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UC Davis NSF GRFP Informational Meeting Announcements
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2013-14 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program(NSF GRFP)
UCD NSF GRFP INFORMATION MEETINGS
Tuesday, October 9, 2012 | 3:30 – 5 pm (no RSVP required):
ROOM 1005 Auditorium, Genome and Biomedical Sciences Bldg
Keynote Speaker: Professor Rob Berman, Professor, Neurological Surgery, MIND Institute
Guest Speakers include Professor Barbara Horwitz, Neurology, Physiology & Behavior and
Professor Enoch Baldwin, Molecular & Cellular Biology
Current NSF GRFP Awardees: Christopher Cunningham, Neuroscience | Katherine Isaacs, Computer Science, Aimee Bryan, Chemistry | Lisa Anderson, Chemistry
AND
Wednesday, OCTOBER 10, 2012 | 12:10- 1:30PM:
Multi-purpose Room, Student Community Center
Keynote Speaker: Professor Mark Schwartz, Environmental Science & Policy, Population Biology
Professor Louie Yang, Entomology
Current NSF GRFP Recipients: Aimee Bryan, Chemistry | TBA
Meeting: Former and current NSF GRFP National reviewers (above) and recent graduate student recipients will present an informative overview of the application, offering invaluable tips and advice to potential applicants. Sample essays will also be available.
Program Description
The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in the relevant science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines* pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees, including women in engineering and computer and information science.
Amount: $30,000 stipend and $12,000 cost of education annually for up to three years.
Eligibility: applicants must not have completed more than 12 months of full-time graduate study or the equivalent (senior undergraduates, 1st and 2nd year graduate students are generally eligible). In addition, applicants must have US citizenship, permanent resident or US national status at the time of application. Applicant must be accepted and enrolled in a US university graduate program at the time of the award.
Deadline: mid November 2012 (varies by discipline)
Fields of Study(research-based): Computer & Information Science & Engineering, Materials Research, Chemistry, Mathematical Sciences, Physics & Astronomy, Psychology, Social Sciences, STEM Education & Learning, Geosciences, Life Sciences.
For more information and application see URL: https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp/CommonFastlaneLogin.do
The Office of Graduate Studies is pleased to share the results of the 2012-13 competition. UC Davis is now 13th in the nation, with 107 NSF GRFP recipients! The results may be viewed at https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp/CommonFastlaneLogin.do
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Deborah McCook, External Fellowship Advisor, Office of Graduate Studies, 250 Mrak Hall, UC Davis, Davis, CA 95616
Email: dlmccook@ucdavis.edu ~ Ph. No. (530)752-0653 ~ FAX No.: (530)752-6222
Funding and application processing information may be found at the Graduate Studies Website: http://www.gradstudies.ucdavis.edu/ssupport/external.html
Top 10 Best Things To Know As An Incoming Graduate Student
Top 10 Best Things To Know As An Incoming Graduate Student
1. Cite EVERYTHING, especially if it was written by your PI. And make sure you read all those papers as well.
2. Remember that it’s better to be called “roton” than rotten.
3. Establish study groups early, and ask questions if you’re confused.
4. Don’t forget to eat, sleep, and occasionally have some fun (outside of lab)
5. Become friends with the lab technician- they know where everything is and how to operate it.
6. Liquid nitrogen is cold, very cold. Likewise, Bunsen burners are hot, very hot.
7. Go out to lunch with your fellow first years- they understand best what you are going through, and 20 years from now they might be reviewing your papers.
8. Don’t be afraid of cockroaches, dead mice, or Drosophila. They’ll turn up in the most unlikely places.
9. If you don’t like a lab after 5 weeks, you are definitely not going to like it after 5 years.
10. Get organized- keep a calendar and a list of things to do. 5 years feels like all the time in the world, but goes by incredibly fast.
Good luck first years
-BMCDB Bloggers
Tips for riding your bike around UC Davis
This first week of all the students being back in Davis is an exciting time but, also a hazardous time. The main danger being, riding your bike in a sea of inexperienced freshmen who are unfamiliar with the rules of the road and the responsibilities of riding a bike in Davis. Here are some tips to help avoid an embarrassing, costly and potentially harmful situation on your bike.
First tip: Get familiar with the laws/rules for riding a bike. Cops in Davis will pull you over and ticket you on your bike for: running a stop sign or red light, not using your hand to signal, riding with both headphones in (one is alright), riding inebriated (can lead to losing your drivers license) or otherwise irresponsibly/dangerously, and I think most importantly – for not having a bike light at night. A strong front light, back light, and ideally white or reflective clothing are strongly recommended while biking at night. Also, be familiar with the signs and be careful not to ride your bike in certain areas where it is forbidden (the MU and in certain sections of the Arboretum).
