Happy New Year! I wish you the very best of health, peace, and good academic progress in 2009.
I am pleased to announce that a treasured program we had to suspend last fall owing to budget uncertainties can be reinstated. This is the conference travel grant program. Ph.D. students in the final stages of their graduate work may apply for funds to attend professional conferences where they will present a paper or a poster on their dissertation research and make professional contacts. The maximum amount awarded is $500. You can learn more about it on the Fellowships & Awards page on the Graduate Division website.
We hope this will allow some of you to present papers or posters at meetings that will lead to your "discovery" by a prospective employer. (A note for those new to California: the American Heritage Dictionary lists the fourth definition of "discovered" as follows: To identify [a person] as a potentially prominent performer: a movie star who was discovered in a drugstore by a producer.)
I hope you had a good break and feel recharged and ready for spring semester, 2009!
Best,
Andrew J. Szeri
Dean of the Graduate Division
Top of the News
- Dr. Chu goes to Washington
Academic Services / GSI Center
- Ready for that big transition? This Summer Institute can help.
- Spring Workshops on Teaching
Graduate Funding
- A wide menu of possibilities to help fund your graduate education
University Health Services
- Workshop — Insurance after Graduation: Selecting a Plan
- Workshops — Health Insurance for Students with Dependents
Graduate Assembly
- Nominations are open for GA’s Faculty Mentor Award
- GA post-winter-break office hours
- GA funding and grants
- 24th Annual Empowering Women of Color Conference is February 14
California Alumni Association
- Nominate outstanding alumni for 2010 awards
Texture
- Delancey Street’s Mimi Silbert keynotes December Commencement Convocation
- Moving tribute: Earl Warren’s name lives on, down the block and across the street
- In the spotlight: grad students and grad alumni
On the new team: Steven Chu takes on energy, one of the President-elect’s huge challenges
His full name is Steven Chu. That he’s not a very formal guy is clear from the headline from the news released by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which he currently heads — “Obama Picks Berkeley Lab Director Steve Chu for Energy Secretary.”
President-elect Barack Obama, in his December 18 press conference announcing his environment and energy team, referred to his nominee for Secretary of Energy as Steven Chu. The first time. Thereafter, it was Steve Chu. Or just Steve.
Steven Chu in his office at LBNL
(Photo: Roy Kaltschmidt/LBNL)
Despite this ease people feel around him, Chu thinks big, looks far ahead, and gets things done. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997, at the age of 49, for cooling and trapping atoms with laser light. Before taking over LBNL in 2004, he was a professor of physics at Stanford (and two-term department chair). He has become one of the nation’s foremost and outspoken advocates for scientific solutions to the dual problems of global warming and the need for carbon-neutral renewable sources of energy. He has called these problems “the greatest challenge facing science” and has rallied many of the world’s top scientists to address it. In his four years at LBNL, Chu has focused the laboratory's considerable scientific resources on energy security and global climate change, in particular the production of new fuels and electricity from sunlight through non-food plant materials and artificial photosynthesis. At the same time, he has boosted the lab's historic leadership role in energy-efficient technologies and climate science.
Chu was instrumental in bringing to the Bay Area the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a $135 million Department of Energy-funded bioenergy research center operated by a multi-institutional partnership under the leadership of LBNL. He also played a major role in the creation of the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), which is funded by a $500 million grant from BP.
Now 60 (until late February), Chu earned his undergraduate degrees in mathematics and physics from the University of Rochester in 1970, his physics Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1976, and was a postdoctoral fellow here from 1976 to 1978, when he joined ATT's Bell Labs, where he did his Nobel-winning research.
A professional development series for GSIs, these Workshops on Teaching are presented by the GSI Teaching and Resource Center. They cover a wide variety of topics related to university teaching and the GSI experience. The purpose of the series is to offer GSIs, and other graduate students interested in teaching, opportunities for hands-on learning and practical discussion about pedagogy.
