Alumni Spotlight

Building a well in Africa propels alumnus’ path of kindness and generosity

Chidubem Nnaji’s undergraduate project to install a solar-powered well in his village in Nigeria was just the beginning of his life’s calling to serve the public. The 2022 civil and environmental engineering grad is now at UC Berkeley earning his master’s degree in engineering and project management.

Jack Yao '96: From Robotics Gameshow Contestant to CEO

In 1995, Jack Yao ’96 was part of a team of UC Davis students that competed in Robocon — short for robot contest — in Osaka, Japan. The competition, which was nationally televised in Japan, challenged teams to design and build rugby-playing robots to autonomously navigate an obstacle course, place a rugby ball on a tee and kick the ball between goal posts.

Alumni Robert and Carolyn Caligiuri Establish Professor Amiya Mukherjee Memorial Fellowship in Materials Science

Alumni Robert ’73 and Carolyn Caligiuri ’74 have given a $1.27 million endowment to the University of California, Davis, Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UC Davis to establish the Amiya Mukherjee Memorial Fellowship in honor of Robert Caligiuri’s first mentor. The gift will support competitive doctoral students and boost the department's stature.

Eye on the Sky: Sarahi Granados '21

The path from passionate second-grader to James Webb Telescope engineer wasn’t an easy one for Sarahi Granados '21, especially as a first-generation Latina woman in engineering, but she’s incredibly grateful for the education, resources and connections at UC Davis that helped her get there.

Alumni Spotlight: Mingwei Zhang, Ph.D. '21

Mingwei Zhang, Ph.D. '21, now a postdoctoral scholar at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, used his time at UC Davis to grow his research career and plans to pay forward the generosity and mentorship he received from the materials science and engineering department. 

Making my mark as a first-generation Latina in a STEM world

Choosing to pursue electrical engineering was one of the best decisions Vanessa Liera '22 ever made because even though it brought big challenges, it brought her to amazing people, new experiences and a better future. In this blog, she explains, "I stopped letting fear get in the way of me chasing my dreams, and my life has turned out better than I could’ve imagined."

Alumni Spotlight: Linda Finley '81

Linda Finley ’81, mechanical engineering, has paved the way for countless women in engineering. When Linda came to UC Davis in 1979 to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering, she quickly joined the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). At the time, SWE was struggling. It was important to Linda that the student chapter thrive, and she served as president for two years. Some of the events established under her leadership, including the popular “Night with Industry,” still happen today.

Alumni Spotlight: Christopher Pribilo

Christopher Pribilo ’20, aerospace engineering, knew he wanted to study aviation from a young age. His grandfather was a pilot, and Chris was always fascinated by the controls and buttons in his small Cessna plane. Following an internship at United Airlines, Chris got a job at Boeing, where he currently works as a multi-discipline engineer doing stress analysis and service engineering for the 737 Max.