The Graduate Studies Office held their final event of the year today, a Pizza Party to celebrate our graduating students, recognize graduate student achievements throughout the 2025-2026 Academic Year, and give out the 2026 Grad Awards.

Our graduating students from this academic year are:

Summer 2025 grads

• Aashwin Basnet​
• Jeremy Borden​
• Michael Carrigan​
• Dylan Frikken​
• Giuseppe Giuliani​
• Morgan Hamilton​
• Shuangyuan Lu​
• Madhur Mehta​
• Harish Moni Prakash​
• Andrew Rockovich​
• Sayantan Roy​

Autumn 2025 Grads

• Francisco Ayala Rodriguez​
• Emily Chan​
• Alex Gekow​
• William Koll​
• David Pochik​
• Daniel Russell​
• Brady Unzicker​
• Kevin Jamison

Spring 2026 Grads

• Blanche Chen​
• Justin Michel​
• Nathaniel Tamminga​
• Yuxin Zhang​
• Wenyi Zhou​
• Alexander Klepinger​
• Pengcheng Luan

Congratulations, everyone!

Several achievements from throughout the year were celebrated as well, including:

Presidential Fellows:

• Sayak Biswas​
• Xueshi Gao​
• Katherine Laliotis​
• Obada Nairat

NSF GRFP Honorable Mention:

• Jack Ethridge

Graduate Associate Leadership Award Winner:

• Alex Schimmoller

ASC 3-Minute Thesis Winner:

• Zoe Phillips

There were also several students working on external internships, congrats everyone and keep up the good work!

We'd also like to shout out to our Graduate Student Organizations: Random Interactions, PGSC, Polaris, and WaGMiP! Thank you for dedicating your time and energy to put on events, provide resources, and foster community!

Thank you to our student mentors, teachers, and leaders!​ Including those in the First Year Mentor Program, TAs, and other formal/informal leadership roles.

The Grad Studies Office and Vice Chairs also gave out several awards today.

William R. Riley GTA Award

• Daria Sharifi
• Katherine Schwind

GTA Award

• Valeria Arteaga Muniz
• Daniel Sharkey

Distinguished Service Award (new)

• Dennis Calderon-Madera
• Alican Saray

Mentoring Excellence Award (new)

• Heather Mei
• Zoe Riesen

Congratulations to everyone and thank you to all our wonderful students for all they do for our department community!