Second Tip: Pay attention while entering/exiting rotaries on campus! Most sensible people are familiar with the rotaries, but unfortunately most freshman are not very sensible. Technically the riders in the rotary have the right of way. Bikes entering the rotary must yield to bikes already in the rotary however, do not count on other riders to adhere to this rule. Many people will just bike right into a rotary without looking, so just be aware of this. When exiting the rotary it is never a bad idea to signal, and check over your shoulder that you will not hit another rider as you turn out of the rotary. Also be wary of actual traffic in the rotaries, buses, trucks, and cops can cause mass confusion when a high volume of bike traffic is present. Rotaries mishaps account for the majority of collisions and injuries on campus, so just be careful!
Third tip: Don’t be afraid to speak up! While riding around campus, especially around lunch of in between classes you will run into groups of slow moving bikes or people walking in the bike lane. Occasionally you can easily pass them by, but it is often necessary to alert those blocking the way of your presence. Just a quick “On your left/right” can save you from getting nailed by a swerving bike or errant pedestrian. Also very helpful with riders who are unable to ride in a straight line or are completely unaware of their surroundings (be especially aware of Cruiser bikes as they tend to be harder to control).
Davis is a great place to ride a bike, just make sure you do it safely and responsibly. If anyone has any other recommendations or stories please feel free to chime in!
Updates: When walking in a bike lane, remember to walk on the left side so you can see oncoming traffic. It is also a good idea to buy a U-lock, almost any other kind of lock can be easily cut (and there is nothing worse than finishing a long day in lab, and finding out that your bike has been stolen). Also a good idea to register your bike with the campus police for a variety of reasons.
Pro tip: As we transition from Summer/Fall into winter remember that the weather changes dramatically. Equipping yourself with splash guards on your front and rear bike tires can save you from getting an impromtu mud facial next time it rains. Riding your bike in the rain is not that bad, as long as you have the right equipment. Getting a solid rain jacket, rain pants, and a pair of water resistant gloves will make you much happier when you arrive at your destination.
Happy Riding!
-Gordon
Top 10 Tips to Succeed in your PhD
The Soapbox Science Blog this morning has a post titled “Top 10 Tips to Succeed in your PhD“. I agree with most of the tips, especially the one tip to write at every opportunity. I find that I have more opportunities to give presentations, such as group meetings, colloquia, the student seminar series, etc and relatively few opportunities to write. As a result I have polished powerpoint slides, but find myself toiling to put words to paper when I need to write.
I was surprised that the list lacked one tip: Read everything- read papers in your field, read papers related to your field, and read papers completely unrelated to what you are doing. While writing may be more important to practice, reading will give you a mental picture of what your writing should look like. Reading outside your field will also give you a new set of perspectives and ways of approaching your own set of questions. If you only read in your field you will be stuck replicating experiments others have done and published, but if you read outside your field you will be exposed to new techniques. As PhD student we have the time to read, and we have the freedom to learn new techniques. Reading is the gateway to bringing new ideas into your work.
Tammy Titan Bloom and UC Davis Botanical Conservatory Picture Show
Seen through the eyes of a yeast biologist, the ‘Tammy” Titan made quite a visual (and odorous) showing this past weekend. In nature the flower blooms for 24hrs or less if pollinated, in the green house it lasted about 36 hours in a spectacular and all to rare showing. Enjoy my take on it below:
BMCDB Editorial: UC Davis’s Own LEED Platinum Sustainable Winery
By Gordon Walker
With much thanks to Dr. Roger Boulton of UCD V&E
UC Davis is an innovative and amazing University that excels in many areas. From our roots as a Land Grant Agricultural school to our myriad of nationally ranked departments, graduate groups, and professional schools; no facility stands out as much, or is as representative of the true Davis spirit than the Pilot Winery, Brewery and Food Processing facility at the Robert Mondavi Institute on the south side of campus. The building is the culmination and crowning jewel of the RMI, which was made possible by an incredibly generous donation from the late great Robert G. Mondavi. Since starting at Davis I have had the chance to watch the building go from a construction site, to a fully operational research facility that is not only revolutionizing the science of food, wine, and beer but also pushing the boundaries of sustainable architecture and agriculture. This building has been LEED Platinum certified, meaning that it meets and exceeds the requirements of the US Green Building Council to be a “green building”. What is so amazing is that this is not just a “green” building but also a functional research facility capable of super sustainable food and beverage production. This building can serve as a model not only for wineries of the future, but also as a starting point for any structure or complex.
The winery features 152 mobile modular fermenters with the capability to do real time wireless monitoring of sugar levels, allowing students to actually track and manage their fermentations through their smart phones. These 152 fermenters are also linked to a ventilation system that works to sequester and trap carbon dioxide as calcium carbonate, this system greatly reduces cooling costs in the winery and provides a value added product. The brewery features a state of the art Clean In Place (CIP) system that allows the entire brewing process to be done “in line” without any chance for contamination. The brewery also features a state of the art computerized brewery management system which allows students to mimmic commercial conditions but in small scale productions. The food processing facility is a large modular set of machines with capabilities to process a wide variety of crops such as tomatoes, peaches, almonds and other California staples. There is even a soon to be opened dairy processing facility that will serve to find practical solutions to problems faced by industry. While I could go on and on about all of the cool features of the Pilot facility, and the soon to be built Jess Jackson Sustainability Building, I will let Dr. Roger Boulton espouse some of the concepts and features that make this project so special.
Watch Dr. Boulton’s incredible power point presentation of the capabilities of the Winery and Jess Jackson Sustainability Building
Dr. Boulton’s Power Point Presentation
Long quote on the importance of the UC Winery Dr. Boulton
First LEED Platinum Winery, one of the highest (the highest?) point scores with 60 out of 69. One of 16 buildings at this level in 2011. It is energy and water positive as a building, probably the only LEED Platinum building to be so. It has gone beyond the LEED points for on-site water and energy, so a friend called it "Platinum plus" The 152 research fermentors make the largest research facility in the world and with its wireless density and temperature sensors, the largest wireless network in the fermentation world. These fermentors has several innovative design features, from carbon capture, water-only heating and cooling for temperature control, mobile and suitable for both red and white wine fermentations. The Jess Jackson Sustainable Winery Building is in the detailed design stage, and will be completed in Feb 2013. It is a passive utility building that will house the membrane systems for the filtration of all rainwater and cleaning solutions. It will house the carbon dioxide sequestration columns that will make calcium carbonate, the passive solar hot water, and the solar powered ice maker for the chilled water. It will make hydrogen electrolyticaly from solar power and store it for a hydrogen fuel cell for night time energy. These systems will be leadership commercial systems that will make the Winery self-sustainable in water and energy from on-site sources. This building will have insulations values between 60 to 80, compared to 20 in most houses. It will be among the most thermally-insulated (and therefore energy-efficient) buildings in the world, cooled only by night-time air. While the summer air temperatures might reach 100 to 105 in Davis, the building will not go above 82 F inside. The rainwater capture from the three buildings of the Robert Mondavi Institute will be held in 6 x 40K gal tanks, like the 4 that are at the south side of the Winery complex. It will be filtered into RO water over a 6 month period. This will require about 1 or 2 KW for 180 days but is a preferred alternative to a filtration that is completed in a week, at 26 times the KW requirement and sits idle for 51 weeks. The entire winery has been planned so that it can operate on storage rather than on-demand systems for all water and energy. The cleaning solutions will be simple inorganic buffers, dilute KOH and KHSO4, at pH around 11 and 2.5 respectively. No pathogens grow in either solution and hydrogen peroxide is a sterilant at both pHs. These solutions can be re-filtered through a nanofilter for 90% recovery of both water and salts. After 10 cycles this will require only 1/5th the usual water and chemistry. The solutions will be pH 7 when mixed and can be used in irrigation without any clay destruction, a problem with sodium salts. There will be no phosphate for algal blooms in streams, no nitrate for soil nitrification, no organic to contribute to BOD (biological oxygen demand) or COD (chemical oxygen demand) requiring waste water treatment. The 10% retentate stream which has most of the juice or wine organics will go to the biodigestor on campus to become biogas. All of these facilities have been privately-funded at a time of recession and financial problems at the State level and budget cuts at UC. It is a stunning example of what is possible without any government support and speaks to the wide array of personal support that we are fortunate to have.
Dr. Roger Boulton gives a tour and explanation of the UC Davis Winery
Here are some other press articles about the innovations of the UC Davis LEED Platinum Pilot Winery, Brewery and Food Processing Facility
Upcoming Shows at the Mondavi Center
We are excited to let you know about upcoming world-class musical performances happening right here on campus! Remember that ALL students get 50% off tickets at the Mondavi Center!
