Congratulations Class of 2026!

Yale Physics congratulates our graduating students in the class of 2026, including:

Ph.D.

December 2025

• Karan Bhatia (advisor Meng Cheng), “Bosonization and Fermionization of Categorical Symmetries”
• Rachel Cooper (advisors John Murray and Chris Lynn), “Individual-Level Large-Scale Circuit Modelling of Human Cortex”
• Andy Ding (advisor Michel Devoret), “Quantum control of an oscillator with a Kerr-cat qubit”
• Pavel Kurilovich (advisor Michel Devoret), “Unwanted transitions of a superconducting qubit induced by microwave drives”
• Joseph Lap (advisor Ian Moult), “Approaches to Strongly-Coupled Field Theory”
• Heraclitos Lefcochilos-Fogelquist (advisor John Murray), “Characterizing and modelling spectral state dynamics in human cortex”
• Matthew Mitchell (advisor David Poland), “Precision Bootstrap Studies of Fermions and Stress Tensors in Conformal Field Theories”
• Lianghui Peng (advisor John Murray), “Adaptation of learning dynamics and feature representations via the neural kernel”
• Ananya Rai (advisor Helen Caines), “Unveiling the Structure of the Perfect Superfluid using Correlation Functions”
• Youqi Song (advisor Helen Caines), “Probing the parton shower and hadronization through jet substructure measurements at STAR”
• Xinping Yang (advisor Meng Cheng), “ (1+1)d Topological phases enriched by fusion category symmetries”

May 2026

• Gabriel Theilacker Assumpção (advisor Nir Navon), “Thermodynamics and Dynamics of Quantum Fermi Gases in a Piston of Light”
• Sierra Cantway (advisor Helen Caines), “Probing jet hadrochemistry modification with measurements of identified particles in jets and the underlying event in pp and Pb–Pb collisions with ALICE”
• Mark Gonzalez (advisor Ian Moult), “Detectorology and its Phenomenological Applications”
• Chitres Guria (advisor Jack Harris), “Measuring the geometry and topology of non-Hermitian systems”
• Kirsty Scott (advisor Eduardo Higino da Silva Neto), “Insights into Unconventional Superconductivity: A Spectroscopic Investigation of Intertwined Electronic States”
• Derek Sherry (advisor Benjamin Machta), “Lattice Ultrasensitivity: a new model for signal amplification in E. coli chemotaxis”
• Benjamin Siegel (advisor David Moore), “Arrays of Optomechanically Levitated Microspheres”
• Andrew Tamis (advisor Helen Caines), “Measurement of Energy Correlators Within Jets at STAR”
• XJ Xu (advisor Min Wu), “Non-Equilibrium Pattern Formation in a Living Cell”

Undergraduates

Mathematics & Physics

• Asa Xiao (advisor Ian Moult), “Bootstrapping Collider Physics”

Physics

December 2025

• Emily Peng Physics and Applied Mathematics double major (advisor Meg Urry), “Preliminary Insights About Attrition in Physics Majors at Yale”
• Abi Tenenbaum Physics and Economics double major (advisor Christopher Lynn), “Broken Detailed Balance in a Social Network”

May 2026

• Alexander Adams Physics and History double major (advisor Marla Geha), “Mars Mission Abort Options”.
• Olivia Birney Physics and History double major (advisor Laura Havener), “Building a photon isolation environment to test High Rate Picosecond Photodetectors (HRPPDs) for the Electron-Proton/Ion Collider (ePIC) experiment”. 
• Simon Britton Chemistry (Intensive)and Physics double major (advisor Nir Navon), “Exactly Solvable Dephasing Models for a 1D Noninteracting Fermi Gas”.
• Maddi Brown Physics major (advisor Laura Havener)
• Maddie Butchko Physics  and East Asian Studies double major.
• Éle Donegan Physics major (advisor Madhusudhan Venkadesan), “Wave Propagation and Scaling in Granular Media: A Continued Exploration of Landmine Detection Techniques”
• Christine Dong Engineering Science-Mechanical and Physics double major (advisor Hong Tang), “Ultrasensitive 8 GHz Lithium Niobate Mass Sensor for Solid Neon Crystal Growth”.
• Aviral Jain Biomedical Engineering and Physics double major.
• Tavian Jones Applied Mathematics and Physics double major (advisor Michael Hatridge), “Embedded Amplifier Simulation and Chirped Frequency Optimization”. 
• John Kiely Physics major (advisor Ian Adelstein), “Diffusion-Based Higher-Order Optimal Transport for Geophysical Data”
• Anh-Thai Le Mathematics (Intensive) and Physics double major (advisor Richard Kenyon), “Induced Vertex Transformations for Spin-1/2 Vertex Models”. 
• Richard Lin Physics major (advisor Laura Havener), “Probing Color Reconnection and Underlying Event Dynamics using Energy Correlators”
• Alexander Mader Physics major (advisor Simon Mochrie)
• Kieran Malandain Physics major (advisor Lu Lu), “Adapting AI Foundation Models for Sub-seasonal Forecasting: Fine-Tuning Aurora for the Madden-Julian Oscillation”
• Gabriel Marous Physics major (advisor Fengnian Xia), “Topological Properties of Bilayer Graphene in Superlattice Potentials”
• Aiden Pulmano Chemical Engineering and Physics double major (advisor Yehia Khalil), “Comparing Once-Through and Recycling in the United States: Environmental and Economic Analysis of Nuclear Fuel Cycles”. 
• Cleber Redondo Physics major (advisor Laura Havener), “Construction of Neutron and Gamma Shielding for HRPPD Irradiation Tests”
• Kylyn Smith Physics major (advisor Malena Rice), “Comparative Analysis of Event-Based Camera Data for Improved Temporal Resolution”
• Maryanne Xu Physics major
• Langdan Zhu Physics major (advisor Helen Caines), “Light Yield Characterization of Scintillating Tiles Using SiPM Gain Calibration for the ePIC LFH Calorimeter”

