President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Recipients 2006-07

Arts & Humanities 

Neda Atanasoski

Education: B.S., University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Political Science and French; M.A., University of California, San Diego, French; Ph.D., University of California, San Diego, Literature and Cultural Studies

Dissertation: Racial Orientations: U.S. Nationalism and the Production of Eastern Europe in the Mapping of the Free World, 1950-2000

Thesis Advisor: Lisa Lowe, Professor of Literature, University of California, San Diego

Research Topic: Race, Religion, and Liberalism in Contemporary Manifestations of U.S. imperialism in the Balkans and the Middle East

Mentor: Saba Mahmood, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley

Dolores Inés Casillas

Education: B.A., University of California, Davis, Women and Gender Studies; M.Ed., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Curriculum Theory and Development; M.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, American Culture; Ph.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, American Culture (Latino and Media Studies)

Dissertation: Sounds of Belonging: A Cultural History of Spanish-language Radio in the United States, 1922 - 2004.

Thesis Advisors: Susan J. Douglas, Professor of Communications, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Frances R. Aparicio, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

Research Topic: Transborder/Transnational Spanish-language Radio

Mentor: Rosa Linda Fregoso, Professor of Latin American & Latino Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz

Gloria Chacon

Education: B.A., Hampshire College, Literature; M.A., University of California, Santa Cruz, Literature; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz, Literature

Dissertation: Exiting Hybridity: Contemporary Maya Writers and the Making of a Millenarian Literary Tradition

Thesis Advisor: Norma Klahn, Professor of Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz

Research Topic: The Role of Cultural Memory and Oral Transmission in Cultural Productions by Indigenous Intellectuals in El Salvador and Honduras

Mentor: Inés Hernández-Ávila, Professor of Native American Studies, University of California, Davis

Sora Han

Education: B.A., University of California, Berkeley, Comparative Ethnic Studies; J.D., University of California, Los Angeles, Law; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz, History of Consciousness

Dissertation: Bonds of Representation: Vision, Race and Law in Post-Civil Rights America

Thesis Advisor: Angela Y. Davis, Professor of History of Consciousness, University of California, Santa Cruz

Research Topic: “The Law” of Race & Sexuality

Mentor: Leti Volpp, Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley

Roshanak Kheshti

Education: B.A., Indiana University, Cultural Anthropology; M.A., University of California, San Cruz, Cultural Anthropology; Ph.D., University of California, San Cruz, Cultural Anthropology

Dissertation: Resoundingly Different: Desire and Alterity in the World Beat Culture Industry

Thesis Advisor: Nancy Chen, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Research Topic: World Music's Economy of Desire: Third World Women, Expressive Cultural Labor, Counter-Politics, and Resistance

Mentor: Paola Bacchetta, Professor of Gender and Women's Studies, University of California, Berkeley

Ana Rosas

Education: B.A., University of Southern California , History and American Studies; M.A., University of Southern California, History; Ph.D., University of Southern California, History

Dissertation: Familias Flexibles (Flexible Families) Bracero Families' Lives across Cultures, Communities, and Countries, 1942-1964

Thesis Advisor: George J. Sanchez, Professor of History, University of Southern California

Research Topic: World War II and Post World War II Mexican Immigration and Settlement in Mexico and the United States with an emphasis on the transnational and gendered costs of Bracero Program immigration to and from the United States .

Mentor: Vicki L. Ruiz, Professor of History and Chicano/Latino Studies, University of California, Irvine 

Stephen Sohn

Education: B.A., University of Southern California, Biological Sciences & Creative Writing; M.A., University of California, Santa Barbara, English; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara, English

Dissertation: Lost in the City: “Productive” Disorientations in Asian American Literature

Thesis Advisor: Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Professor of English, University of California, Santa Barbara

Research Topic: Rebel Queers with a Cause: Violent Acts and Homosexual Outlaws in Asian American Literature

Mentor: Glen Mimura, Professor of Film and Media Studies, University of California, Irvine

Victor Viesca

Education: B.A., University of California , San Diego , English and American Literature; M.A., New York University, American Studies; Ph.D., New York University, American Studies

Dissertation: Chicana/o Youth Culture in Post-Industrial Los Angeles: Race, Space, and Migration in the Greater Eastside

Thesis Advisors: Arlene Davila, Professor of American Studies, New York University

Research Topic: Examination of the ways in which the popular cultural practices that emerged from the working –class barrios of Los Angeles in the 1990s served as a strategic site for the production and negotiation of contemporary Chicana/o national, racial, class and gendered identities.

Mentor: George Lipsitz, Professor of Black Studies and Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara

Life Sciences

Nathaniel Dudley

Education: B.A., Hampshire College, Molecular Biology; Ph.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Biology

Dissertation: Understanding the Molecular Mechanisms of RNA interference in C. elegans

Thesis Advisor: Bob Goldstein, Professor of Biology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Research Topic: Investigations into the non-nuclear modes of nuclear hormone receptor function in C. elegans

Mentor: Joel Rothman, Professor of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara

 Galit Fuhrmann Alpert

Education: B.S., Hebrew University , Biology and Computer Science; M.S., Hebrew University, Neural Computation; Ph.D., Hebrew University, Neural Computation

Dissertation: Information Flow in Neocortical Pathways

Thesis Advisor: Misha Tsodyks, Professor of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot , Israel

Research Topic: Functional Connectivity and Information Flow in the Human Brain: Multimodal Neuroimaging and Electrophysiological Studies.

