56 doctoral students earn Dissertation Completion Fellowships

Author: Iqbal Pittalwala
November 26, 2025

Fifty-six doctoral students at UC Riverside have received Dissertation Completion Fellowship Awards (DCFAs) from the UCR Graduate Division. The awards provide financial support to students in the final stage of their doctoral degree. 

“Celebrating 56 Dissertation Completion Fellowship recipients reminds us just how vibrant and determined our doctoral community is,” said Emma Wilson, associate dean of the Graduate Division. “These awards help relieve students of additional duties so they can focus fully on completing their dissertations. I am immensely proud of these scholars and their contributions and look forward to seeing them graduate.”

Each DCFA recipient receives an $11,500 stipend and about $7,000 toward tuition and fee coverage per quarter. Awardees receive funding for up to two quarters, with funding for the second quarter requiring clear justification. 

This year's DCFA recipients are:

Yun Ge, Anthropology

Zhiyi Wang, Anthropology

Lily Allen, Art History

Xinyi Chen, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Zengyu Shao, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

William Darch, Bioengineering

Junze Liu, Bioengineering

Vala Masjedizadeh, Bioengineering

Jennel Jennett, Biomedical Sciences

Amun Chirag Patel, Biophysics

Rachel De La Torre, Cell, Molecular & Developmental Biology

Runtong Pan, Chemical & Environmental Engineering

Ruonan Peng, Chemical & Environmental Engineering

Kailong Ye, Chemical & Environmental Engineering

Yujie Cao, Chemistry

Julio Larach, Chemistry

Sakib Fuad, Computer Science

Jingyao Zhang, Computer Science

Yeji Moon, Critical Dance Studies

Saleheh Ebadirad, Earth & Planetary Sciences

Keren Fang, Economics

Ilsoo Han, Economics

Pete Pridanonda, Economics

Briana Savage, Education

Dresden Smith, Education

Shucheng Guo, Electrical Engineering

Zexin Li, Electrical Engineering

Yitian Wang, Electrical Engineering

Dongming Wang, Electrical Engineering

Loren Barbour, English

Amanda Mocsi, English

Meghan Moore, Entomology

Wonsik Woo, Environmental Toxicology

Ting Zhao, Environmental Toxicology

Jennifer Martinez, Ethnic Studies

Gary Qin, Evolution, Ecology & Organismal Biology

Marina Vollin, Evolution, Ecology & Organismal Biology

Ryan Bruellman, Genetics, Genomics & Bioinformatics

Hector Gomez, Materials Science & Engineering

Katherine Muckle, Mathematics

Ruoyi Wang, Mathematics

Darshan Gadginmath, Mechanical Engineering

Boshen Qi, Mechanical Engineering

Basubi Binti Zhilik, Microbiology

David Nikom, Neuroscience

Thomas Shoff, Neuroscience

Wenjun Chang, Physics

Erik Loyd, Physics

Shixiong Wang, Physics

Stephanie Martinez, Plant Biology

Janty Woojuh Nart, Plant Biology

Adam Hobbs, Political Science

James LeBlanc, Psychology

Tania Rodriguez, Psychology

Kimberly Diaz, Religious Studies

Liseth Espindola, Spanish