6th year grad, UC Merced

Micah Oeur

Hi! I am Micah Oeur from sunny Long Beach, CA. I got my B.S. in physics from Cal State, Long Beach in Spring 2020. Attracted by the opportunity to help shape astrophysics at UC Merced and grow as a researcher alongside my advisor, Prof. Sarah R. Loebman, I began my Ph.D. at UC Merced in Fall 2020. Here, my research focuses on constraining the local dark matter distribution by testing a novel dynamical inference technique in Milky Way-mass simulations.  I am co-advised by Adrian Price-Whelan (Center for Computational Astrophysics) and Sarah at University of California, Merced.

5th year grad, UC Merced

Jamie Quinn

My name is Jamie Quinn, and I’m a 5th year graduate student in Sarah’s group at UC Merced. Most of my work has been focused on characterizing the properties, dynamics, and time-evolution of galactic spiral structure in FIRE-2 simulations. I am more recently working on integrating orbits of star clusters in FIRE-2 simulations to explore how well we can reconstruct these orbits and under what conditions. I am co-advised by Kathryne Daniel (University of Arizona) and Sarah at University of California, Merced.

4th year grad, UC Merced

Joey Contreras

Hi my name is Joey Contreras and I’m a 4th year graduate student working with Loebman Lab at UC Merced. I received my masters degree in Physics from Fresno State (2022) and my bachelors degree in Physics from UC Santa Barbara (2019). I currently do work with GMCs (Giant Molecular Clouds) and am interested in their lifetimes. To this end I use data from the FIRE simulations and identify/track GMCs and make estimates of their lifetimes as well as investigate what are the main factors behind them.

1st year grad, UC Merced

Towy Zheng

Hi! My name is Toe Oo Wai Yan Zheng, but you can call me Towy Zheng. I was born and raised in Yangon, Myanmar. I completed my associate's degree in liberal arts at a local private college in Spring 2019. Then, I transferred to Sacramento State University in Fall 2021 and received my B.S. in Physics in 2025. I am currently a first-year PhD student at UC Merced, and I am focusing on analyzing gas in FIRE MW-mass simulations by plotting LV plots and comparing them with existing analytical plots of spurs and spiral arms.

1st year grad, U of Arizona

Rafael Bertolotto

My name is Rafael Bertolotto, I was born in France and lived half of my life in a small country of South America called Uruguay where I did my undergrad and master studies in Astrophysics. I am now a first year PhD student at the Astronomy department of the University of Arizona where I study how groups of stars form and evolve within our galaxy. I am co-advised by Kathryne Daniel (University of Arizona) and Sarah at University of California, Merced.

1st year grad, TCU

Macy Dinh

My name is Macy Dinh and I’m born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas where I’m pursuing my Ph.D. in Physics & Astronomy at Texas Christian University. I received my B.S. in Physics from the University of North Texas in 2025, and I study the evolution of long lived open star clusters in Milky Way like galaxies. I am co-advised by Peter Frinchaboy (Texas Christian University) and Sarah at University of California, Merced.

senior undergrad, UC Merced

David Rios

My name is David Rios, I am from SoCal and transferred from Fullerton College to UC Merced where I will earn my Bachelor's in Physics in May 2026. At UC Merced, I have been working on modeling the light curve of the type II supernova, SN 2025tis, using shock-cooling models.  I am co-advised by K. Azalee Bostroem (University of Arizona) and Sarah at University of California, Merced.