Mentor: Robert T. Knight, Professor of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley

Vicente Garcia

Education: B.S., University of Washington, Botany; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, Integrative Biology

Dissertation: Phylogenetic Research of the Genus Piper (Piperaceae): Implications on Classification and Biogeography Monographic Revision of Macropiper

Thesis Advisor: Brent Mishler, Professor of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley

 Research Topic: Piper Systematics and the Evolution of Dioecy.

Mentor: Chelsea Specht, Professor of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley

Matthew Milnes

Education: B.S., University of Florida , Wildlife Ecology and Conservation; Ph.D., University of Florida, Zoology

Dissertation: Effects of Environmental Contaminants on Development, Sexual Differentiation, and Steroidogenesis in Alligator Mississippiensis

Thesis Advisor: Louis J. Guillette, Jr., Professor of Zoology, University of Florida

 Research Topic: Nuclear Hormone Receptor Mediated Chemical Stress Response

Mentor: Bruce Blumberg, Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine

Heather Van Epps

Education: B.S., University of Illinois, Urbana, Biochemistry; Ph.D., University of Washington, Biochemistry

Dissertation: Synaptojanin's role in vision and photoreceptor ribbon synaptic architecture

Thesis Advisor: James B. Hurley and Susan Brockerhoff, Professors of Biochemistry, University of Washington

Research Topic: Molecular Mechanisms of Synapse Specification

Mentor: Yishi Jin, Professor of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Sacha Vignieri

Education: B.A., University of California, Berkeley, Integrative Biology; Ph.D., University of Washington, Zoology

Dissertation: Dispersal, disturbance, and distance: the connection between ecological processes and spatial genetic patterns in the Pacific jumping mouse (Zapus trinotatus)

Thesis Advisor: G. Jim Kenagy, Professor of Biology, University of Washington

Research Topic: The influence of behavior, habitat, and landscape on adaptive coat coloration in the endangered Choctawhatchee beach mouse (Peromyscus polionotus allophrys)

Mentor: Hopi Hoekstra, Professor of Biological Sciences, University of California, San Diego

Louie H. Yang

Education: B.A., Cornell University, Biology (Ecology and Evolution); Ph.D., University of California, Davis, Population Biology

Dissertation: Periodical Cicadas (Magicicada spp.) and the Ecology of Resource Pulses

Thesis Advisors: Richard Karban, Professor of Entomology and Judy Stamps, Professor of Ecology and Evolution, University of California, Davis

Research Topic: Resource Pulses, Thresholds and Environmental Change:  Understanding the Ecology of Temporal Variation

Mentors: Jonathan Levine, Professor of Ecology, Evolution & Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara and Mary Power, Professor of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley

Mathematics, Engineering and Physical Sciences 

Asmeret Asefaw Berhe

Education: B.S., University of Asmara, Eritrea, Soil and Water Conservation; M.S., Michigan State University, Resource Development; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, Biogeochemistry

Dissertation: Effect of Soil Erosion and Deposition on Soil Organic Carbon Storage, Loss, and Stabilization

Thesis Advisor: John Harte, Professor of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California , Berkeley

 Research Topic: Dynamics of nanoparticulate oxides in the presence of organic carbon

Mentors: Jillian F. Banfield, Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Berkeley

Lilian P. Davila

Education: B.S., University of California, Davis, Materials Science and Engineering; M.S., University of California, Davis, Materials Science and Engineering; Ph.D., University of California, Davis, Materials Science and Engineering

Dissertation: Atomic-Scale Simulations of Viteous Silica under High Pressure: Structure and Properties

Thesis Advisor: James Shackelford, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of California, Davis

 Research Topic: Nanoscale rate-earth and silicon oxides studies via experimental and computational methods

Mentor: Valerie J. Leppert, Professor of Engineering, University of California, Merced 

Javier Read de Alaniz

Education: B.S., Fort Lewis College, Chemistry; Ph.D., Colorado State University, Organic Chemistry

Dissertation: A Highly Enantio and Diastereoselective Intramolecular Steller Reaction and Internal Redox Reaction Catalyzed by Chiral Nucleophilic Carbenes: Catalyst and Reaction Development

Thesis Advisor: Tomislav Rovis, Professor of Chemistry, Colorado State University

Research Topic: The Total Synthesis of Kapakahines

Mentor: Larry E. Overman, Professor of Chemistry, University of California, Irvine

Current Position:  President's Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Chemistry, UC Irvine

Timothy Thornton

Education: B.S., Hampton University, Mathematics; Ph.D., University of Chicago, Statistics

Dissertation: Statistical Inference for Genetic Analysis in Related Individuals

Thesis Advisor: Mary Sara McPeek, Professor of Statistics, University of Chicago

Research Topic: Statistical Methods for Identifying Susceptibility Genes for Complex Diseases in the Tasmanian Population

