Fiona M. Doyle
Fiona M. Doyle

Opportunities for graduate students to present their work-in-progress and to compete for awards abound at Berkeley. Often these occur within fields or disciplinary clusters. I find it especially exciting when chances to shine are open to all graduate students from all sectors of our campus — and even more so, when Berkeley students vie for the spotlight with peers from the nine other UC campuses.

Such is the first-ever “UC Grad Slam” competition, to be held in Oakland on May 4. This is a professional development opportunity for graduate students to hone their research presentation skills, with the goal of making the significance of their academic work better understood and appreciated by the public. Competing students deliver three-minute presentations on their doctoral or master’s research projects to intelligent but non-specialist audiences. The May 4 event is expected to include state-wide media, political leaders, investors and donors, and high-level UC officials.

I encourage all students to consider entering our campus competition by the deadline of Tuesday, March 24. Three semi-finalists (selected by Graduate Assembly judges) will each receive a $1,000 prize. One finalist (selected by a panel appointed by the Graduate Division) will receive an additional $2,000 award and will enter the UC system-wide contest. A panel of UC judges will select three winners from among the 10 campus finalists. The top winner will be awarded $6,000, and the first and second runner-ups will receive $3,000 and $1,000, respectively.

Please see the announcement in this month’s GradNews for more details here.

Fiat Lux!

 

Fiona M. Doyle
Dean of the Graduate Division
Donald H. McLaughlin Professor of Mineral Engineering