Current Fellows

Chancellor's and President's Postdoctoral Fellows

These are the new and continuing Postdoctoral Fellows for the 2023 - 2024 academic year. For past Chancellor’s and President's Postdoctoral Fellows appointed in 1996 onward, please visit the fellows directory.

Devontae Baxter
2023 Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Physics, University of California, Irvine

Department: Astronomy & Astrophysics

Mentor: Dr. Alison Coil, Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics

Research Topic: Galaxy Evolution

Website: https://sentientstarstuff.github.io
Priyanga Ganesan
2022 President's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Mathematics, Texas A&M University
Department: Mathematics
Mentor: Dr. Todd Kemp, Department of Mathematics
Research Topic: Functional analysis, Operator algebras and Quantum information theory
Website: https://mathweb.ucsd.edu/~pganesan/
Gil Goffer
2022 President's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science
Department: Mathematics
Mentor: Dr. Tianyi Zheng, Department of Mathematics
Research Topic: Geometric Group Theory
Website: https://gilgoffer.ucsd.edu/
Debbie Ledezma
2023 Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Immunology, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Department: Nanoengineering

Mentor: Dr. Nicole Steinmetz, Department of Nanoengineering
Website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=5-bKn1QAAAAJ&hl=en
Austin Lee

2023 President's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Sociology, University of Pennsylvania

Department: Sociology

Mentor: Richard Pitt, Department of Sociology
Research Topic: Black Women's Navigations of Class, Gender, and Parental Status
Daniel Ojeda Juarez
2022 President's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute
Department: Pathology
Mentor: Dr. Christina Sigurdson, Department of Pathology
Research Topic: Role of mGluR5 in protein aggregation-driven neurocognitive diseases
Website: https://scholar.google.com/DanielOjedaJuarez
Filipe Pereira

2023 President's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Oceanography, University of São Paulo and University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Department: Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Mentor: Jennifer MacKinnon and Drew Lucas, Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Research Topic: Nonlinear feedbacks between smaller scale physical and biological processes during harmful algal blooms
Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Filipe-Pereira-15
Isabella Restrepo
2023 President's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara

Department: Ethnic Studies

Mentor: Daphne Taylor-Garcia, Department of Ethnic Studies

Research Topic: Criminalization, Girlhood Studies, Youth Studies, Feminist Abolition, Abolition Feminism Women of color feminisms, Latinx Studies, Feminist methodologies, Chicana methodologies, Chicana studies, queer of color critique, medical oppression, pathologization
Website: https://isabellarestrepo.academia.edu
Pamela Riviere
2023 Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego

Department: Cognitive Science

Mentor: Dr. Bradley Voytek, Department of Cognitive Science

Research Topic: Variance in neural signals

Website: https://pdrivier.github.io/about
Tye Rush
2023 President's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles

Department: Political Science

Mentor: Thad Kousser, Department of Political Science

Research Topic: The origins of voter identification laws and impact of race/ethnicity and electoral competition in legislators’ support for voter identification bills
Website: https://tyerush.com
Sahar Sajadieh
2022 Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Media Arts and Technology
Department: Department of Visual Arts
Mentor: Dr. Ricardo Dominguez and Dr. Memo Akten, Department of Visual Arts
Research Topic: Creative Application of AI in Interrogative Interaction Design
Website: www.saharsajadieh.com
Phung N. Su
2022 President's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
Department: Sociology
Mentor: Dr. Abigail Andrews, Department of Sociology
Research Topic: Vietnamese Women as Fetishized “Others”: Racial Sexualization in East Asia and the U.S.
Website: https://pnsu87.wixsite.com/profile
Palashi Vaghela
2023 President's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Information Science, Cornell University

Department: Communications

Mentor: Lilly Irani, Professor of Communications

Research Topic: Computing Begumpura: archival and ethnographic research of labor, gender and caste in global computing

Website: https://palashi.xyz
Jose Wilches
2022 President's Postdoctoral Fellow
Degree: Ph.D., Structural Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Department: Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Jose I. Restrepo, Structural Engineering,
Research Topic: Replaceable Seismic Coupling Beams for Skyscrapers
Website: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jose-Wilches