ARCS Foundation 2024 scholarships support outstanding graduate students in science and engineering

Sixteen outstanding UC Santa Cruz graduate students in science and engineering fields earned scholarships worth a total of $180,000 from the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation for the 2024-25 academic year. 

The prestigious ARCS scholarships are awarded to students who have a record of past achievement and show exceptional promise of making a significant contribution to the scientific and technological strength of the country. 

ARCS scholars may take advantage of mentoring and networking opportunities with other ARCS scholars and donors to the ARCS foundation through events, scholar symposia, and national conferences. The awardees receive unrestricted scholarships of a minimum of $10,000 they can use to make progress to graduation, such as housing, child care, and conferences. 

The ARCS Foundation is a national organization that provides scholarships and fellowships for the country's most promising science, medical, and engineering students. UC Santa Cruz belongs to the ARCS Northern California (NCC) chapter, which funds scholarships at seven universities in the region. Since 1976, the ARCS NCC has given around $3.2 million in scholarships to UCSC students.

Meet the 2024-2025 cohort of ARCS scholars:

Sophie Aiken, Mathematics
Sophie Aiken’s research involves geometric analysis and geometric partial differential equations. She has two ongoing research projects, one of which will bring her to visit a research team in Chile in Fall 2024. She has earned fellowships in Active Learning in Mathematics and Graduate Pedagogy, serves as a Head TA in the Mathematics department, and was an invited speaker at the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institution Educators Best Practices Conference.

Joseph Akana Murphy, Astronomy & Astrophysics
Joseph (Joey) Akana Murphy is interested in what exoplanets can tell us about the processes of planet formation and evolution in our Galaxy. He is a member of several large, multi-institution Doppler surveys of promising planet candidates discovered by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Joey is a recipient of the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship, a former ARCS Foundation Scholar (2022-23), and a member of the American Astronomical Society’s National Osterbrock Leadership Program.

Rita Aksenfeld, Science Communications 
Rita Aksenfeld plans to focus on making science more accessible to people who have disabilities that impede their ability to engage with traditional forms of information. She earned multiple awards for her scientific presentations, and works as a writer for UCLA’s Division of Physical Sciences Newsroom.

Mar Arroyo, Ocean Sciences
Mar Arroyo’s research focuses on marine carbon cycling, using a combination of observational and modeling tools to enhance our understanding of the ocean’s role in global climate. Mar is actively involved in mentorship and community building and is a leader in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
 
Christina Blebea, Environmental Studies
Christina Blebea is a restoration ecologist who studies how restoration impacts insect biodiversity and the ecosystem processes that are mediated by insects in tropical forests. Christina is passionate about undergraduate STEM education and mentors students in both the field and in the lab.

Anna FitzGerald Guth, Science Communications
Anna FitzGerald Guth is a journalist focused on covering agriculture, ecology, conservation, and the climate crisis, with a particular interest in the link between sustainable agriculture and
climate resilience. For four years, she was a staff reporter and editor for the Point Reyes Light.

Terra Ganey, Earth and Planetary Sciences
Terra Ganey’s research is centered around the role of seawater chemistry in regulating the carbon cycle and climate. Her work uses computational techniques to understand the long-term carbon cycle and the mechanisms that set atmospheric CO2 through Earth history. She is committed to fostering an inclusive geoscience community through her work with numerous mentorship programs and outreach initiatives.

Francis Gerraty, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Francis Gerraty’s research examines ecosystem connectivity along human-disturbed coastlines, with a focus on how humans influence pathways of ocean-to-land nutrient transfer. Dedicated to community engagement and science storytelling, he hosts a natural history podcast for KSQD Santa Cruz public radio, and his research findings have been featured in The Mercury News, Los Angeles Times, and SFGate.

Eric Malekos, Biomolecular Engineering
Eric Malekos is working to understand how undescribed peptides function in inflammation and the immune response. He has developed a computational tool for designing CRISPR libraries that aid in this process. He has volunteered his time to mentoring undergraduate students and serving as a Bay Area leader in Nucleate, an accelerator program which helps academic researchers launch biotech companies.

Adam Molnar, Physics
Adam Molnar has a strong interest in nuclear instrumentation and its application to the
studies of the fundamental foundations of the natural world. He is currently working on the development of a new type of charge-particle sensor, the “AC LGAD”, that can provide precision timing and spatial information.

Emily Nazario, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Emily Nazario studies marine predators and their relationship with their habitats in the face of stressors including human disturbance and climate change induced deoxygenation, with an eye toward habitat management. Her work details novel ways of assessing marine mammal dive recovery, uncovers the role of metabolic demands in juvenile shark habitat use, and evaluates factors contributing to successful applications of a climate-ready management approach. Emily is devoted to improving the accessibility of research opportunities, and has worked to develop formal resources such as seminar series, workshops, and stipends for her undergraduate research mentees.

Bao Nguyen, Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology
Bao Nguyen’s research is to better understand the role of biofilm formation of Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes cholera, giving new insights into how these biofilms function during cholera transmission and infection. In the future, Bao plans to work on projects designed to improve sustainability in the context of biological systems.

Dustin Palea, Computational Media
Dustin Palea’s research is focused on creating novel ways of providing higher-quality education in ways that inclusively scale to many learners. This includes designing and running educational programs that have enabled hundreds to engage with research, developing a platform that provides peer-based AI hints to provide personalized feedback to every student in large classes, and more. He also serves as an advisory board member for the Santa Cruz County Office of Education’s K-12 CS Initiative, and volunteers at high school events to teach design and web development.

Robert Shepherd, Chemistry/ Biochemistry
Robert Shepherd is a bioanalytical chemist, developing tools that aid in the process of identifying natural products for drug discovery and other methods. He has also been involved in translating his research to local outreach events including Expanding Your Horizons and Science on Tap through UCSC Women in Science and Engineering group.

Meredith Stevers, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Meredith’s research focuses on the mechanism of a molecular “machine” in cells
called the spliceosome, which is involved in the processes of editing RNA into DNA. She established a system to determine how cancer-associated mutations in certain RNA molecules can change how the spliceosome functions in human cells. She is dedicated to mentoring undergraduates in her lab.

Alexis Teter, Applied Mathematics
Alexis Teter’s interests are in the areas of optimization, control, and machine learning, and her Ph.D. research far-reaching generalizations of the so-called Scrödinger bridge problem. She has passionate interests in STEM teaching with experience in innovative pedagogy, course design and instructing mathematics and machine learning to middle and high-schoolers and undergraduates.