GCI Fellows

Congratulations to Dr. Gabriela Shirkey for receiving $300,000 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) MOSAICS program! Her research project is titled Collaborative Nexus for Networking, Education, and Career Training in Surface Biology and Geology. This project leverages expert leadership and training from two surface biology and geology (SBG) research institutions, Chapman University and JPL,

Congratulations to Dr. Ari Jong-Levinger for receiving $150,000 from the USDA Forest Service National Partnership Office (NPO) and U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment)! Her research project is titled Exploring the Value of Ignition Reduction on the Impacts of Post-Fire Flooding in Southern California.   In partnership with Chapman University and Louisiana State University, Blue

Meet Ari Jong-Levinger, Ph.D., a Grand Challenges Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow at the Schmid College of Science and Technology! Dr. Jong-Levinger holds a Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from the University of California, Irvine. She earned her B.S. in environmental science and policy from Chapman University in 2016! Ari studies how the interactions between wildfire,

Meet Rajeev Joshi, Ph.D., a Grand Challenges Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow at the Schmid College of Science and Technology! Dr. Joshi obtained his Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from the University of South Florida, Tampa, in 2023. During his doctoral studies, he developed optimization techniques for machine learning inference and near-memory image processing in hardware

Meet Lorenzo Leiva Araya, Ph.D., a Grand Challenges Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow at the Schmid College of Science and Technology! Dr. Leiva Araya earned his BS and MS degrees in Biochemistry and his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Chile, Santiago, Chile. During his Ph.D. project, Lorenzo became interested in understanding the adaptation of the bacterial

Meet Cassandra Maya, Ph.D., a Grand Challenges Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow at the Schmid College of Science and Technology! Dr. Maya holds a Ph.D. in nutrition from the University of Copenhagen. She is a food and nutrition scientist specializing in the nutrition, quality, and consumer acceptance of alternative proteins, with a particular interest in edible insects.

Meet Sayani Ghosh, Ph.D., a Grand Challenges Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow at the Schmid College of Science and Technology! Dr. Ghosh earned her Ph.D. from Clemson University, where her doctoral research focused on developing graph-theory-based tools and applying them to nuclear astrophysical scenarios. She is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work bridges the fields of mathematics and

Meet Sarah Arnette, Ph.D., a Grand Challenges Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow at the Schmid College of Science and Technology! Dr. Sarah Arnette completed her dissertation in Environmental Life Sciences from Arizona State University in June 2024. She is interested in the impact of changing environmental conditions across time scales on fish mechanics and physiology. Her current

Meet Ana Belén Avilez García, Ph.D., a Grand Challenges Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow at the Schmid College of Science and Technology! Dr. Avilez García holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Coimbra, Portugal. She recently completed a one-year postdoc position at

Meet Aracely Acevedo, Ph.D., a Grand Challenges Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow at the Schmid College of Science and Technology! Dr. Aracely Acevedo earned her Ph.D. in molecular, cellular, and integrative physiology from UCLA. Her doctoral studies focused on investigating the mechanism of action by which the pharmacological agent BT2 confers protection from heart failure and metabolic