JANUARY 29 (Thursday)
Noon to 1:30 p.m., 370 Dwinelle Hall
Unlearning Bias in the Classroom
FEBRUARY 12 (Thursday)
Noon to 1:30 p.m., 370 Dwinelle Hall
Teaching Critical Reading in the Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities
FEBRUARY 18 (Wednesday)
Noon to 1:30 p.m., 370 Dwinelle Hall
Grading Fairly and Efficiently with Rubrics
FEBRUARY 24 (Tuesday)
Noon to 1:30 p.m., 370 Dwinelle Hall
Assessing Teaching & Learning
MARCH 17 (Tuesday)
Noon to 1:30 p.m., 370 Dwinelle Hall
Guiding the Work of Non-native Writers of English (Tentative)
APRIL 2 (Thursday)
Noon to 1:30 p.m., 370 Dwinelle Hall
Teaching a Large Lecture Course
APRIL 13 (Monday)
Noon to 1:30 p.m., 370 Dwinelle Hall
Teaching and the Academic Job Search
Registration for each event is encouraged; however, those who have not pre-registered are also welcome. Preregister online. If you would like to request that a workshop on a particular topic be held during a semester, please email the GSI Center.
Photos: Peg Skorpinski
The seventh annual Summer Institute for Preparing Future Faculty is designed to enable graduate students to excel in all aspects of academic life as they pursue an advanced degree at Berkeley and make the transition from graduate school to academic careers. If you're nearing the end of your graduate program and beginning to prepare for the academic job market, you're encouraged to apply. Approximately 40 students will be selected to be Institute Fellows for the program, which takes place May 27 through July 1, 2009. The application deadline is March 2, 2009, 4 p.m. The program announcement, application guidelines, and forms are available online.
If you have questions, contact the GSI Teaching and Resource Center by email or phone (510) 642-4456.
Quote from a former Institute Fellow:
“Overall, the course was everything it promised. I feel like after so many years in graduate school, this is the first time I’ve gotten a comprehensive, systematic presentation/picture of what the field is really like . . .”
More quotes can be found online
TopListed chronologically by deadline date.
Resources provided by the Graduate Services: Fellowships office
If the Ph.D. you’re pursuing is in an area of interest to stewardship science — such as high-energy physics, low-energy nuclear science, or the properties of materials under extreme conditions — you might benefit from the U.S. Department of Energy’s NNSA Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship. Its features are similar to the CSGF, above. More information is available online. Applications and supporting material must be received by January 19, 2009.
The DOE CSGF Fellowships, above, and the DOE NNSA Stewardship Science Fellowships are administered for the Department of Energy by the Krell Institute, the mission of which is to advance the next generation of computational scientists and engineers. The institute also plans and executes meetings on computational science topics, disseminates research results in science and engineering, and develops new educational programs The institute is named for the Krell, an advanced civilization that once inhabited the planet Altair IV in the classic 1956 science fiction movie Forbidden Planet, the plot of which owes much to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) fellowships provide an excellent summer opportunity for graduate students interested in relating their work to global change issues. The IIASA is located in Schloss Laxenburg, just outside Vienna, Austria. Each year, about 50-60 students from around the world spend the summer working closely with IIASA senior researchers on projects relevant to each student's thesis topic. They end the summer with an international network of colleagues interested in various aspects of global change issues, and often have produced a paper that can be published. For students selected to participate, funding is available for travel and living support, principally from IIASA's national member organizations. The IIASA is an international institution supported by the U.S. and 18 other governments. Information about the program is available online. The application deadline is January 19, 2009.
In Spring 2009, the Arts Research Center (ARC) Berkeley will award up to six fellowships to outstanding UC Berkeley graduate students whose research practice (regardless of format, medium, discipline, or degree program) substantially engages more than one academic discipline in the practice, history, theory, and/or criticism of the arts. Each ARC Fellow will receive a $2,000 research grant and participate in monthly lunch seminars and a culminating symposium. Application deadline is January 23, 2009. Program and application details are available online.
The Deutscher Akademischer Austasch Dienst (DAAD), or German Academic Exchange Service, offers a number of opportunities for students from the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain, to gain serious research experience in Germany, and for German undergraduates to assist in research and lab work in American and Canadian settings. Two of these programs are summarized here. Both programs are supported by the Federal Republic of Germany through funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
The Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship funds students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents to gain competence in modern foreign languages. Awarded to students in the humanities, social sciences, and professional fields, these fellowships are available for the study of languages in eight world areas (Africa, East Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Western Europe). Applications are available online. Applications for the Academic Year FLAS Fellowship and the Summer FLAS Fellowship are due Monday, January 26, 2009. For further information, contact Gina Farales by phone (642-7739) or by email (gfarales@berkeley.edu).
