiernan, Patrick Noerr, Uday Panta, Md Mainul Hasan Sabbir, Suraj Sahu, Diego Tapia Silva, Alauna Wheeler, Sameen Yunus

 

Graduate Group Summer Fellowships

Subhaya Bose, Dylan Benton, Joey Contreras, Ankush Gargeshwari Kumar, Derek Hammar, Harold Hart-Alesch, Asmitha Mekala, Micah Oeur, Bamidele Onipede, Arya Karappilly Rajan, Jamie Quinn, Md Mainul Hasan Sabbir, Arabi Seshappan, Elsa Vazquez, De Zhen Zhou

 

UC Merced physics grad students in the news: