Zoya Gubernskaya, ’13 sociology Ph.D., is the recipient of the Outstanding Scholarship award. The honor recognizes her as the top graduate student for intellectual achievement in social sciences.

Gubernskaya’s research focuses on the relationship between naturalization and health among older immigrants in the U.S., offering insight on the links between immigrant incorporation and health in later life. Her co-authored findings have been published in the American Behavioral Scientist, Journal of Marriage and Family, and Sociological Perspectives and in a book chapter in The Diversity Paradox: Immigration and the Color Line in the Twenty-First Century America, by UCI sociologists Frank D. Bean and Jennifer Lee.  A master’s graduate from the school’s Demographic and Social Analysis program, Gubernskaya has won numerous awards for her work including the Population Association of America’s Blue Ribbon Poster award and a UC Irvine Public Impact Fellowship, both in 2012.

In the fall, she will be teaching and conducting research as an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Albany.