Phi Beta Kappa offers several fellowships each year specifically for graduate student members of Phi Beta Kappa who are completing their dissertations. One must be registered at Berkeley to receive the stipend. Graduate advisors should be aware of this program and applications should be available in their offices, as well as in the Graduate Services: Fellowships Office, 318 Sproul Hall. Please do not use the online application; instead, email your request for an application from the Phi Beta Kappa office. The application will be emailed to you as a Word attachment. NOTE: The correct application deadline is January 26, 2009 (not March 26, as shown in the application posted on the PBK website).
Phi Beta Kappa is the nation’s oldest honorary society, founded in 1776 at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. The name comes from the first letters of the Greek motto philosophiae biou kubernetes (“Love of wisdom is the guide of life”).
Applicants must have attended at least four of the six secondary grade school years at a Santa Barbara County school, and have graduated from a Santa Barbara County high school. All applicants must be a full-time (graduate student or medical student at an approved U.S. college or university. All eligible and qualified new applicants are required to have a personal interview in the month of March following the January application deadline. The primary criteria for award selection are financial need, potential, and motivation. Applications and more information are available online. The application deadline is January 30, 2009.
Sponsored by the Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases, the 2009 Science & Engineering for Global Health graduate fellowship provides $5000 to qualified doctoral students, for international travel and research activities in support of a 2-3 month project conducted at a developing country research site. Matching fellowship funds are provided to your host laboratory or field site. The fellowship's topical focus is emerging and neglected diseases. Detailed application instructions are available online. Questions? Email cend@berkeley.edu. The application deadline is January 30, 2009.
Applications are now being accepted for the Willis W. and Ethel M. Clark Foundation Investment in Community Graduate Fellowship for 2009-2010. Up to $10,000 per academic year is awarded to students currently enrolled full time in a graduate program who have demonstrated a commitment to community service. Applicants must be directly connected to the Monterey Peninsula and intend to return to or remain connected through work and/or residence and community service. The Clark Foundation was incorporated in 1953 and has provided community service for more than half a century. Its founders were pioneers in the field of educational testing and research who started the California Test Bureau (now known as CTB/McGraw-Hill) in 1926. The fellowship may be renewed annually, but subsequent awards may be smaller than the initial award. Applications are due January 31, 2009. More information is available online.
Columbia University’s Institute for Comparative Literature and Society will appoint a Postdoctoral Fellow for the Spring 2010 semester. The fellow must have received a Ph.D. between January 1, 2003, and July 1, 2009. The ICLS was founded at Columbia in 1998 to promote a global perspective in the study of literature, culture, and their social context. It houses the interdepartmental undergraduate and graduate programs in Comparative Literature and Society, drawing its faculty from the humanities, the social sciences, and the Schools of Architecture and Law. The specific topic of the fellowship is the importance of language learning and/or translation to produce an informed global scholarship and practice. The Fellow will be given time and resources to develop his or her scholarship in a broadening and experimental cross-disciplinary and cross-regional context. The stipend for the spring 2010 semester will be $25,000. Full fringe benefits will be added, plus $1,000 for travel. An additional $2,000 will be given for innovative course planning. Application forms may be downloaded from the institute’s website. The postmark deadline for completed applications is January 31, 2009.
The Seeding Postdoctoral Innovators in Research and Education (SPIRE) program at UNC Chapel Hill is an NIH/NIGMS-funded, three-year postdoctoral fellowship for individuals with research interests in any biological, biomedical, or chemical science. It combines research and professional development opportunities, including one year of hands-on teaching. SPIRE scholars engage in independent research in a laboratory of their discipline at UNC Chapel Hill and teach at one of five partner minority serving institutions in North Carolina. The goals of SPIRE are to prepare scholars for careers in academia and to increase diversity in science professions. Programmatic details can be found online. All application materials are due no later than February 1, 2009.
Established in 1971, the Council for European Studies (CES) Pre-Dissertation Fellowship Program has played a crucial role in the early stages of many scholars' careers. The program serves as the leading source for pre-dissertation fellowships that fund students' first major research projects in Europe. Since the program’s founding, the council has awarded more than 500 fellowships, totaling more than $2 million. Founded in 1970, the Council for European Studies at Columbia University is the leading academic organization for the study of Europe. The council produces and recognizes outstanding, multidisciplinary research in European Studies through a range of programs, including conferences, publications, special events, and awards. The application form, and full details, may be found online. All materials must be received via email, to ces@columbia.edu, by February 1, 2009. (No phone calls or paper applications, please).
