HSGG alumni go on to careers across academia, government, industry, and nonprofit research, advancing the science and practice of water long after they leave Davis. Below are a few of our graduates now leading research and applied water programs of their own, followed by the full directory of HSGG graduates by year.
Notable Alumni in Academia
John Albertson — PhD 1996. Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University (previously chaired the department at Duke University).
Gary Weissmann — PhD 1999. Albert and Mary Jane Black Professor of Hydrology, University of New Mexico.
Alex Chow — PhD 2000. Professor, Clemson University.
Mark Rains — PhD 2002. Professor, University of South Florida; former Chief Science Officer, State of Florida.
Jose Constantine — MS 2002. Professor, Geosciences, Williams College.
Jozsef Szilagyi — PhD 1997. Professor, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Joseph Wheaton — MS 2003. Professor, Watershed Sciences, Utah State University.
Jan Fleckenstein — PhD 2004. Professor of Hydrological Modeling, University of Bayreuth; Head of Hydrogeology, UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research.
Gerrit Schoups — PhD 2004. Professor, Water Resources Management, Delft University of Technology.
Andrew Stubblefield — PhD 2002. Professor of Hydrology and Watershed Management, Cal Poly Humboldt.
Darren Ficklin — PhD 2010. Associate Professor, Geography, Indiana University.
Nicholas Engdahl — PhD 2012. Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Washington State University.
Katherine Markovich — PhD 2018. Assistant Professor, Earth & Planetary Sciences, The University of New Mexico.
Belize Lane — PhD 2017. Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Utah State University.
Notable Alumni in Industry & Practice
David Purkey — PhD 1999. Stockholm Environment Institute; led SEI's Water Group and was founding director of SEI's Latin America Center; a lead developer of the WEAP water planning model used worldwide.
Steven Carle — PhD 1996. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; developed T-PROGS, a widely used geostatistical software for aquifer heterogeneity.
Eric LaBolle — PhD 1999. Researcher and lecturer, UC Davis, vadose zone and contaminant transport modeling.
Richard Niswonger — PhD 2006. Research Hydrologist, USGS; principal developer of MODFLOW-NWT, MODFLOW 6, and GSFLOW.
Bryant Jurgens — MS 2007. Research Hydrologist, USGS; groundwater age-dating methods.
Chris Hammersmark — PhD 2008. cbec eco engineering; river and floodplain restoration engineer.
Sarah Yarnell — PhD 2005. UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences; leading researcher on California environmental flows.
Alison Whipple — PhD 2018. Program Science Director, San Francisco Estuary Institute.
Jose Pablo Ortiz-Partida — PhD 2018. Director of Innovation and Collaboration, Union of Concerned Scientists.
Nicholas Murphy — PhD 2022. Scientist, The Nature Conservancy.
Christopher Dory — MS 2024. Larry Walker & Associates
Karina Redding — MS 2024. Intera Inc.
Yara Pasner — PhD 2025. Intera Inc.
Full Alumni Directory
Graduates are listed by year, most recent first.
2026: Charlie Chen (PhD); Leland Scantlebury (PhD), Zhendan Cao (PhD), Nuo Xu (PhD).
2025: Brian Magee (MS); Jelena Jezdimirovic (PhD); Marriah Abellera (PhD); Ramon Saiz Rodriguez (PhD); Yara Pasner (PhD).
2024: Alisha Rodriguez (PhD); Andrew Calderwood (PhD); Chris Dory (MS); Daniel Kozar (PhD); Karina Redding (MS); Kirsten Ondris (MS); Logan Ebert (PhD); Mashrekur Rahman (PhD); Maurice Ledoyen (MS); Samira Ismaili (PhD); Spencer Jordan (MS); William Speiser (PhD).
2023: David Rosas (MS); Grace Gomez Quiroga (MS); Nusrat Molla (PhD); Rachel Wright (MS); Usama Al Dughaishi (PhD); William Lennon (MS); William Rice (MS).
2022: Amanda Gateley (MS); Claire Kouba (PhD); Hanni Haynes (MS); Helaine Berris (MS); Jason Wiener (PhD); Kate Hewett (PhD); Laura Garza Diaz (PhD); Marina Mautner (PhD); Nicholas Murphy (PhD); Noelle Patterson (PhD); Xavier Nogueira (MS).
2021: Andy Wong (PhD); Arielle Gervasi (MS); Karen Atkins (PhD); Michael Koohafkan (PhD); Rachel Kennard (MS); Samuel Winter (MS); Tingyu Li (PhD).
2020: Alyssa DeVincentis (PhD); Daniel Eckes (MS); Darcy Bostic (MS); Kenneth Larrieu (MS); Rashid Reza Owlia (MS); Richard Pauloo (PhD).
2019: Douglas Tolley (PhD); Giovanni Castaldo (MS); Patrick Wickham (MS); Peter Moniz (MS); Stephen Maples (PhD); Yuiko Chino (MS).
2018: Alison Whipple (PhD); Alysa Yoder (MS); Huajin Chen (PhD); Jose Pablo Ortiz Partida (PhD); Katherine Markovich (PhD); Mahesh Maskey (PhD); Maria Castrellon Romero (MS); Prudentia Zikalala (PhD).
2017: Angela Kwon (MS); Anne Senter (PhD); Belize Lane (PhD); Emily Edwards (MS); Katherine Ransom (PhD); Luke Tillmann (MS); Tara Seely (MS).
