As we welcome 2,900 or so graduate students to campus this fall, I take this opportunity to advise both new and continuing graduate students about some important deadlines, opportunities, and services.
First, if you are serving as a Graduate Student Instructor this fall, there are a wide range of resources available to you through the Graduate Division's GSI Teaching and Resource Center's website, including an online Teaching Guide for GSIs and award-winning Teaching Effectiveness Award essays written by Berkeley GSIs. Also on that site, you can find the online course “Professional Ethics and Standards for GSIs,” which is required of all first-time GSIs by the end of the third week of teaching, plus a list of this semester's Workshops on Teaching, and other information about the Center's programs.
The Graduate Division Academic Services Unit offers a range of academic and professional development workshops. Students who are beginning to write their dissertations may find the Academic Writing and Dissertation Writing workshops particularly useful. Those students already planning their spring courses may wish to consider GSPDP 320: Academic Writing for Graduate Students, taught by Academic Services Director Sabrina Soracco. More information about the course, workshops, academic writing groups, and writing resources may be found online.
Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS), part of University Health Services, offers a range of services, including individual appointments, emergency counseling, group counseling, referrals, and workshops. In the past two years, CPS has established several satellite counseling centers; a number of these are exclusively for graduate students and allow greater privacy and closer access for many students. A calendar of counseling groups and workshops – from “Health and Wellness Skills” to “Stress Management” to “Graduate Women’s Support” – is available online.
Graduate students interested in providing input about CPS services and resources are encouraged to consider serving on the Graduate Student Mental Health Advisory Committee. This committee of graduate students and staff meets monthly with CPS Director Jeff Prince, Assistant Director Susan Bell, myself, and others. Interested students should contact Susan Bell by email.
Finally, a reminder that the campus has a number of policies and funding opportunities aimed at helping graduate students who have parenting responsibilities. Please see our Student Families web page for more information.
Best wishes for a healthy and productive fall semester!
Best,
Susan J. Muller
Associate Dean of the Graduate Division
Graduate Funding
- A wide menu of possibilities to help fund your graduate education (with application deadlines in the next few months)
Calendar
- Fall lecture events including the highly popular Graduate Division/Graduate Council Lectures, the J-School's series on "The Future of News," and renowned Social Welfare alumna Mu Sochua MSW '81 on "Cambodian Democracy and Human Rights Under Siege," plus writing workshops and more
Kicking Off the Semester
- Grad Division and Grad Assembly say welcome to all, and the School of Public Health says get thee into the community
Graduate Assembly
- An informative invitation from GA President Miguel Daal
In the News
- Five Berkeley-attached scholars and grad alumni are picked as young scientists to watch, and three grad alumni have taken on leadership positions in federal departments
University Health Services
- Graduate student support groups
Texture
- Bring a Child to Work Day: Grad Division's kids came, saw, heard, and tasted
- A little dog watches police chiefs swearing
Listed chronologically by deadline date.
Resources provided by the Graduate Services: Fellowships office
The New York-based American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) runs an extensive competition each year for fellowships and grants competition in the humanities and related social sciences. In its 20089-2009 cycle, ACLS awarded over $10.2 million to 336 scholars in the U.S. and abroad. Deadlines for the competitions begin in mid-September 2009 and run through late January 2010, with most of the dates clustered in the fall. Well over a dozen different competitions are open through the ACLS; the menu includes ACLS’s own fellowships, and the Charles A. Ryskamp Research Fellowships, Andrew W. Mellon/ACLS Early Career Fellowships, the Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships in American Art, American Research in the Humanities in China, a number of East European Studies Program fellowships and grants, and more. Application information for all is available at the ACLS website.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory provides Ph.D. students a unique opportunity to engage in collaborative research activities through employment assignments that are aligned with LLNL's mission. This year the program has been expanded to include all Ph.D.-granting universities in California and the Texas A&M University. The student's research must be part of the pursuit of a Ph.D. degree and must be carried out at LLNL. Appointments are awarded on a competitive basis according to the quality of the proposed research program and the strength of the collaborative team.Appointments may be awarded to students pursuing a Ph.D. in physics, astrophysics, laser science, chemistry, engineering, computer science, biology, materials science, and related disciplines. Successful applicants can be supported for a maximum of 4 years. More information is available online or from Christine Zachow by phone (925-423-0633) or email. Applications are due by September 18, 2009.
