Blog

Collage of various faculty mentors over the years

June 1, 2012

The key to totally surprising a mentor: no leaks

So far, nobody’s let the cat out of the bag, so the surprise has been total in every case. Despite Berkeley’s long tradition of protest and California’s reputation for spontaneity, faculty members here simply don’t expect to be interrupted by outsiders while they’re teaching a class.  When it dawns on them that the invasion brings unexpected but happy news for them personally, decorum goes out the window.

June 1, 2012

Conference opportunity: ADDF offers ten 2012 Young Investigator Scholarships

This September, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation will present its 13th international conference, which is expected to attract 150 academic and industry scientists from around the world who seek to accelerated the development of innovative treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. ADDF’s funded investigators and top level scientists in…
UCLA Library

June 1, 2012

Postdoc opportunity: UCLA Library eScience

With funding from the Council on Library Resources/Digital Library Federation, the UCLA Library has created a new postdoctoral fellow position in data curation. Geared for a recent Ph.D., the new position will be part of the UCLA Library’s eScience team, which is lead by the Associate University Librarian for Sciences…
Ricardo Cortez

June 1, 2012

Grad alum Ricardo Cortez, now at Tulane, wins the prestigious Blackwell-Tapia Prize

Ricardo Cortez (photo: Paula Burch-Celentano) Tulane University math professor Ricardo Cortez, who is internationally regarded as a leading researcher in fluid dynamics and mathematical modeling, has been chosen as the 2012 recipient of the Blackwell-Tapia Prize, which will be presented in November. In 2010, Cortez received the Distinguished…

June 1, 2012

M.F.A. Graduate Bridges Place and Art

The new Bay Bridge is still more than a year away from opening, but it’s already inspiring the art of Amanda Hughen, M.F.A. ’03. Hughen and her frequent collaborator, Jennifer Starkweather, created a series of abstract prints, paintings, and drawings that reflect the past and future of the…

May 29, 2012

Battelle/NOGLSTP Out to Innovate Scholarships

Applications are being accepted through June 2, 2012, for the 2012 Battelle/NOGLSTP Out To Innovate Scholarships. The scholarships, funded at a minimum of $5,000 each, will be awarded for the fall, 2012 academic year.  Students currently enrolled at any U.S.-based college or university are eligible to apply.  The program is young; this…

May 18, 2012

Help determine the Library’s future (by May 31)

Graduate students are important users of the University Library, and University Librarian Tom Leonard wants your input on which ways the Library will change in the next few years. He says “I ask that you take the time to answer a survey that will take 10 to 15 minutes to…
Andrew Szeri

April 24, 2012

Mentoring comes of age at Berkeley

Not all aspects of a dean’s job bring smiles; it’s hardly possible to please everyone all the time.  That said, there are events during the year that irresistibly bring a smile to my face, and make a lot of people very happy indeed. The most highly anticipated of such events…
Acopio winners with contest sponsors

April 24, 2012

Grad-student-led project gets a first prize in the Big Ideas @ Berkeley contest

Acopio, a social venture that translates from the Spanish as "harvest," picked up the $10,000 first-place prize in the Big Ideas scaling-up category, which helps previous contest winners advance existing projects. The information technology-based, development venture aims to improve the circumstances of rural, small-hold coffee farmers and cooperatives in Latin America.
Video Contest Winners

April 13, 2012

Meet the Winners of the 2012 Distinguished Fellows Video Contest

Meet the winners of the 2012 Distinguished Fellows Video Contest: First Place: Jeremy Chase Crawford. Second Place: Arturo Cortez. Third Place: Kristina Kangas. Winners received conference travel awards in the amounts of $1,000, $500, and $250, respectively.
pelican rescue

April 13, 2012

There’s a WHAT on the lawn?

An unexpected visitor used the grass outside of Sproul Hall as a landing field one day in early April.  Safely on the ground, the flyer, a full-grown pelican of indeterminate age, ignored the humans streaming by, who were heading off to home and dinner. The main rush was over, and most didn't notice the grey ball of feathers, hunkered down and unmoving, as they hurried along.
Fulbright

April 6, 2012

Fulbright International Education Administrators Program

Through its short-term seminars, the Fulbright International Education Administrators Program can help U.S. higher education administrators establish lasting connections within the social, cultural, and education systems of other countries. Selected administrators have the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge about the host country’s higher education systems as well as to establish…
rotary logo

April 6, 2012

Rotary Scholarship for Graduate Studies

The Rotary Club of Berkeley is accepting applications for the competitive Rotary International Global Grant Scholarship for Graduate Studies.  The grant is $30,000 for graduate-level study or research abroad at a foreign university in specific countries during the 2013-2014 academic year, in one of six areas of focus: water and…
SSRC

April 6, 2012

The Rachel Tanur Prize for Visual Sociology

The Social Science Research Council is accepting applications for the Rachel Tanur Prize for Visual Sociology.  The prize recognizes students in the social sciences who incorporate visual analysis in their work.  Up to three prizes will be awarded at the Second ISA Forum of Sociology: Social Justice and Democratization, to be…

April 4, 2012

Will you run for Cal on April 15?

I Run 4 Cal is an all-skill-level charity race to encourage donations to campus departments, scholarships, programs, and student groups.  Cal students, staff, and alumni will run (or walk) through Sather Gate and along a five-kilometer course on campus.  The race is followed by a 5K Run/Walk Expo with food,…
Andrew Szeri

March 21, 2012

Already a busy semester for the Graduate Division, here and abroad

Dear Graduate Students, Your future selves are out there — graduate alumni of Berkeley.  Some of them are very far from campus, oceans away, but they remain surprisingly close. I spent a week recently visiting alumni at events in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Seoul. These events are always really interesting…