Please register now. Tele-BEARS Phase II started July 16 and runs through August 16.
How? Take the first step by enrolling in units and make sure you've signed up for Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). If you're not sure whether you've authorized EFT, check your status on BearFacts by selecting CARS and Electronic Funds Transfer. Twelve units equals full-time status for most graduate students.
Why? Enrollment and registration are inextricably linked; the latter isn't official without the former. In addition to enrolling in units, you'll also need to make sure 20 percent of your fees are paid and that you have no blocks against your registration. Once you're registered, funding, including loans and fellowship stipends, will be disbursed to your CARS account. If you want to avoid lines and receive your funding on time, enrolling in units now and authorizing EFT will help ensure that your disbursement goes smoothly.
Best,
Andrew J. Szeri
Dean of the Graduate Division
Graduate Funding
- A wide menu of possibilities to help fund your graduate education
Calendar
- Fall orientations and receptions
Research (and Teaching)
- Assignment: catalog (almost) every living thing on Moorea
University Health Services
- Graduate student support groups
- Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) for 2009-2010
- Dependent Insurance Workshops
Texture
- Sometimes appearances aren’t deceiving
Listed chronologically by deadline date.
Resources provided by the Graduate Services: Fellowships office
A limited number of fellowships are available for graduate students studying at U.S. institutions who are interested in attending the American Society of Mechanical Engineering’s first Global Congress on NanoEngineering for Medicine and Biology, to be held in Houston, Texas, in February 2010. Full funding will include attendee registration for a special tutorial on nanoengineered therapeutics and full congress access. Attendees are encouraged to submit posters. The congress is co-sponsored by the NSF Summer Institute on Nanomechanics, Nanomaterials, and Micro/Nanomanufacturing. More information is available by email and the application is available in PDF form online. The application deadline is August 1, 2009.
The competition for the 2010-2011 round of Fulbright Scholar Grants is open. The application deadline is August 1, 2009. Grants typically begin about one year following the application deadline. As a traditional U.S. Fulbright Scholar you can enjoy an experience of a lifetime, one that will provide broad cultural perspectives on your academic discipline or professional field and connect you with colleagues at institutions around the globe. Grants typically range from three months to an academic year. More information and materials to download are online.
J. William Fulbright (1905-1995) was a U.S. Senator from Arkansas for three decades and had been a Rhodes Scholar and served as president of the University of Arkansas. His 1945 bill to use surplus war property to fund the “promotion of international good will through the exchange of students in the fields of education, culture, and science” created what has become the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government’s flagship international exchange program. Approximately 500 American institutions of all sizes are represented in each year’s competition. To date, there have been 294,000 participants in Fulbright programs in more than 125 countries throughout the world. Utrecht University in the Netherlands offers short-stay fellowship grants to Ph.D. students from its North American partners, which include the University of California. During a three-month stay in Utrecht, students become familiar with UU and the wide range of research possibilities it offers to foreign Ph.D. students. The fellowship’s purpose is to tighten links and strengthen cooperation between research groups at UU and its North American partners. The application deadline is October 1, 2009. Additional information and applications are available (Doc).
The Columbia Society of Fellows in the Humanities, with grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the William R. Kenan Trust, will appoint a number of post-doctoral fellows in the humanities for the academic year 2010-2011. Applications are invited from qualified candidates who have received the Ph.D. between January 1, 2006 and July 1, 2010. Fellows are appointed as lecturers in appropriate departments at Columbia University and as postdoctoral research fellows. The fellowship is renewable for a second and a third year. In the first year, fellows teach one course per semester: at least one of these courses will be in the undergraduate general education program of the university. In years two and three, fellows teach one course per year. In addition to teaching and research, the duties include attendance at the society's lectures and events as well as active participation in the intellectual life of the society and of the department with which the fellow is affiliated. The annual stipend will be $55,000. Each fellow will also receive a research allowance of $5,000 per annum. The online application is available at the society’s website. The deadline for receipt of completed applications is October 5, 2009.
If you are a researcher with above average-qualifications, at the beginning of your academic career, and completed your doctorate during the last four years, consider applying for a Humboldt Research Fellowship. This fellowship for postdoctoral researchers allows you to carry out a long-term research project (six to 24 months) you have selected yourself in cooperation with an academic host at a research institution in Germany. Scientists and scholars of all nationalities and disciplines may apply to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation directly at any time. The foundation grants approximately 600 Humboldt Research Fellowships for postdoctoral researchers and experienced researchers annually. Deadline: Open. This is a continuous application opportunity. Applications are considered in the order received. More information is available on the Humboldt Foundation website.
The Humboldt Foundation awards ten German Chancellor Fellowships each year to young professionals in the private, public, not-for-profit, cultural, and academic sectors who are citizens of the United States. (The program also provides fellowships for citizens of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China.) The individuals assisted are those who demonstrate the potential to strengthen ties between Germany and their own countries through their professions or studies. Prior knowledge of German is not a prerequisite. The fellowship provides for a stay of one year in Germany for professional development, study, or research. Applicants design individual projects and decide at which institutions or organizations to pursue them. The program lasts 12 months and is preceded by language classes in Germany. The deadline for 2010-2011 awards is October 31, 2009. Additional information and applications are available on the Humboldt Foundation website.
