Ten UC Merced graduate researchers are gearing up to deliver the most intense three minutes of their academic careers.
Each spring, master’s and Ph.D. students across the campus’s three schools are invited to participate in Grad Slam — a fast‑paced competition that challenges scholars to distill their cutting‑edge research into a crisp, engaging presentation for a general audience.
Two UC Merced graduate students and an alum from the School of Natural Sciences were recently awarded fellowships from the highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
This year, NSF awarded 1,000 GRFP fellowships compared to about 2,000 in previous years.
Earlier this month, Ambarish Varadan competed in UC Merced’s Grad Slam finals and seized the title of Campus Champion.
This was the second time the Quantitative and Systems Biology (QSB) Ph.D. candidate from Fremont vied for the top prize. Last year, he placed second among the top 10 contenders.
UC Merced Foundation Board Trustee Robert Bernstein, M.D., and his wife, Diplomat Jane Binger, Ed.D., have made generous donations to support Grad Slam.
Three UC Merced graduate students and two undergraduate alumni were recently offered fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).
“I am delighted that our students continue to be recognized by the National Science Foundation as some of the nation’s most promising scientists and engineers,” Vice Provost and Graduate Dean Hrant Hratchian said. “Our GRFP awardees and those named as honorable mentions have demonstrated the potential for meaningful achievements in their fields.”
Three UC Merced graduate students and two undergraduate alumni were recently offered fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).
UC Merced’s 2024 NSF GRFP recipients are:
Anthony Alfaro, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from UC Merced in 2022, is a second-year Ph.D. student at UC San Diego in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Who will UC Merced’s Grad Slam champion be?
Cheer on the finalists on April 8 and find out.
Graduate students from UC Merced’s three schools will take the stage to compete in the Graduate Division’s 10th Grad Slam finals.
For Joslyn Conchas, becoming a physician wasn’t always the plan.
“I wanted to be a veterinarian, but that was before I saw firsthand how impactful health disparities are within my community,” she said.
Her grandfather was ill and she witnessed his struggles with the healthcare system while he was in and out of the hospital.
Christi Turner will represent UC Merced and join Nobel laureates from around the world at the 2023 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, June 25-30 in Germany.
Turner, a Quantitative and Systems Biology Ph.D. student from Orange County, was nominated and selected as part of the fourth class of the University of California President’s Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Fellows. The meeting, a one-of-a-kind scholarly summit now in its 72nd year, will focus on physiology and medicine.
UC Merced students Brianna Aguilar-Solis, Diane-Marie Brache-Smith, Sierra Lema and Sarif Morningstar, and alumni Diana Cruz Garcia and Anna Maria Calderon were awarded fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).
The five-year fellowship provides three years of financial support inclusive of an annual stipend of $37,000, as well as access to opportunities for professional development.
