UC Merced Magazine | Volume XIX, Issue VII

Toshiyuki Bandai (Ph.D. ’22) did pioneering work on physics-informed neural networks in Professor Teamrat Ghezzehei’s lab and wrote several important papers while a postdoc at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has returned to Japan to work for the Japanese version of Bell Labs, develop novel tools for forecasting extreme weather. Saima Sumaiya (Ph.D. ’22) was a mechanical engineering graduate student in Professor Mehmet Baykara’s lab and now works at Bruker, a manufacturer of scientific instruments for molecular and materials research and industrial and applied analysis. She also joined the Mechanical Engineering External Advisory Board, remaining an engaged Bobcat. Jocelyn Rojas (B.S. ’23), who assisted Professor Emily Moran with In Memoriam Professor Emeritus Ariel Escobar, 1962-2024 Professor Ariel Escobar and his lab group developed new optical, micro-mechanical and electrophysiological techniques for studying key aspects of striated muscle physiology. Escobar used these tools to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in the development of cardiac arrhythmias. He joined the campus in 2008 and served as the department chair of bioengineering. He was also a member of the National Research Council of Venezuela.

Melissa Rivas Hernandez (B.S. ’24), who conducted fieldwork with Professor Emily Moran as an environmental systems science major, is now in the master’s program in Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara. Carlos Diaz Alvarenga (Ph.D. ’24), a researcher in Professor Stefano Carpin’s robotics lab, married Rocio Medrano Calderon (B.S. ’17) and landed a faculty position in Cal Poly’s computer engineering department.

fieldwork as an environmental systems science major, is a Ph.D. student in Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz. Yumary Vasquez (Ph.D. ’23), a graduate student in Professor Tanja Woyke’s lab, is a postdoctoral scholar at the Joint Genome Institute at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She is a computational biologist specializing in microbial genomics. Touyee ao (Ph.D. ’23) was a graduate student under Professor Teamrat Ghezzehei. He has been with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Parlier, doing locally relevant agriculture and soil science research. DiemQuynh Nguyen (B.S. ’24), an undergraduate researcher in Professor Gordon Bennett’s lab, is a Ph.D. student at Rutgers University studying the gut biome of honeypot ants. Escobar was born in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina, on March 25, 1962. A er serving in the Army, he studied electronic engineering at Universidad Tecnológica Nacional in Buenos Aires. A workshop on ionic channels inspired him to dedicate himself to electrophysiology. Escobar obtained a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from the University of the Republic in 1993 and then was a postdoctoral scholar at UCLA. He later moved to Venezuela, where he joined the faculty of the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas. In 2000, Escobar moved his laboratory to Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in

Lubbock. He worked there until he moved to UC Merced. Friends described Escobar as an avid scientist with a special talent for solving intricate technical problems that involved understanding calcium dynamics in muscle. Escobar is survived by his wife, Tania, and many friends who consider themselves part of his family.

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