The fellowships honor Ernest Orlando Lawrence, for whom the Livermore and Berkeley national laboratories are named (along with the Lawrence Hall of Science and element 103, lawrencium). He taught physics here, and became the university’s youngest full professor. A visionary researcher, he invented the cyclotron, assembling (with the help of some graduate students) a particle accelerator that made many discoveries in nuclear physics possible and gained Lawrence the Nobel Prize, the beginning of Berkeley’s long string. As the first director of Berkeley’s Radiation Laboratory (nicknamed the Rad Lab, now called Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), Lawrence earned a label as “the father of big science,” pioneering the idea of doing research with multidisciplinary teams of scientists and engineers. Instrumental in releasing the nuclear genie from the bottle, he also sought its control. His last trip abroad, prior to his death 50 years ago at the age of 57, was to Geneva, to join negotiations with the Soviet Union on a treaty to ban the testing of nuclear weapons.The Michigan Society of Fellows invites applications to its postdoctoral fellowship program for recent Ph.D.s in the humanities, arts, sciences, and professions. These three-year positions at the University of Michigan are open to recent Ph.D.s who wish to pursue research opportunities while teaching at a major research university. Eight fellowships are available, each with an annual stipend of $51,500. Four of these fellowships will be awarded in the humanities, with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Applications must be submitted electronically by 11:59 p.m. September 30, 2009. The application is available online.
The Michigan Society of Fellows was established in 1970 with grants from the Ford Foundation and the Horace H. and Mary Rackham funds. Horace Rackham, for whom the University of Michigan’s graduate school and the building that houses it are named, was a lawyer, neighbor of Henry Ford’s, and one of the first investors in the Ford Motor Company. He sold his shares in 1919 to Edsel Ford for $12.5 million and spent the rest of his life as a philanthropist.
The Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies (in the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs) offers an unusual opportunity for recent Ph.D.s and advanced graduate students in the social sciences, history, and law. It seeks outstanding scholars at the start of their careers whose work combines disciplinary excellence with a command of the language, history, or culture of non-Western countries or regions. It makes four two-year appointments that include generous stipends, research and travel funding, and provides office space and administrative support, with full access to all of Harvard’s academic resources; recipients have no obligations except to pursue their research and studies. Some teaching is permitted but not required. There is no application form. For more information on the program, and instructions on how to apply, see the program’s web page. Application materials are due October 1, 2009.
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 U.S. Department of Education is now accepting applications for the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program. Javits Fellows receive up to four years of support (fees plus a need-based stipend of up to $30,000 per year) for doctoral/MFA study in select fields of the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Only those who will be in their first or second year of graduate study in 2010-2011 are eligible; the competition is generally limited to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Fellowship applications are submitted directly to the Department of Education; see the DOE’s ED.gov website for details and instructions. The application deadline is October 5, 2009. For questions about the fellowship, contact Solomon Lefler by email or phone (510) 643-7477.
Jacob Javits was U.S. Senator from New York from 1957 to 1981. The fellowship was named for him.
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.
These fellowships encourage original and significant research about gender that crosses disciplinary, regional, or cultural boundaries. Previous recipients have explored such topics as women, race, and AIDS; lesbian spaces and economy; debating family values; race and pornolgraphy; and international marriage migration. The fellowships — $3,000 for expenses connected with the dissertation — are provided to Ph.D. candidates who will complete their dissertations during the fellowship year. The most competitive applications include not only a clear, thorough, and compelling description of the candidate’s work, but also evidence of an enduring interest in and commitment to women’s issues and scholarship on women. Applications and further information are available online. Application and supporting documents must be received by October 11, 2009.
Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States and to date remains the only American president to have earned a Ph.D. (his was in political science, from Johns Hopkins University. His dissertation, entitled “Congressional Government,” became an influential book and helped him land teaching positions at Bryn Mawr , Wesleyan, and, within five years, Princeton. Seven years and two more books later, he was president of Princeton, the first layman to head the institution, which began as a training ground for Presbyterian ministers. Eight years there were followed by two as governor of New Jersey, then two terms as President which were punctuated by historic legislation and the outbreak of World War I. Although absent from most of our wallets, Wilson’s visage is the most prominent feature on the U.S. $100,000 bill. 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.