The goal of the Switzer Environmental Fellowship Program is to support highly talented graduate students whose studies are directed toward improving environmental quality and who demonstrate leadership in their field. The fellowship provides a one-year cash award of $15,000 for graduate study as well as networking and leadership support to awardees. The Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation specifically seeks active, enthusiastic individuals who have the ability, determination, and integrity to become environmental leaders in the 21st century.
Applicants for a Switzer Environmental Fellowship must:
More information and applications are available online. The application deadline is February 1, 2009.
The Schweitzer Fellowship was founded in 1940 to support Dr. Schweitzer’s medical work in Africa. In 1991, the organization launched its U.S. Schweitzer Fellows Programs, through which graduate students in health professions and related fields carry out direct service projects in underserved communities in this country. This is the program’s second year in California. As many as 16 fellows will be accepted in the Bay Area. Applicants must be enrolled in a degree program through March 2009. Apply online, where additional information is available (click on “U.S. Programs” for information and “Bay Area” for application). The application deadline is February 1, 2009 at 5 p.m. Information sessions will be held during the fall. For more information, contact Dale Ogar, director of the Bay Area Schweitzer Fellows Program, by email or phone (510-289-8407). Note that eligible fields include not only all “health professions” (medicine, nursing, public health, dentistry, social work, allied health professions, etc.) but also any other health-related field, including law, business, music, and the arts.
By the age of 29, Albert Schweitzer was the author of three books, a scholar in music, religion, and philosophy, an organist, a world authority on Bach, principal of a theological seminary, and a university professor with two doctorates. The next year, he decided to become a doctor and devote the rest of his life to direct service, helping Africans in desperate need of medical attention. He and his wife Hélène opened a hospital in Lambaréné, Gabon, where he worked until his death in 1965 at the age of 90. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.Are you a doctoral student from a historically underrepresented ethnic/racial group and interested in a career in higher education? This fellowship program for emerging scholars of color covers all expenses to attend the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, April 2 through 5, 2009. Sponsored by Ithica College in Ithica, New York, FLEFF is a multiday multimedia interarts extravaganza. Information and applications are available on the FLEFF website. The application deadline is February 4, 2009.
This prize is awarded for a deserving doctoral thesis in any field of medieval studies completed at a Canadian university or by a Canadian studying at a university abroad. Entries are adjudicated by a subcommittee of the Canadian Society of Medievalists. The prize consists of a cash award and three years of membership in the society. Normally, the thesis should be submitted within one year of its successful defense. One paper copy and one electronic copy of the thesis, a letter or report from the supervisor, and the external examiner’s report should be sent to the chair of the Boyle Prize Committee (Dr. Elizabeth Edwards, University of King’s College, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 2A1) by February 6, 2009. Further information is available by email. Canadians who have completed their theses at foreign institutions must provide proof of citizenship.
This prize is awarded to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students of merit who are enrolled in graduate or undergraduate programs for the 2009-2010 academic year. On average, a Point Scholarship provides $13,200 in direct financial support. Programmatic support in leadership training and mentoring brings the average amount of annual support devoted to each scholar to between $26,000 and $31,000. The Point Foundation is the nation’s largest scholarship-granting organization for LGBT students of merit. Point Scholars agree to maintain a high level of academic performance and to give back to the LGBT community through the completion of an individual community service project each year. Scholars are match with mentors from the professional world who lend their expertise and career guidance, and serve as role models. Application guidelines and further information are available on the Point Foundation website. The application deadline is February 9, 2009.
For summer 2009, the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) will offer full travel and fellowships for approximately 15 students and scholars to participate in an advanced Turkish language program at Bogaziçi University in Istanbul. The intensive program, from June 22 through August 14, is the equivalent of one full academic year of study in Turkish at the college level. Classes are small and are conducted in Turkish. Application and eligibility requirements are available online at the ARIT website or through Princeton University. The application deadline is February 9, 2009.
