Current PACE Leadership Team!


Jack Lubin

Leader Bio:At UC Irvine, I am a PhD candidate where I study exoplanets primarily through the Radial Velocity detection method. In particular, I am fascinated by the problem of stellar activity induced signals, which can mask true planetary signals causing false negatives, or worse masquerade as planetary signals causing false positives. I work on the problem of stellar activity from an analysis technique approach, building new software to help us disentangle the signals in our data sets. I love being a part of PACE because I remember being a new student (I was in the first PACE cohort!) and seeing the real impact of how the program helped me through my first year and set up for success throughout my grad career. When outside the office, I enjoy hitting golf balls on the driving range and reading (and trying to write!) sci-fi short stories.

Stephanie Urbano Stawinski

Leader Bio:leader chair 2 bio

Tyler Smith

Leader Bio:Tyler is a 3rd year PhD student working on theoretical astroparticle physics. He works on black hole formation/merger rates and extensions of the standard model of particle physics and the phenomenological implications they may have. Outside of research he loves to lift weights and spend time with his daughters either outside or watching anime.

Ryan Rice-Smith

Leader Bio:Ryan Rice-Smith is a 3rd year graduate student studying cosmic ray background for the existing Antarctic neutrino detector ARIANNA, as well as future detectors such as GRAMMAR and IceCube-Gen2. In his free time runs DnD games and hosts the KUCI radio show Elemental Exposure.

Prof. Franklin Dollar

Faculty Advisor

Prof. Steph Sallum

Faculty Advisor

Francisco Mercado

Emeritus Leadership Chair

Devontae Baxter

Emeritus Leadership Chair

Katy Rodriguez-Wimberly

Emeritus Leadership Chair and PACE program founder

Arianna Long

Emeritus Leadership Chair and PACE program founder