These fellowships, for up to two years, are for graduate study in the professions and academic disciplines at any institution in the United States. A New American is a person who holds a Green Card, has been naturalized at a U.S. citizen, or is the child of two parents who are both naturalized citizens. For full eligibility information and the application, see the program’s website. Completed applications must be postmarked by November 1, 2009.
Paul and Daisy Soros are both Hungarian immigrants and American philanthropists. They established their fellowship program for New Americans in December 1997 with a charitable trust of fifty million dollars in order to "give back" to the country that had afforded them and their children such great opportunities by assisting young New Americans at a critical point in their education. They also wanted to signal to all Americans that the contributions of New Americans to the quality of life in this country have been manifold. Since the program’s founding, there have been twelve rounds of competition, during which nearly 11,000 individuals have applied for the fellowships. In the twelve competitions, 354 fellowships have been given. There are now 61 Fellows at 20 universities undertaking graduate study in 18 different fields. There are also 293 alumni. This program was established in 1984 to encourage outstanding women and minority Ph.D. recipient to pursue academic careers at the University of California. The current program offers postdoctoral research fellowships and faculty mentoring to qualified scholars committed to university careers in research, teaching, and service that will enhance the diversity of the academic community at UC. Their contributions may include public service addressing the needs of our increasingly diverse society, efforts to advance equitable access to higher education for women and minorities, or research focusing on underserved populations or understanding issues of racial or gender inequalities. The program is seeking applicants with the potential to bring to their academic careers the critical perspective that comes from their non-traditional educational background or understanding of the experiences of members of groups historically underrepresented in higher education. Fellowships are awarded for research conducted under faculty sponsorship on any one of the 10 UC campuses. Fifteen to 20 postdoctoral fellowships are awarded every year. The annual award is for $40,000 to 50,000, depending on the field and level of experience. The award includes stipend, health, vision and dental benefits, and up to $4,000 for research-related expenses. Each award is for a 12-month period, renewable for one year upon demonstration of academic productivity and participation in program events. Fellowships are awarded through competitions open to citizens and permanent residents of the United States. Applications from qualified persons are accepted and reviewed without regard to race, gender, or ethnicity. Only those who anticipate completion of their Ph.D. degrees by June 30, 2010 should apply. The online application is available at the program website. The application deadline is November 2, 2009. For further information, contact Kimberly Adkinson by phone (643-6566) or email.
The NPSC offers multi-year fellowships for graduate students in the physical sciences and related engineering disciplines. Fellowships are awarded in conjunction with sponsoring employers, who also provide paid summer employment. The NPSC seeks a broad applicant pool with special emphasis on underrepresented minorities and women; all eligible U.S. citizens may apply. Application information and instructions can be found online. The application deadline is November 5, 2009.
These fellowships, for 12 months of full-time dissertation research and writing, are designed to encourage original and significant study of ethical or religious values in all fields of the humanities and social sciences, and particularly to help Ph.D. candidates in these fields complete their dissertation work in a timely manner. In addition to topics in religious studies or in ethics (philosophical or religious), dissertations appropriate to the Newcombe Fellowship might explore religiouis tolerance, human rights, spiritual beliefs in comparative perspective, justice, or racial and gender equity. The stipend, raised this year, is $25,000 for a 12-month period of full-time dissertation writing. The Newcombe Fellowships are administered with the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Applications and further information are available online. Application and supporting documents must be received by November 15, 2009.
Charlotte W. Newcombe (1890-1979) was a Philadelphia philanthropist and world traveler. She never attended college; with vision impaired from childhood, she couldn’t read long enough to make serious study possible. But she greatly valued higher education and sent the children of many of her friends to college. In her will, she established the Charlotte W. Newcombe Foundation to continue her scholastic giving. 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 2010. The fields are broken into three time dimensions. For the Past category, the field is March Toward Democracy; for the Present category, Literature – Renditon of the 20th Century; and for the Future category, Computers and Telecommunications. The application deadline for the scholarships is March 31, 2010. More information is available online. The nomination deadline for the Dan David Prize itself (three given, one for each category, $1 million per) is November 30, 2009.
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. (One of last year’s winners of the Dan David Prize is UC Berkeley physicist Paul Richards, who earned his Ph.D. here in 1960.) 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 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).
