UCSF Grad Slam 2025 is a wrap, but you can still watch the event on the YouTube recording. Details below.
UCSF Grad Slam 2025
Wednesday, April 2
4 p.m. PDT
@ucsfgraddiv, #GradSlam, #UCSFGradSlam
Part of UCSF's National Graduate Student Appreciation Week.
About Grad Slam
UCSF's popular annual Grad Slam competition returned on April 2 as a featured event during National Graduate Student Appreciation Week.
The ten PhD student finalists presented their research in three minutes or less, in language accessible to a general audience. It's a celebration not only of the finalists and contest winner, but also of graduate research at UCSF and of scientific inquiry.
The intention of Grad Slam is not to dumb-down or trivialize research; rather, it is meant to incentivize students to clarify their ideas and to help others appreciate and understand their work. Grad Slam contests are now held at all ten UC campuses, and a UC-wide event – featuring the top Grad Slam winners from each campus – is held annually each spring.
Cash prizes of $4,000, $2,000, and $1,000 were awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners chosen by the panel of judges. And the live and remote audiences chose the "People's Choice" winner, who received $750. The 1st prize winner will go on to compete in the systemwide Grad Slam contest on April 29, 2025.
Congrats to the Prize Winners
First Prize & "People's Choice" Prize
Sophia Miliotis
Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics Program
Nadia Roan, PhD, faculty mentor
Finding HIV: A Swipe in the Right Direction
Second Prize
Maggie Colton Cove
Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics Program
Hideho Okada, MD, PhD, faculty mentor
Building Biological Sleeper Agents to Fight Brain Tumors
Third Prize
Kaylee Wedderburn-Pugh
Biomedical Sciences Program
Tippi MacKenzie, MD and Elizabeth Crouch, MD, PhD, faculty mentors
UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Mapping the Blood-Brain Barrier's Blueprint in Development
...and congrats to the Finalists
(In order of appearance)
Zach Cogan
Tetrad Program
Peter Walter, PhD, faculty mentor
Lost in Translation: Dissecting the Molecular Mechanisms of Stress-Dependent Protein Synthesis
Matt Arvedson
Biomedical Sciences Program
James Gardner, MD, PhD, faculty mentor
Clearing the Aire: How Cancer Hides from the Immune System
Madeleine Urbanek
Biomedical Sciences Program
Cathryn Cadwell, MD, PhD, faculty mentor
This Viral Astronaut is Mapping the Galaxy in Your Brain
Kingsley Chow
Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics Program
Laura van't Veer, PhD, faculty mentor
No One Left Behind: The Quest for Personalized Cancer Cures
Devin Schoen
Bioengineering Program
Melanie Morrison, PhD, faculty mentor
Smarter Stimulation: Putting the Pieces Together
Benjamin S. Sipes
Bioengineering Program
Ashish Raj, PhD, faculty mentor
The Brain as an Orchestra
Kai Trepka
Biomedical Sciences Program
Peter Turnbaugh, PhD, faculty mentor
Gut Check: How Our Poop Could Hold the Key to Better Cancer Treatment