The Humboldt Foundation is named for German naturalist and explorer Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt (1769 1859). Humboldt was one of the first to propose that the lands bordering the Atlantic Ocean, particularly South America and Africa, were once joined. His five-volume 1845 work, Kosmos, attempted to unify the various branches of scientific knowledge. He is memorialized in the names of animal and plant species, geographic features (such as California’s Humboldt Bay and Nevada’s Humboldt Sink), place names (among them Humboldt County in California, Nevada, and Iowa), and a variety of universities, schools, and lectureships. Of him, Cuban scholar Jose de la Luz y Caballero said "Columbus gave Europe a New World; Humboldt made it known in its physical, material, intellectual, and moral aspects." The Humboldt Foundation’s original endowment, created by friends and colleagues to continue Humboldt’s own support of young scholars, was lost in the German hyperinflation of the 1920s, and again as a result of World War II, but the German government later re-endowed the institution so it could make awards to young scientists and distinguished senior scientists from abroad. Left: Alexander von Humboldt (Painting by Joseph Stieler).
The Graduate Division’s list of Fall 2009 orientations and receptions for new graduate students appears below. It’s also available as a one-sheet PDF document. Just add push-pin or refrigerator magnet.
Graduate Division Calendar
Campus Events Calendar
Denotes Graduate Division sponsored event
August 14 (Friday)
Deadline to file Dissertation or Thesis (Summer)
Before 5 p.m., 318 Sproul Hall
Students who file the dissertation or thesis in the summer must be registered in summer sessions for a minimum of three units and must file by this day to obtain a December degree.
August 18 (Tuesday)
New International Graduate Student Orientation
International House Auditorium
More information is available online
August 19 (Wednesday)
New International Student Resource Fair
International House Auditorium
More information is available online
Wheeler Hall, where the teaching conference
for all new GSIs will take place August 21.
(Photo: Dick Corten)
August 20 and 21 (Thursday and Friday)
Fall 2009 Teaching Conference for GSIs
Presented by the Graduate Division’s GSI Teaching and Resource Center, this is a campuswide teaching conference to prepare new GSIs for teaching. All GSIs teaching for the first time at Berkeley are required to attend. Preregistration is required via the GSI Center website.
The first day (Thursday) is for international GSIs and addresses teaching in the U.S. classroom. It takes place in Dwinelle Hall (which, unlike most campus buildings, has its own website) from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event includes a plenary session and workshops on several topics.
The second day (Friday) consists of intensive teaching preparation for all new GSIs, international and domestic. The site is Wheeler Hall, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The event includes a plenary session and discipline-cluster workshops.
August 24 (Monday)
Orientation for New Graduates
12:30 to 5 p.m., Pauley Ballroom and other rooms in Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union
All new graduate students are invited to attend. Registration starts at noon. A plenary session is followed by breakout sessions (by discipline, in separate rooms in the student union). All new graduate students will receive information on many aspects of the graduate student experience — establishing residency, coping with heavy workloads,
making good use of free time, negotiating the financial aid process, health options, and getting help with personal challenges. Co-sponsored by the Graduate Assembly and the Graduate Division.
More information via email or on the Graduate Assembly website.
August 24 (Monday)
Dean’s Reception for New Graduate Students
5 to 7 p.m. Pauley Ballroom, Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union. This event immediately follows the Orientation for New Graduate Students. All new graduate students are invited to attend.
Graduate Dean Andrew Szeri (white shirt and blue tie, in left photo) and Associate Dean Susan Muller (black shirt, in right photo) greeted students at the 2008 Dean’s Reception. (Photos: Peg Skorpinski)
August 25 (Tuesday)
New Graduate Minority Student Orientation
11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tilden Room, fifth floor, Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union Building
An orientation for all, focusing on issues facing underrepresented students. The event provides networking opportunities and plenty of information on services and resources. All new graduate students are invited to attend. More information is available via email or on the Graduate Assembly website. Co-sponsored by the Graduate Assembly and the Graduate Division.
August 28 (Friday)
Deadline to submit Filing Fee Application
Before 5 p.m., 318 Sproul Hall
Students must submit the Filing Fee Application (PDF) to the Graduate Degrees Office by this date in order to go on Filing Fee status for Fall 2009.
September 2 (Wednesday)
Reception Honoring American Indian / Alaska Native Graduate Students
5 to 7 p.m., Heller Lounge, second floor, Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union Building
All graduate students are invited to attend.
September 3 (Thursday)
Reception Honoring Graduate Diversity
5 to 7 p.m., Toll Room, Alumni House (just north of Zellerbach Playhouse)
All graduate students are invited to attend.
Environmental sciences Ph.D. student Brad Balukjian has been teaching fifth-graders at the Paopao Primary School on the Polynesian island of Moorea about biodiversity, introducing them to the scientific study of the plants and animals they see every day.