Two Years Before The Masthead — 51 people from 10 different states and four different countries (the U.K., China, Brazil, and France) are the new crop in the Graduate School of Journalism, beginning the two-year master’s degree program in that field. At their orientation they were welcomed by David Corvo B.A.’72 (right), vice president of NBC News, executive producer of Dateline, and former editor of the Daily Californian. In the coming months, they’ll have a chance to hear from a succession of distinguished J-School alumni, as will we all, in the schools “The Future of News” speaker series. See below under September 16. (Photos: group by Betty Bastidas, Corvo by Peg Skorpinski)
Graduate Division Calendar
Campus Events Calendar
Denotes Graduate Division sponsored event
Mu Sochua M.S.W. ’81
(Photo: Lucia de Giovanni)
September 14 (Monday)
Cambodian Democracy and Human Rights Under Siege: One Woman’s Fight
4 p.m., Goldberg Room, Boalt Hall
The School of Social Welfare presents its renowned alumna Mu Sochua — opposition leader, social worker, and women's rights advocate — who will give the Walter Friedlander Memorial Lecture. She will discuss her years battling sex trafficking, domestic violence against women, government corruption and land grabs in Cambodia, and the court case that has now attracted the attention of the U.N. High Commission on Human Rights.
September 16 (Wednesday) and dates in October and November
The Future of News
A speaker series presented by the Graduate School of Journalism that will feature, among others, its own distinguished alumni. More details are available on the J-school site.
Left to Right: Novella Carpenter, Michelle Goldberg (Photo: Matt Ipcar), John Battelle, David Pescovitz.
September 16 — “Writing Books in a Futuristic Age ” with Novella Carpenter M.J. ‘07, author of Farm City: Education of an Urban Farmer.
September 23 — “The Future of Local Radio” with news directors from KALW, KGO, KQED, and others.
October 7 — “The Future of the Documentary” with the producers of “Sound Tracks,” a new series for PBS that mixes journalism, travel, and music. Includes a sneak preview of the pilot episode.
October 12 — “Women’s Future: Journalism and Reproduction” with Rachael Lehmann-Haupt M.J. ’97, author of In Her Own Sweet Time: Unexpected Adventures in Finding Love, Commitment, and Motherhood, and Michelle Goldberg M.J. ’98, author of The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World.
October 15 — “Finding Success in Digital Media” with John Battelle B.A. ’87, M.J. ’92 (founder of Federated Media Publishing, The Industry Standard, and Wired magazine), and David Pescovitz M.J. ’95 (co-editor of the blog BoingBoing.net).
October 21 — “The New York Times and International News in the Digital Age” with Gregory Winter M.J. ’00, editor on the foreign desk of the New York Times.
September 17 (Thursday)
Forum: Technology, Democracy, and the Law
2 to 4:30 p.m., Great Hall, Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Way
Featured speaker: Steven Usselman, associate professor in the School of History, Technology, and Society at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Presented by UC Berkeley’s Institute for Legal Research, the forum is sponsored by the Jefferson Memorial Lectureship in conjunction with the campus commemoration of Constitution Day.
September 23 (Wednesday) and dates in October and November
Graduate Division Academic Services Workshops
Preregistation is required. To preregister for any of these workshops, see the Academic Services GROW calendar online (http://grad.berkeley.edu/acapro/grow/shtmil)
September 23 — “Academic Writing: Grants, Papers, and Publications”
2 to 3:30 p.m., 370 Dwinelle Hall
October 7 — “How to Write an Academic Grant Proposal”
Noon to 1:30 p.m., 370 Dwinelle Hall
October 14 — “Strategies and Skills for Mentoring: A Workshop for Graduate Students”
Noon to 1:30 p.m., 370 Dwinelle Hall
November 4 — “Writing the Dissertation: Strategies and Pitfalls”
Noon to 1:30 p.m., 370 Dwinelle Hall
November 18 — “Scientific and Technical Writing”
Noon to 1:30 p.m., 370 Dwinelle Hall
September 25 (Friday)
NSF Graduate Reseach Fellowship Application Workshop
11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Dado and Maria Banatao Auditorium, 310 Sutardja Dai Hall
(find it on the UCB interactive map; read about the new building)
This workshop, co-sponsored by the Graduate Division’s Graduate Services: Fellowships Office and College of Engineering Student Services (ESS), will give you valuable tips to help you strengthen your application. Speakers will include UC Berkeley’s NSF fellowship coordinator, a Berkeley faculty and fellowship review committee member, and three current Berkeley NSF fellows. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowships are for U.S. citizens who are in the early stages of their graduate study. Individuals are typically eligible to apply during the senior year of college or prior to or during the first year of graduate school. NSF supports fields in the sciences, math, and engineering. For more information, come to the Graduate Services: Fellowships Office, 318 Sproul Hall, or contact Michael Sacramento, NSF fellowship coordinator, at (510) 642-7739, or by e-mail.