The Udall Foundation awards two one-year Environmental Public Policy and Conflict Resolution Dissertation Fellowships of up to $24,000 to doctoral candidates whose research concerns U.S. environmental public policy and/or U.S. environmental conflict resolution and who are entering their final year of writing the dissertation. Interdisciplinary projects are particularly welcome. Fellows must be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals or U.S. permanent residents, and their dissertation research must be relevant to U.S. environmental policy. Program details, additional information, profiles of previous fellows, and applications are available online. If you have questions, please contact Dr. Jane Curlin by email. The application deadline is February 20, 2009.
Congress created the Morris K. Udall Foundation as an independent federal agency in 1992. In honoring the late Congressman’s legacy of public service, the foundation awards scholarships, fellowships, and internships for studies related to the environment and Native American policy.Each year the San Francisco branch of the English-Speaking Union, with the support of the Anglo-California Foundation, awards several $20,000 scholarships to Bay Area college graduates for post-graduate study at British universities. In recent years, students have attended Oxford, Cambridge, the University of York, and at the London School of Economics with ESU scholarships. The requirements include these:
Information for prospective applicants is available at the ESU’s website. The deadline for receipt of applications is February 20, 2009 and the deadline for transcripts and letters is February 27, 2009.
The Burton J. Moyer Memorial Fellowship was established in the 1980s by the Northern California Chapter of the Health Physics Society to honor Moyer, who died in 1973, and to encourage his ideals in the study of the safe use of radiation for the benefit of all people. The first person to receive this highly regarded national fellowship, in 1985, was a UC Berkeley graduate student. Students who are interested in health physics must submit their application no later than March 1, 2009. The application is available online (PDF), as is further information about the fellowship.
Burton J. Moyer came to Berkeley in 1942 to work in high-energy physics with Ernest Orlando Lawrence. In addition to his pioneering and productive research, at Lawrence’s request he established a professional health physics group at what is now the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In doing so, he took on the technically difficult work of reducing radiation intensities at the Bevatron for the safety of his colleagues. The shields he designed reduced intensity by a factor of 100, and became an influential model in the design of many accelerator shields. Moyer’s innovative approach to this new aspect of his field led him to be characterized as “the father of accelerator health physics.” He was also a professor and mentor, directing the thesis research of 62 students, and chaired the physics department during Berkeley’s tumultuous 1960s.In collaboration with the Graduate Division, International House offers one-year awards for students in any doctoral or master’s degree program. Beginning spring 2009, academic units may nominate continuing students directly to International House, which will select candidates for awards not filled by the University Fellowships Competition Committee for incoming students. Only those with financial need are eligible. Recipients receive one academic year of single occupancy room and board at International House, as well as fees and tuition from the student’s department and, through the Graduate Division, a $5,000 stipend from the university. Academic units are encouraged to nominate international students, particularly those from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sub-Saharan Africa and Scandinavian countries. More information on these awards and application procedures can be found online. The application deadline is March 2, 2009.
Interested in teaching in Vietnamese universities, either onsite or via videoconferencing? Apply for a VEF grant for the 2009-2010 academic year. The deadline to apply is March 2, 2009.
For doctoral candidates who have completed their comprehensive exams and are preparing to write their dissertation, Middle Tennessee State University is offering Underrepresented Minority Dissertation Fellowships in the 2009-2010 academic year.. They are one-year, faculty contracts for $30,000 plus benefits, with teaching responsibilities of one course per semester. Applicants can begin by applying online. Detailed information can be found on the MTSU jobs website by clicking on the button "Faculty Job Openings" and then clicking on the title of the fellowship. If there are any questions, contact Dr. William Badley by email or Ms. Janice Lewis by email or phone (615-898-2881. The application deadline is March, 3, 2009.
Each year, the Dan David Prize, a joint international enterprise endowed by the Dan David Foundation, awards 20 scholarships (10 to students from all over the world and 10 to students from Tel Aviv University, where the foundation is headquartered). The scholarship amount is $15,000. Advanced doctoral and postdoctoral students of excellent achievement and promise studying topics related to the fields chosen for this year are invited to apply for scholarships for 2009. The fields are broken into three time dimensions. For the Past category, the field is Astrophysics – History of the Universe; for the Present category, Leadership; and for the Future category, Global Public Health. The application deadline for the scholarships is March 31, 2009. More information is available online.