- Garrick Ohlsson, piano-Fri • March 9, 2012 • 8:00 p.m. Since his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of commanding interpretive and technical prowess. Although he has long been regarded as one of the world’s leading exponents of the music of Frédéric Chopin, Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire, as displayed in this intriguing all-Liszt program. For more information visit: http://www.mondaviarts.org/events/event.cfm?event_id=992&season=2011
- Curtis on Tour, strings-Sat • March 10, 2012 and Sun • March 11, 2012 • 8:00 p.m. Curtis On Tour brings the extraordinary artistry of the world-renowned Curtis Institute of Music to audiences worldwide, with tomorrow’s leading musicians performing alongside celebrated alumni and faculty. The Spring 2012 tour celebrates Curtis’s new classical guitar program, launching in 2011-12. Featured performers are Curtis President and renowned violist, Roberto Díaz; new guitar faculty member Jason Vieaux; and two Curtis students. The program includes Paganini’s last guitar quartet, a commissioned piece for strings and guitar by Curtis graduate Zhou Tian, the Kodály Duo for Violin and Cello, and an arrangement of Piazzolla’s Oblivion for guitar and strings. For more information visit: http://www.mondaviarts.org/events/event.cfm?event_id=1035&season=2011
- Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion-Thurs • March 22, 2012 • 8:00 p.m. A classical tabla virtuoso of the highest order, Zakir Hussain’s consistently brilliant and exciting performances have not only established him as a national treasure in his own country, India, but gained him worldwide fame. His playing is marked by uncanny intuition and masterful improvisational dexterity, and his collaborations with John McLaughlin (in Shakti), Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer (featured at the Mondavi Center in 2011), and Van Morrison underscore his astounding musical versatility. He returns to his classical roots for this Masters of Percussion performance, showcasing Indian ragas, rhythms and traditional dance. For more information visit: http://www.mondaviarts.org/events/event.cfm?event_id=1015&season=2011
BMDCB Hobbies: Danny Dranow
In our new series we will be profiling the hobbies (what you do outside of lab) of BMCDB students.
Danny Dranow – Draper Lab
In my spare time at home or when I have some downtime in lab on the weekends, I like to sculpt using either clay or wire. It helps me relax and also gives me a sense of accomplishment in that I could feel like I at least got something done at lab if my experiments fail on the weekends. I usually make a variety of miniature wire animals (centimeters in size), but I’ve made a wide range of things in past, from clay flowers and a miniature AT&T Park to a large cuttlefish and a giraffe Christmas ornament. These days though, most of the larger clay sculptures I make are for friends’ birthday or holiday gifts and are usually requests, sometimes strange, like a “crab playing maracas with a sombrero” (and yes, the maracas actually work). I’m always looking for new ideas and challenges, so if you have any ideas on what I could make, I’d love to hear about them!
If you’re ever by the lab, Life Sciences 3117, feel free to drop by and check out the wire sculptures I have by my desk and if you really want one, just ask; I enjoy sculpting, but I also equally enjoy giving my work away to people who appreciate it.
Editorial-The DEB is a unique graduate program to enhance your PhD experience
By Dr. Judy Kjelstrom, director of the UC Davis Biotechnology Program and Program Coordinator of the DEB graduate program (www.deb.ucdavis.edu)
I recently co-authored a journal article showcasing this innovative graduate program which was established in 1997. We currently have 225 PhD students from 29 graduate programs. The title of this manuscript was “A Collaborative Model for Biotechnology Education and Training”.
Recent reports and a careful analysis of the job market for doctoral graduates suggest that innovative approaches and training models are needed to realign educational practices with 21st century marketplace demands. The Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology (DEB) is a successful model for meeting current training challenges in life science and engineering doctoral programs, which includes formalized coursework, informal training in team-based science, entrepreneurship and effective science communication, and exposure to “real world” research environments via internship experiences. The DEB program is effective not only because of carefully designed curriculum and training activities, but because it is nested within a robust innovation ecosystem, including administrative centers and institutes focused on creating public-private partnerships and brokering new technologies. Within the environment of a technology hub, universities and private partners can bring together diverse groups of individuals to translate ideas into real world applications. This environment gives rise to a social networking mechanism that links the intellectual and human capital of the university with the financial and social capital of the regional marketplace.
Our success is being recognized at the State and National level. I was invited to speak at the Annual California Biomedical Innovation Night on Feb 9, 2012. The focus of my talk was how the DEB graduate program is a successful graduate program that links academia to industry and government. http://californiahealthcareinstitute.blogspot.com/2012/02/speaker-spotlight-judith-kjelstrom-phd.html
As a result of this speaking opportunity, I was interviewed for an article for Science Careers. The focus of the article was how PhD programs can link students to the real world. This is a similar article to the one that was published by Nature Reviews in March 2008. http://www.nature.com/nrd/journal/v7/n3/full/nrd2542.html.
The DEB program was also featured in the 2010 California Biomedical Industry Report by CHI (California Healthcare Institute) as well as an article by Nicole Guimond Gravagna, PhD candidate in Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Denver. The title of the article was “Creating alternatives in science” in the Journal of Commercial Biotechnology (2009) 15, 161 – 170. doi: 10.1057/jcb.2008.51; published online 18 November 2008..
UC Davis and its partners are addressing the need for innovation and entrepreneurship in graduate education and training. By bringing diverse experts from the life sciences, engineering, humanities and business community together, we have built an innovation ecosystem capable of accelerating the translation of research discoveries into real world applications.
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