Page 10 - June 2026 Insider

INSIDER • June 2026

ARCS Scholars & Scholar Alumni Page 10
Making Headlines

Hannah Battey (2025-2026 ARCS Scholar in the Joint
Doctoral Program UCSD and SDSU) has been named a Merkin
Graduate Fellow, a distinction that supports international research
experiences. Through the fellowship, she spent three months in Sri
Lanka helping establish clinical recruitment sites and train teams for
her research on bacterial pneumonia, conducted in collaboration with
the La Jolla Institute for Immunology. Hannah’s work integrates her
background in biology with epidemiology, combining laboratory
science, global patient recruitment, and data analysis to better
understand disease targets. The experience strengthened her global
research perspective and reinforced her commitment to a future in
infectious disease research, including diagnostics, antimicrobial
resistance, and vaccine development. Read the full story here:
https://publichealth.sdsu.edu/news/2026/jpd-scholar-hannah-battey-
named-merkin-graduate-fellow

Scholar Alumni – Where Are They Now?

Keith W. Sockman, PhD (1996, SDSU) is an Associate Professor in
the Department of Biology and Curriculum in Neurobiology at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned an MA in Biology
at SDSU in 1996 and went on to complete a PhD in Zoology at
Washington State University in 2000. He did his post-doctoral work at
The Johns Hopkins University from 2001-2004.
Throughout his career, Dr. Sockman has maintained an interest in the
interface between ecology, behavior, and physiology and has used birds
as a study system for his research. Recently, he has focused these interests on neurobiology and
how, mechanistically, the brain integrates ecological and social information during
reproductive decision-making. He is also interested in how the effects of latitude on daylight
availability may have influenced the evolution of avian migration and photoperiodism.

Stefanie Nuñez, MD (1995-1996, UCSD) is board-certified in
pulmonary diseases, critical care medicine and sleep medicine. She
enjoys all aspects of pulmonary medicine and sleep disorders, and is
currently the medical director of Valley Medical Center Respiratory
Therapy and Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Renton, Washington.
Dr. Nuñez was raised in Reno, Nevada and completed her undergraduate
studies in biological sciences at Stanford University. She received her
medical degree at UCSD in 1996 and completed her
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