Dan David is a Romanian-born businessman and philanthropist. He immigrated to Israel in 1960 and the next year, with a $200,000 loan from a cousin, secured the franchise for Photo Me automated photo booths in a number of countries, and eventually took over the company. He is now the sole owner of PhoMat, the company that manufactures the photo booth machines, and in 2000 he created the Dan David Fund and Foundation with a $100 million endowment to recognize outstanding contributions in science, technology, culture, and social welfare, and to assist young scholar-researchers.
Best of the West — This is the brand-new round hall (formally the Wayne and Gladys Valley Rotunda) that you see as you enter the newly-reopened Bancroft Library. A fabulous research facility, the Bancroft contains one the world’s largest collections of Western Americana, and includes the Regional Oral History Office, the University of California Archives, the Tebtunis Papyri Center, and the Mark Twain Papers (from which the current “Mark Twain at Play” exhibit is extracted). The Doe Library Annex, the Bancroft’s home since the structure was built in 1949, has undergone major seismic renovation, which took several years, during which the collections were moved off campus. Now reunited in the safer, modernized, and upgraded building, they opened for business this month, initially with half days. From January 20 on, the Bancroft is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Several fellowships and prizes are awarded through the Bancroft Library each year, with application deadlines coming right up in February and March.)
(Photo: Peg Skorpinski)
Graduate Division Calendar
Campus Events Calendar
Denotes Graduate Division sponsored event
THROUGH MARCH 31
Mark Twain at Play
10 a.m. to 4 p.m., weekdays, gallery of the Bancroft Library
How did Mark Twain spend his time when the “bread-and-butter element” was put aside and he was free to relax and amuse himself? His leisure pursuits, from amateur theatricals to yachting—and how his “play” influenced his “work”—are the subject of this exhibition, which brings together manuscripts and documents, notebooks, albums, vintage photographs, and other rare artifacts from the Mark Twain Papers archive of The Bancroft Library. (The Bancroft is back in its usual location after three years in temporary exile off campus while its building was seismically retrofitted and renovated. The Twain exhibit is in the new rotunda gallery, right inside the front entrance.)
JANUARY 20 (Tuesday)
Spring instruction begins
Click image for larger view of
downloadable poster (PDF)
JANUARY 20 (Tuesday)
Inauguration of President Barack H. Obama
7:30 to 11 a.m., Sproul Plaza
Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau invites the UC Berkeley community to witness history being made, through a large-screen public video screening of the inauguration broadcast. The festivities are being sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor and the ASUC and underwritten by a private donor. More details are available online.
JANUARY 29; FEBRUARY 12, 18, AND 24; MARCH 17; APRIL 2 AND 13
Noon to 1:30 p.m., 370 Dwinelle Hall
Workshops on Teaching, presented by the GSI Teaching and Resource Center. See above for workshop topics.
David Kennedy
FEBRUARY 3 (Tuesday)
Jefferson Memorial Lecture
4:10 p.m., Lipman Room, eighth floor of Barrows Hall
“An Invitation to Struggle: The Constitution, the Military, and Political Accountability”
David M. Kennedy, professor of history, Stanford University
FEBRUARY 14 (Saturday)
Empowering Women of Color Conference (EWOCC) 2009
9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Martin Luther King Jr., Student Union
This is the EWOCC’s 24th year. The event will include a panel of acclaimed Bay Area activists and leaders in community-building and women’s issues, with vendors, cultural performances, discussions, and workshops. The keynote speaker will be Cherrie Moraga, an Oakland-based playwright, poet, and essayist. Online registration, childcare accommodations, conference schedule and other information is online at the EWOCC website. The event is wheelchair-accessible. It is a production of the Women of Color Initiative Project, the Graduate Minority Students' Project, and the Graduate Women’s Project at the Graduate Assembly, sponsored by the Ethnic Studies Fifth Account and the Consortium for the Arts at UC Berkeley.
FEBRUARY 27 and 28 (Friday and Saturday)
UCSF Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans Health Issues Forum
5 to 9 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday
UC San Francisco campus
This forum is designed to introduce UCSF students and others to a long-overlooked, but now strongly emergent, patient population: lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender (LGBT) people, who face social stigma and heightened health risks for cancer, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. Non-UCSF students may register. More information is available by email from the UCSF LBGT Center.