Physics & Philosophy

• Sam Friedman Physics & Philosophy major (advisor Helen Caines), “Geiger Counters and the Particle Problem: Pragmatic Limits of QFT Ontology”
• Ingrid Rodríguez  Vila Physics & Philosophy major (advisor Reina Maruyama), “Electron Detection Algorithm for the RAY Experiment”
• Jaden Uram Physics & Philosophy major (advisor Jack Harris), “Fabricating a Glass Microbubble Whispering Gallery Mode Resonator”

Physics (Intensive)

• Mason Abrell Physics (Intensive) and Global Affairs double major (advisor Hong Tang), “Quantum Laser Across The Sound: Building Up A Lab”. 
• Matthew Balestier Physics (Intensive) major (advisor Yu He), “Studying the Dispersion Relation of Quantum Materials in a Confined Electric Field”
• Peter Bowman-Davis Physics (Intensive) major (advisor Jun Korenaga), “Symbolic Regression for Orientation-Dependent Eshelby Tensor in Transversely Isotropic Media”
• Cayden Cerveny Physics (Intensive) and Mechanical Engineering double major (advisor Bauyrzhan Primkulov), “Simulating Non-Reciprocal Interactions in Pilot Wave Hydrodynamics”. 
• Lilia Chatalbasheva Physics (Intensive) and Economics double major (advisor Laura Havener), “Thermal Model of the Underlying Event Background in Heavy-Ion Collisions for Jet Analyses”. 
• Tanish Chettiar Physics (Intensive) major
• Jeb Cui Computer Science and Physics (Intensive) double major (advisor Damon Clark), “Distribution of Dense Core Vesicles in Fruit Fly Neurons”. 
• Quinn Ennis Physics (Intensive) and Engineering  Science-Environmental double major (advisor Shu Hu), “Chiral Specific Chemical Interactions on Faceted Strontium Titanate”. 
• Edos Herwegh Vonk Physics (Intensive) and Philosophy double major (advisor David Moore), “Optimising Feedback Cooling on an Optically Trapped Nanoparticle”. 
• Morgan Holien Physics (Intensive) and Applied Mathematics double major (advisor Charles Bailyn), “Models of Anamalous Orbital Decay in Compact Black Hole X-ray Binaries”. 
• June Lee Mathematics and Physics (Intensive) double major (advisor Witold Skiba), “Half-Filled Landau Lowest Levels on the Fuzzy Sphere”. 
• Christian Kang Physics (Intensive) major (advisor Peter Rakich), “Non-classical phonon states in cavity optomechanical systems”
• Oliver Lin Physics (Intensive) major (advisor Lin Zhong), “Fusion Decoding Strategies for Bivariate Bicycle Codes”
• Nina Liu Physics (Intensive) and Computer Science double major (advisor Malena Rice), “Hot-Jupiter-Hosting Binary Systems are Preferentially Eccentric”. 
• Ethan Martinez Physics (Intensive) major (advisor Sarah Demers), “Reconstructing Tau Leptons in a 10 TeV Muon Collider”
• Nikita Mazotov Physics (Intensive) major (advisor Sarah Demers)
• Daniel Mladek Physics (Intensive) and Humanities double major (advisor Maureen Long), “Testing the Mantle Upwelling Hypothesis for the Northern Appalachian Anomaly via the Effects of Anisotropy on SKS Waveforms”. 
• Alexander Morand Physics (Intensive) and Mechanical Engineering double major.(advisor Corey O’Hern).
• Andrew Nupp Physics (Intensive) and Mathematics double major (advisor Diana Qiu), “Benchmarking VAE–Based Corrections to DFT Band Structures”. 
• George Ploumis Mechanical Engineering and Physics (Intensive) double major (advisor Sarah Demers), “Exploring a lower muon threshold for Higgs→ττ triggers in a search for Charge-Parity Violation”. 
• Pranet Sharma Physics (Intensive) and Economics double major (advisor Nir Navon), “Progress Towards an Optical Tweezer Array of Sr Atoms”. 
• Noah Silverberg Physcis (Intensive) and Mathematics (Intensive) double major (advisor Emily Draeger), “Monte Carlo Validation of a GammaMed Plus Ir-192 Source and Leipzig Applicator Toward Flattening-Filter Design for Surface HDR Brachytherapy”. 
• Rohan Wassink Physics (Intensive) and Mathematics (Intensive) double major (advisor David Poland), “Rational Interpolation for 2D Virasoro Blocks”. 
• Nicolas Wyszkowski Physics (Intensive) and Mathematics double major (advisor Hui Cao), “Emission and Dynamics in Systems with Nonlinear Exceptional Point Degeneracies”. 
• Iffat Zarif Physics (Intensive) major (advisor Sarah Demers), “Development of a Photon Filter for the Mu2e Experiment”
• Zachary Zitzewitz Physics (Intensive) and Mathematics double major (advisor Logan Wright), “Towards Hyperscale Computing with Optical Neural Interconnects”.