Graduate fellowship awards to students working on climate are a part of the PCC’s identity.  The first fellowships were awarded in 2002 to incoming graduate students in the natural sciences.  Twenty years later, in 2022, a gift from William Calvin and Katherine Graubard brought new energy to the program with the establishment of the Graubard Fellowship.  We can now also support students working on climate-related problems in departments across campus who are in need of support to complete their PhDs. Here we celebrate the students who received PCC Graubard funding in the past academic year.

PCC Graubard Incentive Awards for Incoming Students who matriculated in September 2025

• Lydia McCamish (OCEAN), advised by Melinda Webster
• McKenna Dailey (SAFS), advised by Kristin Laidre
• Caleb Fried (ATMOS), advised by Kyle Armour, David Battisti, and Aaron Donohoe
• Sophia Ludtke (ESS), advised by Eric Steig and Gerard Roe

2026 PCC Graubard PhD Completion Award Recipients and their Projects

• Tamara Aranguiz-Rago (ESS) “The role of climate and erosion in shaping strike-slip fault landscapes: Insights from the extreme hyperarid Atacama Desert”
• Christina Bjarvin (SEFS) “Environmental impacts of mass timber waste treatment in the United States: A comparative assessment to alternate construction materials.”
• Cassia Cai (Ocean) “How does the South Pacific Double-ITCZ wind bias alter subtropical cell-mediated decadal variability?”
• Joyce Cai (Ocean) “Submesoscale Surface Fronts in the Central California Current System”
• Chin-Wei Chen (Urban Planning) “The value of resilience: flood risk, information disclosure, and housing markets in New York City”
• Becca Cleveland-Stout (ATMOS) “Theoretical and paleoclimate constraints on temperature variability across timescales”
• Winnie Fan (ESS) “The Earth’s volatile cycle via the lens of non-traditional stable isotopes”
• Ariel Jacobs (ATMOS) “Arctic cyclones under 21st century warming scenarios”
• Amy Liu (ATMOS) “Impacts of plant and land variability on evapotranspiration and temperatures”
• Alli Moon (ATMOS) “The impact of halogens on climate”
• Haila Schultz (Ocean) “How climate shapes zooplankton communities”
• James Stadler (Ocean) “Observations and theory of the spatial and temporal patterns of the modulation of surface waves by ocean currents”
• Madeleine Strait (Biology) “Impacts of climate change on subalpine plant-pollinator interactions”

In October 2026 there will be an RFP released for another round of PhD completion fellowships, intended to support students who have a need for funding to finish their PhDs by Summer 2027. Please join one of the PCC listserves to be notified directly.