John R. Perry
MARCH 11 (Wednesday)
Howison Lecture in Philosophy
4:10 p.m., Toll Room, Alumni House (just north of Zellerbach Playhouse)
“Thinking and Talking About the Self”
John R. Perry, professor of philosophy, Stanford University
Neil Shubin (Photo: John Weinstein/The Field Museum)
MARCH 18 and 19 (Wednesday and Thursday)
Charles M. and Martha Hitchcock Lectures
4:10 p.m., International House Auditorium, 2299 Piedmont Avenue
Wednesday: "The Great Transitions in Evolution: Finding Fossils, Studying Genes, and Bridging Gaps"
Thursday: "Wings, Legs, and Fins: How Do New Organs Arise in Evolution?"
Neil H. Shubin, Associate Dean, Biological Sciences Division, University of Chicago
Lucy Shapiro
MARCH 31 and APRIL 1 (Tuesday and Wednesday)
Charles M. and Martha Hitchcock Lectures
4:10 p.m., International House Auditorium, 2299 Piedmont Avenue
Tuesday: "Emerging Infectious Diseases and Global Health"
Wednesday: "The Systems Architecture of a Bacterial Cell Cycle"
Lucy Shapiro, Ludwig Professor of Cancer Research, School of Medicine, Stanford University
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The Student Health Insurance Office at UC Berkeley provides health insurance workshops for students with dependents, detailing a variety of coverage options that are available for spouses, partners and children of students. It can be challenging to determine which plan is best for your family, but your health service is here to help. In the workshops, Kathy Gage, insurance advisor for students with dependents, will explain how to choose and enroll in a plan that meets your family's needs. The student workshops will provide a general overview of individual health insurance for adults and children and cover both public programs and private plans.
Please RSVP by email. Contact the Student Health Insurance Office (SHIO) at 642-5700 if you have questions about these events. For more information, visit us online.
TopEach year the Graduate Assembly honors faculty members who have shown an outstanding commitment to mentoring, developing, and supporting graduate student researchers with the Faculty Mentor Award (FMA). Nominations will be accepted, starting today, until Friday, February 13th, 2009. If you feel your mentor has invested in you, extraordinarily, and you think your mentor should be recognized, then visit the GA website for more information on eligibility and the nomination process. Please direct any inquiries by email to Triffid Abel.
The Graduate Assembly offices in Anthony Hall will be closed at noon on December 24, 2008 through January 4, 2009, then will reopen from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. from January 5 through January 16, 2009. Normal business hours (Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) will resume January 20.
Registered graduate student groups wish to apply for spring 2009 funding and/or individual graduate students who are seeking travel grants, please see the January and February deadlines online.
The event will include a panel of acclaimed Bay Area activists and leaders in community-building and women’s issues, with vendors, cultural performances, discussions, and workshops. The keynote speaker will be Cherrie Moraga, an Oakland-based playwright, poet, and essayist. For more details, see Calendar, above, or the conference website.
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Bob Haas, 2009
Alumnus of the Year
(Photo: Peg Skorpinski)
Economist John Kenneth Galbraith M.A. ’32, Ph.D. ’34, Gap founder Don Fisher ‘50, novelist Maxine Hong Kingston ’62, C. Ed. ’65, crimefighter Lee Brown M.S. ’68, Ph.D. ’70, Chez Panisse owner Alice Waters, and former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren are all past winners of the California Alumni Association’s top award for their outstanding professional, community, and personal achievements. You can help determine who will be the next Alumnus or Alumna of the Year. The association is now seeking nominations for its 2010 honors, which also include the separate Excellence in Achievement and Excellence in Service Awards, as well as the Mark Bingham and Brad King awards for distinguished young alumni. All nominations are due by May 31, 2009. For nomination forms and more information, visit the CAA website. Former Levi Strauss and Company chairman and CEO Robert D. Haas ’64 will receive the 2009 Alumnus of the Year Award in early April at the association’s annual Charter Gala in San Francisco.
Note: Earl Warren’s name still graces a building on campus, but it’s a different building. See Texture, below.
TopThe Pacific Film Archive Theater is located at 2575 Bancroft Way (between Telegraph and Bowditch) in Berkeley. Advance tickets are available by calling (510) 642-5249 or online. More information is available online.
Josef von Sternberg: Eros and Abstraction
Man of Marvel: Andrzej Wajda 
The Way of the Termite: The Essay in Cinema
African Film Festival 
The Pacific Film Archive Theater is located at 2575 Bancroft Way (between Telegraph and Bowditch) in Berkeley. Advance tickets are available by calling (510) 642-5249 or online. More information is available online.
