Five graduate student alumni return for awards

Physical and Biological Sciences News

Whether it’s entrepreneurship or academia, corporate work or a nonprofit mission, there are as many different tracks for graduate students as there are alumni. And this month, graduates from the five UC Santa Cruz academic divisions who have gone out into the world with their advanced degrees will return to campus to be honored during Alumni Weekend.The five honorees will be presented with the first Distinguished Graduate Student Alumni Awards at an April 29 luncheon. Following that, they’ll be part of panel discussions where they’ll share their stories on career and entrepreneurship opportunities, resources for graduate students, the development of leadership skills, and life after graduate school. That will be followed by networking and, weather permitting, star gazing.
A full schedule is available on the Alumni Weekend website.  
“The career landscape for UC Santa Cruz graduate students is one with many attractive opportunities that impact different sectors of society, as these distinguished alumni show us,” said Sonya Newlyn, administrative assistant for the Division of Graduate Studies. “Their stories are nothing less than inspiring.”
The five graduate alumni honorees and the academic divisions they represent include the following:
Claudio Campagna, Physical and Biological Sciences Division
Campagna is a conservation biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society and adjunct professor and research associate in the campus’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. In addition to earning his Ph.D. in biology from UCSC in 1987, he studied medicine at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“His distinguished career extends far beyond his important research on marine ecology and marine mammal biology,” said Paul Koch, dean of the division of Physical and Biological Sciences. “He’s had a real impact in conservation and marine protection—recognized by his Pew Fellowship and other awards—and in communication, public outreach, and advocacy.”
Campagna is a field conservationist and animal behaviorist working in coastal ...

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