September 28 (Monday)
Workshop on the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans
3 to 4 p.m., 333 Sproul Hall
Warren F. Ilchman, director of the Soros Fellowships for New Americans program, will talk about the program and answer questions about the fellowship. Note: applications for this fellowship are due November 1; see Graduate Funding above for more information.
October 14 and 15 (Wednesday and Thursday)
Charles M. and Martha Hitchcock Lectures
4:10 p.m., Chevron Auditorium, International House
Two lectures by Nobel Laureate Leon Lederman
Wednesday: “A Scientist Addresses Science Education”
Thursday: “A Sense of Wonder”
Part of the Graduate Council Lectures series presented by the Graduate Division and the Academic Senate’s Graduate Council.
October 21 (Wednesday)
Foerster Lectures on the Immortality of the Soul
“Explaining Transformation: Material Miracles and Their Theorists in the Later Middle Ages”
4:10 p.m., Lipman Room, eighth floor of Barrows Hall
Caroline Walker Bynum, professor of medieval European history, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey. Part of the Graduate Council Lectures series presented by the Graduate Division and the Academic Senate’s Graduate Council.
October 26 (Monday)
Carl O. Sauer Memorial Lecture:
“Carl O. Sauer: A Life Remembered”
POSTPONED Monday, October 26, 2009 – 4:10 p.m.
Michael Williams, emeritus professor of geography and distinguished reseach associate in the School of Geography and the Environment at Oxford University. The Sauer Lecture was established in 1976 in memory of Carl Sauer, one of the most influential geographers of the 20th century. Sauer chaired Berkeley’s geography department for 31 years, helped bring prominence to the discipline beyond the east coast in the United States, and was instrumental in developing the graduate geography program at this campus. This is the second time Sauer has been the primary focus of a lecture in his namesake series.
November 11 (Wednesday)
Academic and administrative holiday
November 26 and 27 (Thursday and Friday)
Academic and administrative holiday
December 4 (Friday)
Formal classes end
NOTE: December 4 is the last day to request a change in grading option or add/drop a class without approval of the Graduate Dean.
December 7 through 11 (Monday through Friday)
Reading/Review/Recitation Period
December 11 (Friday)
Last day of instruction
December 12 through 19 (Saturday through Saturday)
Final examinations
December 19 (Saturday)
Fall semester ends
On all but the foggiest days, the glass walls of the Student Union’s Pauley Ballroom provide a sweeping view of Berkeley’s trees and iconic buildings, an especially appropriate feature when you’re holding an orientation for new students. That’s exactly what was happening there August 24, which was both clear and quite warm. Plenty of useful words and a modicum of refreshments were provided by the Graduate Division (which monitors and assists your academic progress) and the Graduate Assembly, your representative government. Specific welcomes came from Andrew Szeri (at right immediately below), dean of the Graduate Division, and physics grad student Miguel Daal, president of the Graduate Assembly (at the microphone, center left below). The rousing keynote speaker, city and regional planning professor Ananya Roy (at microphone, center right below), urged students to become active in the full range of their lives — academic, campus, and community. A fully-functioning example of what she preaches, Roy, a two-degree alumna of Berkeley (M.C.P. ’94 and Ph.D. ’99), won both the Academic Senate’s Distinguished Teaching Award and the Graduate Assembly’s award for distinguished faculty mentoring in 2006, and last year won the ASUC’s Golden Apple Teaching Award. She helped establish the Urban Studies major, co-directs the Global Metropolitan Studies Center, is education director of the Blum Center for Developing Economies, serves on over 40 doctoral committees in nine graduate programs, and is widely appreciated for candidly speaking her mind.