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Dignitaries: Chancellor Robert Birgeneau was the convocation master of ceremonies, Mimi Silbert gave the main speech, and Walter Hewlett also spoke to December grads. Hewlett is chairman of the Wiliam and Flora Hewlett Foundation. A Harvard grad with three graduate degrees from Stanford, in 2007 he steered $113 million to Berkeley (its largest private donation to the campus ever, at that point) to create over a hundred new endowed chairs for faculty and to recruit top grad students. A quietly satisfying moment of the program came when Birgeneau cheerfully presented Hewlett with the Berkeley Medal, the University’s top honor (which has been received by a smattering of academics, but also by presidents of the U.S. and other nations, U.N. secretaries-general, two kings, a queen, a prime minister, and the current Dalai Lama). (Photo: Peg Skorpinski)
Berkeley’s fall (and summer) 2008 graduates had a two-degree Cal alumna as the principal speaker at their commencement in December. Her name is Mimi Silbert. She might be called a community organizer. The community she organized was unusual when it started 38 years ago, and now, even with offshoots across the country, it’s still a rarity. It’s a nonprofit foundation — that part’s common enough — called Delancey Street, a residential self-help organization for substance abusers, ex-cons, the homeless, and others who’ve hit bottom. The self in self-help is literal, and seriously meant. The group has no professional staff and no government funding. Like a large family (now circa 250), residents have to develop their strengths and help each other. The average resident would have an unusual resume” hard-core drug addict for 16 years, dropped out of school in the seventh grade, institutionalized several times, abuser of alcohol and multiple drugs. Together, they’ve become teachers, contractors, truck drivers, and they run moving companies, restaurants, bookstores, and more, on their own.
Silbert, the founding force of Delancey Street, lives there, abides by its rules, and takes no salary. She did her undergraduate work in English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, then came to Berkeley for a master’s in counseling psychology (1965) and then a Ph.D. in criminology and psychology (1968) before starting Delancey Street in 1971. Among pages and pages of honors she’s received in the intervening years, there’s one from Berkeley of which she’s particularly fond: the California Alumni Association named her as Alumna of the Year for 1990.
Earl Warren Hall (Photos: Jim Clara)
The name of one of Berkeley’s most distinguished alumni, Earl Warren (undergraduate class of 1912, law school class of 1914), three-term governor of California and history-making chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, graced a large building along Oxford Street for over half a century — until the structure was torn down last spring to make way for the badly-needed Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences, named for its lead donor. As governor, Warren enacted into law the bill that created Berkeley’s School of Public Health, the first such school west of the Mississippi. The Shing Center, once completed, will be school’s new home.
Earl Warren in his gubernatorial
days
To keep Warren’s name substantially represented on campus, Chancellor Birgeneau requested that it be transferred to a newish building at Hearst Avenue and Oxford Street, and the Office of he President approved.
As confusing as it might be for some with Warren Hall previously installed in their mental maps to suddenly find it in a different (if nearby) place looking quite unlike its old self, the change has reduced ambiguity in one way. For most of its relatively few years of existence, 2195 Hearst was designated, according to the sign over the entrance, as the “University of California, Berkeley.” A tall order for a three-story, 7,000-square-foot structure. It now says “Earl Warren Hall” over its doors, and houses the campus computer facility and campus units such as Information Systems and Technology, the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory, and the Controller’s Office.
Warren was a strong and sometimes controversial Chief Justice (after he delivered the unanimous opinion of the court in Brown v. Board of Education, which ended legal segregation in public schools; a virulent but unsuccessful campaign to impeach him lasted for years). He left an enduring legacy and some memorable quotes, including this one: “Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile I caught hell for."
Have you noticed that we feature student and alumni members of the graduate community on the Graduate Division homepage?
The features, labeled “Grad Spotlight” and “In Their Own Words” (depending), alternate graphically when you open our website and link to individual stories. The current features in rotation are these, each worth a look:
Previous features are archived on the site.
eGrad is produced by Graduate Communications & Events, distributed by email, and archived online. Graduate students, alumni, faculty, and staff are invited to send timely news and announcements of interest to or utility of graduate students and the graduate community. Please submit items to Dick Cortén, editor, at gradpub@berkeley.edu.