2016: Carlos Flores Arenas (PhD); Douglas George (PhD); Jacob Hileman (PhD); Jenna Rodriguez (PhD); Matthew Weber (MS); Nannan Xu (MS); Pablo Silva Jordan (MS); Robert Eckard (PhD); Sooyeon Yi (MS); Tiffany Kocis (MS).
2015: Bror Nylen (MS); Jenny Ta (MS); Jiro Ariyama (MS); Jose Rodriguez Arellano (MS); Maziar Mollaei Kandelous (PhD); Michael Strom (MS); Peter Dennehy (MS); Thomas Mathis (MS).
2014: Andrew Gray (PhD); Armen Malazian (MS); Catherine Fong (MS); Emily Hathaway (MS); Leah Kammel (MS); Nicholas Newcomb (MS); Olin Applegate (MS); Pavandeep Dhaliwal (MS); Robert Gonzalez (MS); Robyn Suddeth (PhD); Rocko Brown (PhD); Sandrine Matiasek (PhD); Yunjie Liu (MS).
2013: Charles Paradis (MS); Christina Buck (PhD); Dylan Boyle (MS); Jason Emmons (MS); Matthew Vaughan (MS); Michelle Lent (MS); Tamir Kamai (PhD).
2012: Jeannette Sager (MS); Jesse Barker (MS); Nicholas Engdahl (PhD); Sailin Xia (MS); Siqi Fan (MS); Yumiko Henneberry (PhD).
2011: Aaron King (MS); Bridget Tracy (MS); Gerhard Epke (MS); Katharine North (MS); Minta Schaefer (MS); Reid Bryson (MS).
2010: Casey Meirovitz (MS); Darren Ficklin (PhD); Laura Roll (MS); Sarah Gatzke (MS).
2009: Angela Carmi (MS); Ellen Pyatt (MS); Erin Rice (MS); Timothy Andrews (MS).
2008: Aaron Fulton (MS); Chris Hammersmark (PhD); Jason White (MS); Jill Chomycia (MS); Maria Escobar Arias (PhD).
2007: Arek Fristensky (MS); Bryant Jurgens (MS); James Trask (PhD).
2006: Barbara Dalgish (MS); Eric Booth (MS); Erika Gallo (MS); Leanne Tumlinson (MS); Mathias Perle (MS); Richard Niswonger (PhD); Solomon Henson (MS); Yen-Ben Cheng (PhD).
2005: Brett Valle (PhD); Brian Joyce (PhD); Eve Elkins (MS); Hiroaki Okada (PhD); Hua Zhang (MS); Jessica Dyke (MS); Michael Taffet (PhD); Sarah Yarnell (PhD); Yuksel Onsoy (PhD).
2004: Dylan Ahearn (PhD); Gerrit Schoups (PhD); Isaac Wood (MS); James Goodman (PhD); Jan Fleckenstein (PhD); Ji-Hun Ryu (PhD); Kathryn Roscoe (MS); Linda Woolfenden (PhD); Michelle Denton (MS); Si-Yong Lee (PhD); Theodore Swift (PhD).
2003: Dustin Bambic (MS); Jamil Ibrahim (MS); Joseph Wheaton (MS); Sharon Ruth (MS); Steven Winter (MS).
2002: Andrew Stubblefield (PhD); Chien Wang (MS); Christian Carleton (MS); Christopher Green (PhD); Elizabeth Elliott (MS); Jose Constantine (MS); Kevin Ellett (MS); Marie Liu (MS); Mark Rains (PhD); Rodolphe Akoutey (MS); Xuefeng Chu (PhD).
2001: Alec Naugle (MS); Andrew Altevogt (PhD); Deborah Tipton (MS); Debra Denton (PhD); Johanna Kollar (MS); Karin Tekel (MS); Mary Elizabeth (MS); Till Angermann (MS).
2000: Alex Chow (PhD); Allison Dvorak (MS); Dursun Buyuktas (PhD); Richard Soppe (PhD).
1999: David Purkey (PhD); Eric LaBolle (PhD); Gary Weissmann (PhD); JoAnn Holloway (PhD); Michael Tansey (PhD); Rene Lobato (PhD); Rich Juricich (MS); Yasar Tekeli (MS).
1998: Bryan Largay (MS); Fergus Morrissey (MS); Hussein Alsinan (MS); Michael Mata (MS); Nelson Obregon-Neira (PhD); Qingfu Xiao (PhD); Sean Eagan (MS); Susan Mahoney (MS); Volker Clausnitzer (PhD).
1997: Flavio Bonilla (MS); Jiayu Chen (PhD); Jozsef Szilagyi (PhD); Marie Graham (MS); Mark Battany (MS); Martha Diaz Barrios (MS); Oscar Robayo (MS); Tracy Tennant (MS); Walter Frueh (MS); Yassar El-Farhan (PhD).
1996: Ann Fridlind (MS); Brad Moore (MS); John Albertson (PhD); Miguel Vargas-Ramirez (MS); Steven Carle (PhD).
1995: James Nichols (MS); Maria Kelly (MS); Natalie Crespi (MS); Teresa Ortenburger (MS); William Eichinger (PhD).
1994: Anne Benjamin (MS); Jorge Gonzalez-Meraz (MS); Molly Katherine McBeath (MS); Noah Najarian (MS).
1993: Miguel Mejia (MS).