Meet the 2024 Wrigley Institute Graduate Fellows
The USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies announces the selection of its 2024 cohort of Wrigley Institute Graduate Fellows. This year’s Fellows are Ph.D. students from disciplines across the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts & Sciences. All are tackling questions of the environment and sustainability, whether through traditionally associated fields such as Earth sciences and chemistry or less common fields such as literature and anthropology.
Throughout the spring semester, Fellows will participate in leadership and networking activities designed to help them learn more about professional development topics such as inclusive mentoring, diverse career paths, and communicating their research to the public. Each Fellow will then receive a stipend to help support the continuation of their Ph.D. research through the summer. Fellows will complete their field experiences on USC’s main Los Angeles campus, at the Wrigley Marine Science Center on Catalina Island, and around the world.
Learn more about the Wrigley Institute Graduate Fellowship >>
Meet the 2024 Fellows
Zak Breckenridge
Wrigley Institute Fellow
English
Advisor: Devin Griffiths
Project: Pedagogies of Wonder: Ecology, Aesthetics, and Modern Conservation
Yan Yin “Jenny” Cheung
Wrigley Institute Fellow
Marine and Environmental Biology
Advisor: Laura Melissa Guzman
Project: Connecting ecological theory to observational biodiversity data: How does ecosystem stability change across space and time?
Maggie Davis
Wrigley Institute Fellow
Sociology
Advisor: Andrew Lakoff
Project: Tracing Contours of Risk: Environment and Economy in Appalachia’s Natural Gas Extraction Landscape
Jacob Denova
Wrigley Institute Fellow
Marine and Environmental Biology
Advisor: Suzanne Edmands
Project: Does exposure to sublethal heat and salinity stress increase thermal tolerance in a dynamic environment?
Daria Di Blasi
Wrigley Institute Fellow
Marine and Environmental Biology
Advisor: Jed Fuhrman
Project: Exploring the Marine RNA Virosphere and its Potential Role in Carbon Flux
Aidan Diamond
Wrigley Institute Fellow
Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture
Advisor: Natania Meeker
Project: “For a Better Future”: Narrative and Hope at the End of the World
Maya Gomez
Wrigley Institute Fellow
Marine and Environmental Biology
Advisor: Carly Kenkel
Project: Disentangling determinants of growth, calcification and branching in a stony coral
Jaden Morales
Wrigley Institute Fellow
American Studies and Ethnicity
Advisor: Juan De Lara
Project: Techno-Ecologies of Debt, Disaster, and Dispossession in Puerto Rico
Clarissa Olivar
Wrigley Institute Fellow
Chemistry
Advisor: Travis J. Williams
Project: Converting Wind Turbine Waste into Pharmaceutically Relevant Molecules
Juliann Panehal
Wrigley Institute Fellow
Earth Sciences
Advisors: Jan Amend, Roman Barco
Project: Oil Spill Impacts on Marine Microbial Ecosystems in Southern California
Juliana Pinillos
Wrigley Institute Fellow
Economics
Advisor: Paulina Oliva
Project: The Impact of Slum Upgrading on Natural Disasters’ Vulnerability
Amber Santoro
Wrigley Institute Fellow
History
Advisor: Bill Deverell
Project: Environmental Racism, Displacement and Transportation in L.A.
Maxwell Shiller
Wrigley Institute Fellow
Classics
Advisor: Christelle Fischer-Bovet
Project: The Rhodian Epicenter: Tracing Relationships between the Rhodian Earthquake (c. 227 BCE) and Hellenistic History
Rachel So
Wrigley Institute Fellow
Earth Sciences
Advisor: Sarah Feakins
Project: Temperature and hydroclimate change in Utah over glacial cycles of the last 200,000 years
Yeshvi Tomar
Wrigley Institute Fellow
Chemistry
Advisor: Surya Prakash
Project: Improving upon iron electrodes for rechargeable alkaline batteries
Guanyizhuo Yao
Wrigley Institute Fellow
Anthropology
Advisor: Nancy Lutkehaus
Project: Tar Pits and Time: Unveiling Los Angeles from the Depths of the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene
Wrigley Institute Graduate Fellows are generously funded through the USC Dornsife Wrigley Institute Graduate Fellowship, the Victoria J. Bertics Graduate Fellowship Fund, and the Diane Sonosky Montgomery and Jerol Sonosky Graduate Fellowship for Environmental Sustainability Research.