What took him there is field research for his thesis and for the Moorea Biocode Project, a partnership of UC Berkeley and French researchers funded by a $5.2-million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The project’s aim is simple to say: build a comprehensive inventory of all life on the island (larger than microbes) by the year 2011. Doing it will be a bit harder, but with samples taken from the mountaintops to the ocean depths, it would constitute the first complete inventory of a tropical ecosystem.
Brad Balukjian with his collective fifth-graders in Moorea.
Balukjian enlisted his two classes of fifth-graders as collectors for the project, and the kids — some of whom questioned whether there even is “such a thing as a Tahitian scientist” — learned firsthand that science is not for foreigners only. Along the way they learned quite a bit about the considerable biodiversity of their own island. At an end-of-year science fair June 25, they shared their findings with fellow students, parents, and the Tahitian minister of culture and the vice-mayor of Moorea. Through their specimens, Balukjian said, the youngsters “are immortalized in the biocode database.”
During the 2008-2009 academic year, Balukjian lived on Moorea to continue his doctoral research on the population genetics and systematics of the island’s insects — specifically, an undescribed plant-sucking insect in the true bug family, Hemiptera — to find out why some survive and thrive, while many other native insects decline and even disappear in the competition with introduced insects.
His data, like that of his local students, will be entered into the biocode database at Berkeley’s Richard B. Gump South Pacific Research Station on Moorea and a counterpart French facility. Meanwhile, Balukjian can chalk up some teaching experience, as all Berkeley grad students must.
Counseling and Psychological Services at University Health Services offers several groups during the fall semester, three of which are specifically designed for graduate students. For more information, see the UHS counseling web page. Call CPS at 642-9294 to register for the groups; a phone-screening appointment is required prior to joining.
Starting fall 2009, SHIP includes 90% coverage for ambulance service with no maximum, increased physical therapy benefits of $1,500 and new benefits for transgender students.
In addition to these improvements, SHIP will continue to offer the usual great benefits – a comprehensive medical and counseling plan as well as dental and vision coverage. For more information on SHIP benefits, visit the UHS SHIP web page. The SHIP fee for graduate students in 2009-2010 will be $966 per semester, or $1,932 for 12 months of coverage.
Waiving SHIP Enrollment — If you want SHIP coverage, no action is necessary. You will be enrolled automatically in SHIP and charged the health insurance fee on your campus E-Bill. You can choose to waive enrollment in SHIP by completing an on-line waiver application form.
Extended Deadline — The deadline for continuing graduate students to submit a request to waive enrollment in the Student Health Insurance Plan for Fall 2009 has been extended to August 15. The waiver form must be completed by August 15, 2009. Continuing students submitting waivers between August 16 and September 15 will be charged a $50 late waiver service fee on their E-Bill. New graduate students only may submit waiver applications without a late waiver service fee until August 31, 2009. No waivers will be accepted after September 15, 2009. If you have not submitted a waiver application by that date, you will be enrolled in SHIP for the semester and you will be responsible for the $966 SHIP fee.
Graduate Student Instructors and Researchers may be eligible for remission of the health insurance fee. Please check with your hiring department.
Do you need health insurance for your spouse, children or other dependents? The Student Health Insurance Office can assist you in selecting a plan that best meets your family’s needs. Please contact Kathy Gage, Dependent Insurance Advisor, at (510) 642-5742 for assistance.
For more information about UHS and SHIP, visit the UHS website. If you would like to speak with someone about SHIP, call the Student Health Insurance Office at (510) 642-5700.
General Dependent Insurance Workshop
August 19 — 9:30 to11:30 a.m., Tang Center, 2222 Bancroft, Room 2284
August 24 — 2 to 4 .pm., Tang Center, first floor, Section Club, 2222 Bancroft
September 9 — 2 to 4 p.m., Tang Center, first floor, Section Club, 2222 Bancroft
These workshops will provide a general overview of individual health insurance for adults and children and cover both public programs and private plans.
Coverage for Children and Pregnant Women
September 9 — 2 to 4 p.m., Tang Center, first floor, Section Club, 2222 Bancroft
This workshop is devoted to individual health insurance options for children in low income families and for pregnant women. The format includes a panel discussion by insurance and public program representatives who will provide in-depth information on benefits, eligibility requirements, the enrollment process and premiums, deductibles and co-insurance costs.
RSVP by email. Questions? Contact the Student Health Insurance Office (SHIO) at 642-5700.
Sometimes appearances aren’t deceiving — If it was street theater, its point was very subtle. The day was one of those really hot ones earlier in July, and these folks (a renegade tour group?) stood around Ludwig’s Fountain, seemed to confer briefly, took their shoes and socks off, and then, otherwise fully clothed, jumped in. And splashed around. And took a group picture. And then left. (For those unfamiliar with the lore, the fountain on Sproul Plaza was indeed named, first informally by campus denizens and then with the official might of the Regents, for a dog. A more detailed account is online, in a preview of Harvey Helfand’s useful photographic architectural guidebook to this campus.) (Photo: Dick Corten)
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