Four PhD students emerged as prize-winners for their 3-minute talks at the 8th UCSF Grad Slam competition on April 3, but all 10 of the finalists engaged the capacity crowd with their carefully crafted research stories.
Produced by the Graduate Division Dean's Office, Grad Slam challenges PhD students to offer a compelling presentation of their dissertation research in three minutes or less, using language that is accessible to a broad audience. The competition was hosted by Dean Nicquet Blake, with Assistant Dean D'Anne Duncan serving as emcee for the lively event. Byers Auditorium at Mission Bay was filled to capacity with a cheering crowd, and many more tuned into the YouTube live stream. Grad Slam was one of numerous events organized by the Graduate Division in celebration of National Graduate Student Appreciation Week.
Ilina Bhaya-Grossman, a Bioengineering PhD student working with mentor Edward Chang, PhD, took the 1st prize of $4,000 for her talk The Magic of Language Understanding, in which she discussed investigating how we perceive word boundaries in our mother tongue versus a foreign language. Learn more about Ilina's talk, and about the Grad Slam event as a whole, in the campus news story: UCSF Grad Slam: This is Your Brain on Your Mother Tongue.
Stay tuned for May 3, when Bhaya-Grossman will compete in the UC Systemwide Grad Slam with top prize winners from nine other UC campuses at an event hosted by UC President Michael Drake and live streamed to the public.
Watch the UCSF Grad Slam event recording on YouTube.
Congratulations to the prize winners and other finalists for an impressive showing:
First Prize
Ilina Bhaya-Grossman
Bioengineering Program
Edward Chang, MD, faculty mentor
The Magic of Language Understanding
Second Prize
Simone Kurial
Biomedical Sciences Program
Holger Willenbring, MD, PhD, faculty mentor
If You Can't Arboretum, Join 'em: Growing the Biliary Tree From Scratch
Third Prize (tie)
Reuben Hogan
Biophysics Program
Nevan Krogan, PhD, faculty mentor
Protein Folding is Pretty Sweet
Third Prize (tie) & "People's Choice" Prize
Sydney Williams
Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics Program
Aparna Lakkaraju, PhD, faculty mentor
Rabs: Delivery Drivers of the Eye
Finalists:
(in order of appearance)
Chad Altobelli
Chemistry and Chemical Biology Program
Michelle Arkin, PhD, faculty mentor
Sizing Up Drug Candidates With a Molecular Ruler
Cathrine Petersen
Neuroscience Program
Lennart Mucke, MD, and Ryan Corces, PhD, faculty mentors
Clustering: Giving Cell Types a Solo Performance
Olivia Barnhill
Neuroscience Program
Alexandra Nelson, MD, PhD, faculty mentor
Lights, Camera, Stimulation
Rachel Rock
Biomedical Sciences Program
Peter Turnbaugh, PhD, faculty mentor
Gut Microbes in Mind: Exploring One Potential Reason Why Women Are More Likely to Suffer From Autoimmune Disease
Naz Dundar
Neuroscience Program
Zachary Knight, PhD, faculty mentor
The Hidden Hunger Hormone
Lorenzo Del Castillo
Tetrad Program
Jeremy Reiter, MD, PhD, faculty mentor
Shining Some Light on Sonic Hedgehog Signaling
Learn more about Grad Slam at UCSF.