Mentor: Terence Speed, Professor of Statistics, University of California, Berkeley

Devin Walker

Education: B.S., Hampton University, Physics; M.A., Harvard University, Physics; Ph.D., Harvard University, Physics

Dissertation : Theories on the Origin of Mass and Dark Matter

Thesis Advisor: Nima Arkani-Hamed, Professor of Physics, Harvard University

Research Topic: Framework to evaluate potential new models of electroweak symmetry breaking from generic LHC data

Mentor: Lawrence J. Hall, Professor of Physics, University of California, Berkeley

Robin Todd Wilson

Education: B.A., University of California, Berkeley, Mathematics; M.S., Howard University, Mathematics; Ph.D., University of California Davis, Mathematics

Dissertation: Knots with infinitely many distinct Seifert surfaces

Thesis Advisor: Abigail Thompson, Professor of Mathematics, University of California, Davis

Research Topic: Incompressible surface in Knot complements; normal surface theory; Heegaard splittings for Knots in bridge position

Mentor : Martin Scharlemann, Professor of Mathematics, University of California, Santa Barbara

Social Sciences 

Elbert Almazan

Education: B.A., University of California, Riverside, Sociology; M.A., Indiana University, Sociology; Ph.D., Indiana University, Sociology

Dissertation: Sexual Orientation, Social Structure, and Adolescent Mental Health

Thesis Advisor: Jane D. McLeod, Professor of Sociology, Indiana University

Research Topic: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Mental Health among Sexual Minority Populations

Mentor: Susan Cochran, Professor of Epidemiology, University of California, Los Angeles

Javier A. Arce-Nazario

Education: B.S., University of Puerto Rico, Biology; M.A., Columbia University, Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology; Ph.D., Columbia University, Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology

Dissertation: Reconstructing Amazonian Ecological Memory: How humans and rivers shape the Peruvian Amazon Landscape

Thesis Advisor: Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez, Professor of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University

Research Topic: Contested Spaces: The effects of changing conservation policies and resource management laws on Latin American landscape histories.

Mentor: Nancy L. Peluso, Professor of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley

Julio Lopez

Education:  B.S., Universidad, Agronomy; M.S., University of California, Davis, Entomology; Ph.D., University of California, Davis, Multidisciplinary Sciences with emphasis in Entomology, Linguistic Anthropology, Native American and Mayan Studies

Dissertation:  Ethnohistory of the stingless bees Melipona beecheii (Hymenoptera: Melipoinae) in the Mayan civilization, decipherment of the Beekeeping Almanacs Part I in the Madrid Codex and the study of their behavioral traits and division of labor.

Thesis Advisor:  Chris Calvert, Professor of Animal Science, University of California, Davis

Research Topic:  Complete the Decipherment Part II of the Maya Beekeeping Section from the Maya Madrid Codex using ethnohistorical and biological methodology.

Mentor:  Stefano Varese, Professor of Native American Studies, University of California, Davis

Desireé Martinez

Education: B.A., University of Pennsylvania, Anthropology; M.A., Harvard University, Anthropology; Ph.D., Harvard University, Anthropology

Dissertation: For Future Generations: Creating Collaborative Groups between Native Americans and Archaeologists

Thesis Advisor: Carol Mandryk, Professor Anthropology, University of Hawaii, Manoa

Research Topic: Archaeological History of Tongva (Gabnelino) territory with focus on inter-tribal trade

Mentor: Jeanne Arnold, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles

Angela Nonaka

Education: B.A., University of Kansas, East Asian Languages and Cultures; M.A., Indiana University, East Asian Studies; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, Anthropology

Dissertation: Ban Khor Sign Language: Life Cycle of a Thai Speech/Sign community

Thesis Advisor: Elinor Ochs, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles

Research Topic: Preserving Endangered Sign Languages in Thailand

Mentor: Leanne Hinton, Professor of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley

Hector Perla, Jr.

Education: B.A., San Francisco State University, International Relations; M.A., Stanford University, Latin American Studies; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, Political Science

Dissertation: Revolutionary Deterrence: The Sandinista Response to Reagan's Coercive Policy – Lessons toward a Theory of Asymmetric Conflict

Thesis Advisor: Mark Sawyer, Professor of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles

Research Topic: Activating Opinion – Central American Immigrants and Mobilization of Grassroots Public Opposition to Reagan's Foreign Policy (in Nicaragua and El Salvador ).

Mentor: Lisa Garcia Bedolla, Professor of Political Science, University of California, Irvine

Vicki L. Wedel

Education: B.A., University of Oklahoma, Letters; M.C.J.A., Oklahoma City University, Criminal Justice Administration; M.A., University of Oklahoma, Anthropology; Ph.D., University of California, Santa Cruz, Anthropology

Dissertation: Biological effects of slavery and emancipation in historical African American in the urban northeastern United States, 1646-1843

Thesis Advisor: Alison Galloway, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Research Topic: Evidence of workload stress among enslaved and free African Americans in the urban northeastern United States, 1646-1843

Mentor: Sabrina Agarwal, Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley