UC Merced Fellows
Carlos Diaz Alvarenga
Email: cdiazalvarenaga@ucmerced.edu
Carlos Diaz Alvarenga received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Merced. There he studied Applied Mathematics with an emphasis in Computer Science. After, taking a year off working in industry he came back to UC Merced to pursue a doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). Under the supervision of Stefano Carpin his research interests include: robotics, artificial intelligence and reinforcement learning. His work has been published in venues such as the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Currently, he is in his fifth year in the program at Merced and hopes to pursue a career in academia after graduating. When not researching, Carlos, enjoys playing guitar, going to concerts and eating pupusas!
Jennifer Alvarez- Sagrero
Email: jalvarez88@ucmerced.edu
Jennifer is currently a Ph.D candidate at the University of California, Merced, working in the Ghezzehei soil physics lab. She investigates the impacts of conventional and conservation soil management practices in agricultural lands. Through field and lab experiments she gains understanding on the influence these practices have on dynamic soil hydro-physical properties and the resulting carbon fluxes. With improved understanding, she can more accurately model microbial mediated carbon mineralization in soils. Prior to being a student at UC Merced, Jennifer attended California State University, Stanislaus and Modesto Junior College where she studied ecology and agriculture, respectively. She takes great pride in being an Alumni from both institutions and hopes to be a faculty member in the future.
Melinda L Gonzalez
Email: mgonzales36@ucmerced.edu
Melinda is a 4th year doctoral candidate in the Environmental Systems Department at University of California, Merced. She has a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture with a focus in land resource management from CSU, Chico. Her research focuses on reducing greenhouse gases with locally sourced organic amendments to manure composting processes and soils. Her passion is learning and sharing about soils, and holistic and sustainable approaches to increase soil health in the Central Valley.
Jocelyn Ochoa
Email: jochoa36@ucmerced.edu
Jocelyn is a chemistry graduate student at the University of California, Merced. She works with Linda Hirst studying synthetic membranes and nanoparticle composites. Previous research experiences allowed her to explore synthesis of small organic molecules. She obtained her B.S. in Chemistry and B.A. in Physics from California State University, Long Beach. She finds interest on doing outreach, mentoring, and teaching students. During her free time, Jocelyn enjoys hiking, playing volleyball, and dancing salsa.
Edgar Perez- Lopez
Email: eperez-lopez@ucmerced.edu
Edgar Perez-Lopez is a 5th year PhD Candidate in the Mechanical Engineering Program. His research focus is low temperature plasma applications in energy, water and food systems. Plasma is the fourth state of matter and is composed of electrons, neutral species, and ions that are utilized in different applications such as semiconductor manufacturing. His goal is to utilize plasma to advance technology in agriculture, energy conversion, and hopes to continue research in thermal plasma in the future. In addition to research in plasma, Edgar is passionate about teaching engineering courses such as fluid dynamics, materials characterization, and aerodynamics. As an NSF-AGEP fellow, Edgar had the opportunity to not only shadow Dr. Sankha Banerjee but also worked as a part time lecturer at CSU Fresno Spring 2023 teaching Engineering Mechanics. Edgar will be working as a Plasma Product Manager for Gerling Applied Engineering starting August 2023 and looks forward to one day coming back to academia as full-time faculty.
Edgar’s Quotes:
"I am deeply grateful for the invaluable networking opportunities and unwavering social support I received from the NSF-AGEP cohort and program. This incredible network has provided doctoral students like myself with a strong foundation in academia as we navigate the challenging journey of completing our dissertations and transitioning into the esteemed STEM academic faculty workforce.”
“The teaching fellowship at Fresno State University seamlessly integrates research, assessment, and service-learning, creating dynamic spaces of innovation and exploration within the classrooms. It has been an absolute honor and privilege to have the opportunity to shadow and teach at Fresno State over the past year, alongside conducting research with both talented undergraduate and master students. Together, we have embarked on a journey of knowledge and growth, fostering a vibrant academic community."
Jannine Chamorro
Email: jdchamorro@ucsb.edu
Jannine is a graduate candidate in the Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology department at the UC Santa Barbara. Before attending UC Santa Barbara, she graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Animal Biology. Her graduate research focuses on investigating the impacts of marine heatwaves on ecologically important species. Specifically, she is interested in understanding organismal capability to acclimate to these changing environmental conditions and their associated mechanisms. Jannine is passionate about inclusive teaching and meaningful mentorship in undergraduate education.
UC Santa Barbara Fellows
Laura Huerta Sanchez
Email: huertasanchez@ucsb.edu
Laura is a fourth year neuroscience and behavior PhD candidate in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She received a Bachelor of Science in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. At UC Santa Barbara, her research focuses on investigating the role of glutamate in the medial prefrontal cortex on incubated cocaine- and sucrose-craving. In order to study this, she implements both pharmacological and immunoblotting techniques. While she is not in lab, she enjoys reading and traveling. While participating in the AGEP program Laura got to teach Behavioral Neuroscience (Psy 314) with Barbara Thayer at CSU Channel Island.
Timnit Kefela
Email: tkefela@bren.ucsb.edu
Timnit Kefela is a doctoral candidate in environmental science and management at UC Santa Barbara where she researches the sources, pathways and fates of (micro)plastics in urban environments. She is passionate about inclusive STEM education and advocates for just environmental futures as the central theme in solution-making especially in the context of plastic pollution and climate change. In her spare time, Timnit likes to create, read and explore nature. She received her BSc (with a minor in English Literature) and MSc in Biology from Rutgers University-Camden. Timnit has accepted a postdoc at Arizona State University's Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship in Environmental Engineering.
Diego Padilla- Garcia
Email: diego05@ucsb.edu
Diego is a 6th year Ph.D. student in Social Psychology at UCSB, working in the Social Perception Lab. His research interests lie at the intersection of biology and psychology, with the goal of understanding the biological underpinnings of complex human social behavior. Some of his research projects include looking at how experiencing stigma impacts reward processing in the brain, examining biases in behavior in the context of racial categorization, and currently he is working on a social cognitive model of attribution in efforts to better understand perceptions, and the consequential inferences, of policing in the United States. Diego is very passionate about teaching and mentoring and even combines this passion with gaming, an off-time hobby, by talking about science while streaming live to both the gaming and general community. Besides work and gaming, he loves playing guitar, drums, volleyball and bowling.
Rachel Torres
Email: ratorres@bren.ucsb.edu
Rachel is a Ph.D. candidate at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management studying urban ecohydrology in the Tague Lab. She is interested in doing applied environmental science that helps develop more sustainable and green cities. Her dissertation research uses an eco-hydrologic model to explore how urban forests respond to drought and how changing outdoor landscaping affects water and carbon cycling in Santa Barbara. Beyond research at UCSB, Rachel has served as a mentor for first-year graduate students and Bren master’s students, taught several environmental science course sections, and volunteered on organizing committees to create community within graduate school.
Rachel recently accepted a post-doc offer to develop undergraduate environmental data science education with a network between Cal Poly Humboldt and Notre Dame. She still working on her dissertation and will be starting the new position in January.
Rachel’s Quote:
“I don't think I would have been as competitive for this post-doc if the application period had not overlapped with our trip to Fresno, where I received helpful feedback on my CV and teaching statement, so I am grateful for being an AGEP fellow and having that support!”
Sankha Banerjee
Email: sankhab@csufresno.edu
Sankha Banerjee, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and the Graduate Program Coordinator in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Fresno State. He earned his MS and Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Rutgers University. He founded the Energy Devices and Plasma Applications Laboratory which is partially funded by the Department of Defense and Southern California Edison. He has also worked in the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (Princeton University) on the synthesis and surface modification of nanomaterials using thermal and micro-discharge plasmas. He has also received several grants of over $2 million from several federal, state, and local agencies and the private industry.
CSU Fresno Mentors
Qiao- Hong Chen
Email: qchen@csufresno.edu
Qiao-Hong Chen received her Ph.D. degree from Sichuan University, China. Appointed as a Lecturer in 2001, she was promoted to the position of Full Professor in 2003 at Sichuan University. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow for three years at the University of Alberta in Canada and a Senior Research Fellow for six years at Virginia Tech. Qiao-Hong joined Fresno State in 2012 and was promoted to full professor in 2021. She is a recipient of 2013/2014 Provost’s Award for Promising New Faculty and 2017/2018 Provost’s Award for Research, Scholarship and Creative Accomplishment. Qiao-Hong was appointed as a Visiting Research Scholar at Princeton University in summer 2022 as part of Princeton Chemistry Visiting Faculty Research Partnership Program. Her research interests focus on natural products-based anticancer agents. She has published 156 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Aric Mine
Email: amine@mail.fresnostate.edu
Aric graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a BS in Geology and received his PhD in aquatic biogeochemistry at the University of Chicago. As a biogeochemist, Aric’s research is interdisciplinary and welcomes collaborations across the campuses. His current focus on nutrient cycles in aquatic systems is exploring the link between agricultural activity and groundwater microbiology. In addition, Aric is studying the most recent, analogous climate warming event, 55 million years ago recorded locally in the Panoche Hills. This study will provide insights as to how the past can inform current climate mitigation strategies and predictions; and more specifically how elemental cycles and biological organisms respond to and ultimately recover from a climate extreme.
Athanasios Aris Panagopoulos
Email: apanagopoulos@mail.fresnostate.edu
Thanos Panagopoulos (nee Aris Athanasios Panagopoulos) is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at California State University, Fresno, USA. He has dedicated himself to prototyping new intelligent technology to shape the production and urban landscape of tomorrow. His interests span a wide range of computer science and related fields including machine learning, artificial intelligence, optimization, control theory, multiagent systems and intelligent systems with an emphasis on computational sustainability. He has led a number of high-impact collaborative research endeavors and his research has been published in world-leading journals and conferences. His contributions have been recognized via a number of awards and honors. Thanos Panagopoulos is a member of the program committee in a number of world leading journals and conferences. Thanos Panagopoulos received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from University of Southampton, UK, in 2016. He also holds a diploma in Electronic and Computer Engineering from Technical University of Crete, Greece. He has also spent two years leading intelligent systems research as a post-doctoral researcher at UC Berkeley, USA. For more information please refer to www.apanagopoulos.com
Zhi (Luke) Wang
Email: zwang@csufresno.edu
Dr. Zhi (Luke) Wang is a professor of Hydrology and Soil Physics in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at California State University, Fresno. His Teaching and scholarly activities are focused on hydrology, hydrogeology (groundwater hydrology), soil physics, irrigation engineering, and geospatial data science - geostatistics and geographic information system (GIS). He has over 60 peer-reviewed publications in Water Resources Research, Journal of Hydrology and other soil and water related journals (see peer-reviewed publications in English on Google Scholar Page). His research has been funded by the US Natural Science Foundation, US Department of Defense, California EPA and California Department of Water Resources. Dr. Wang served as Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Geological Sciences and Guest Editor of the international journal WATER for a Special Issue on Climate Change Effects on Hydrological Processes, Water Resources, Ecosystems and Agriculture
Sean Anderson
Email: sean.anderson@csuci.edu
Sean Anderson is a broadly trained ecologist who has tackled environmental questions from Alaska to the South Pole. While pursuing his Ph.D. in marine population biology at UCLA, Sean became increasingly interested in restoration ecology, eventually heading up a large salt marsh restoration effort at Mugu Lagoon in Ventura County, California. After graduate school, Sean joined Paul Ehrlich’s Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University and began expanding his restoration and conservation work into terrestrial systems. This included everything from managing mountain lions, to assessing the economic impacts of invasive grasses, to designing museum exhibits on sustainable product design.
CSU Channel Islands Mentors
Geoff Dilly
Email: geoffrey.dilly@csuci.edu
Geoff is an Assistant Professor of Biology at CI. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Santa Barbara and earned his PhD in Biology at Harvard. He is a Marine Ecophysiologist - studying the impacts of human influences on marine invertebrate populations in the lab and in the field. His research at CSUCI focuses on the stresses the environment places on the organisms that live within – specifically marine mussels. He previously worked with students to study thermal stresses on mussels. His research currently is to examine the effects of microplastics.
Emily Fairfax
Email: emily.fairfax@csuci.edu
Emily is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Resource Management (ESRM). She double majored in Chemistry and Physics, then earned her Ph.D. in Geology. Emily loves the outdoors - in particular, hiking, exploring, and feeling connected to nature. Her research falls into three categories: Ecohydrology, data science/technology, and field accessibility. She is excited to bring her three research domains and love of the outdoors together on this Virtual Reality project.
Melissa Soenke
Email: melissa.soenke@csuci.edu
Dr. Melissa Soenke is a Social Psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychology at CSU Channel Islands. She grew up on the Central Coast of California, received her B.A. in Psychology and Justice from American University in Washington, DC and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Social Psychology with a minor in Psychophysiology from University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ. Dr. Soenke does research on how people use religion to manage concerns about their own death from the perspective of Terror Management Theory. She teaches Social Psychology, Theories of Personality, Human Motivation, Psychology of Stress and Coping, and mentors students in Social Psychological research.
Barbara Thayer
Email: barbara.thayer@csuci.edu
Barbara grew up in Minneapolis, MN, and Santa Cruz, CA, before moving to Santa Barbara to complete her B.S. in Biopsychology at UC Santa Barbara. Barbara earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Behavior from UCSB in 2009 before joining the "dark side" and taking a position in industry for five years. During Barbara’s time away from academia, Barbara worked in research and development for a major medical device company, where Barbara’s projects investigated tissue responses to novel biomaterials. Barbara began teaching in the Psychology Program at CSU Channel Islands in 2014. Barbara usually teaches neuroscience-focused courses, but Barbara has branched out a bit and explore other topics, such as the psychology of women and gender and positive psychology. Barbara’s research project investigates the roles of sex hormones in cognition. Barbara lives in Santa Barbara with her husband and whichever of our three sons are back living at home that week!