Photos: Dick Cortén
No sooner had the incoming graduates students in public health had their orientation on August 25 than they were organized into teams and deployed where they were needed as volunteers. Eighty-five of them spent the afternoon performing public service at nonprofit organizations throughout Berkeley.
This was the School of Public Health’s Volunteer Mobilization Day, now in Year Five and co-sponsored by the City of Berkeley.
Following a kickoff gathering in the student union, teams of volunteers were deployed to any of six pre-approved sites where they performed a range of activities such as landscaping a park, stenciling "No Dumping" on storm drains, and working with seniors at an intermediate-care facility.
"The students' roles as future leaders is something that we stress throughout their experience at the School of Public Health," said its dean, Stephen Shortell. "During tough times especially, it is up to leaders to step up and take positive action to improve people's lives.” The school has them doing that from Day One.
Photos: Peg Skorpinski
Dear Cal Grad Students,
Welcome to the 2009-10 academic year. I want to encourage you to get involved with the Graduate Assembly, the graduate student government here at Cal.
The Graduate Assembly does three primary things. We advocate for graduate students and graduate student interests at the UCB, UC, state and national levels. We provide funding to graduate students and graduate student groups. We foster interdepartmental community, broadly support graduate students and under served graduate student groups with the Graduate Assembly projects. To learn more about who we are and what we do, please visit us online.
The Assembly is made up of graduate student representatives from all across the UC Berkeley campus. It meets once a month in the Eshleman Hall Senate Chambers. We encourage you to represent your department as a Graduate Assembly Delegate or Alternate by completing the Delegate Certification Form. Another way to get involved is to represent graduate student interests on an Academic Senate, administrative or UC Office of the President committee. The Graduate Assembly appoints graduate students to these committees. More information can be found online.
Sincerely,
Miguel Daal
Berkeley has long supplied the nation and the world with able people, their practicality, and their vision, from the highest court in the land (past U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Chief Justice Earl Warren B.A. ’12, J.D. ’14) to the President’s brain trust (current U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu Ph.D. ’76 — during which study he was supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship) and at the state and community levels.
Physics Nobelist Steven Chu was featured in the August 24 issue of Time magazine under the discipline-bending headline “The Political Scientist” (which has morphed in the online version to “Can Steven Chu Win the Fight Over Global Warming?”). A teaser on the cover read “The Energy Secretary’s Wonky Quest to Save the World.”
With or without their Berkeley affiliations, their names come up frequently in connection with improvements in science, technology, and the society.
Just recently, Technology Review magazine announced its annual “Young Innovators Under 35,” and three Berkeley-attached scholars were on the list — Ali Javey, Dawn Song, and Cyrus Wadia. Two of the three, Song (Ph.D. 02) and Wadia (Ph.D. ’08) are grad alumni. Also on that list are two young scientists at other universities, Jeffrey Heer of Stanford and Michelle Khine of UC Irvine, who each have three degrees from Berkeley.
From left: Ali Javey, Dawn Song, Cyrus Wadi, Jeffrey Heer, and Michelle Khine
Ali Javey, 29, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences. He “paints” nanowires into electronic circuits and combines electrical engineering, materials science, chemistry, and physics to engineer nanomaterials for technological applications that include cheap solar cells and high-resolution displays.
Alumna Dawn Song, 34, defeats malicious software, or malware, through automated software analysis, automating the defense system through filters that detect known patterns in malicious code and stop it in its tracks. Her research has already been incorporated into Google’s Chrome browser. She is an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences.
Alumnus Cyrus Wadia, 34, co-directs the Cleantech-to-Market program in the Haas School of Business and is a visiting scholar at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.. He is recognized for his work in developing solar cell technology on a scale that could meet global electicity demand in cost-effective ways. With collaborators, he has developed two novel nano-material systems based on iron pyrite and copper sulfide which could replace the expensive silicon now used in most photovoltaics.
Alumnus Jeffrey Heer, 30, is an assistant professor in Stanford’s computer science department. He led a project that created easy-to-use open-source visualization software called Provotis that enables people with only token programming skills to concentrate on designing visualizations rather than worrying about how to structure complex computer code. Heer is a three-degree Berkeley alum: B.S. 01, M.S. ’04, and Ph.D. ’08.
Alumna Michelle Khine, 32, armed with three Cal degrees (B.S. ’99, M.S. ’01, Ph.D. ’05), started her faculty career at UC Merced in 2006 and recently moved to UC Irvine, where she is an assistant professor in the biomechanical engineering department. Something of a dynamo, she has formed two startup companies, one based on her dissertation work and the other related to her solution to limits she encountered when setting up a new lab as the Merced campus was getting off the ground. She needed to make microfluidic chips, a process normally done on a hundred-thousand-dollar machine her lab didn’t, and wouldn’t, have. Inspired by the memory of Shrinky Dinks, her favorite childhood toy, Khine used AutoCAD to design microfluidic channels, printed the design on clear Shrinky Dink plastic, and shrank it in a toaster oven. The result, plus some flexible polymer called PDMS, resulted in exactly the tiny channels she required — in minutes. Her stopgap solution, while not suited to highly precise applications, saves gobs of money and time, and puts microfluidic prototyping into the hands of nearly any lab. Her newer company, Shrink Nanotechnologies, is listed on Nasdaq as INKN.
Therese McMillan
Robert Bertini
Federal government agencies consistently recruit Berkeley-trained talent. In August alone, that we’ve had word of, the Department of Transportation has filled two top posts with Berkeley grad alumni, Therese McMillan as number two (deputy administrator) in the Federal Transit Administration and Robert Bertini as deputy administrator of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration. McMillan received two master’s degrees here in 1984 (she was the first joint-degree student in the city planning and transportation engineering program), and has been a member of Oakland’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission since that year. Bertini, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Portland State University, worked for San Mateo County and in industry before joining the PSU faculty in 2000, the year after he was awarded his Berkeley Ph.D. in civil engineering.
Robert Bertini photo: Kelly J. James, courtesy of Portland State University.
Glenda
Humiston
Glenda Humiston, a Northern California rancher who finished her Ph.D. in environmental science and policy management at Berkeley this year, is in the opening days of her second presidential appointment. She received a call from the White House Sunday evening, August 23, confirming her as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s California State Director of Rural Development, and the next day she was attending her first meetings in Washington, D.C. She previously was deputy undersecretary of agriculture during the second term of Bill Clinton’s presidency. Her focus in her Ph.D. program was farm policy, and her passion now is the sustainability of our food supply. As a grad student, she was also, in 2007-08, co-chair of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on the LGBT Community at Cal.
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.
Photos: Ellen Gobler
Ranging in age from two to 10, a lively bunch of kids of staff members in the Graduate Division and the Ombuds Office for Students (both quartered in Sproul Hall) had a full agenda on "Bring a Child to Work Day" July 23, but it wasn't all meetings and stapling. Yes, this was where Mom or Dad worked — but they also got to tour the UC Police Department, including its small holding cell, and meet Morgan, the friendly bomb-sniffing dog, watch the Cal Straw Hat Band perform at Sather Gate, and see the huge T-rex skeleton and other treasures of the Valley Life Sciences Building. They lunched at Crossroads (courtesy of Cal Dining), took a Fun Tour of campus, learned some yoga from Graduate Division's assistant development director Karyn Krause, had storytime (conducted by public policy alumna Anat Shenker), and were ultimately rewarded with a "diploma" from Graduate Division Associate Dean Joseph Duggan.
Photos: Peg Skorpinski
The Thin Blue Climb — The incoming and outgoing chiefs of the UC Police Department mount the stairs to Pauley Ballroom, followed by their immediate boss, vice chancellor Nathan Brostrom, and the rank and file of the UCPD. The occasion, on July 31, was the formal swearing-in of Mitchell Celaya (left) as he took over from Victoria Harrison (right). The two are longtime colleagues. Harrison joined the force in 1985 as a lieutenant and became assistant chief the following year, taking charge of the department in 1990. Celaya signed on in 1982 and moved up the ranks, serving as assistant chief for the last three years. Both chiefs had family on hand, and Harrison had a canine friend along, too — definitely more of a civilian than a police dog. Its name is Stormy (and sometimes Bear) and according to this photograph it found the occasion quite tasty.
TopeGrad is produced by Graduate Communications & Events, distributed by email, & 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.