Dear graduate students,

We recognize the rapidly shifting challenge that COVID-19 represents and how it affects your roles as students, researchers, scholars, and educators. For many, the situation has introduced or heightened feelings of uncertainty about how best to pursue your graduate education.

Here are some new and ongoing efforts that Graduate Studies has undertaken with Graduate Council to address graduate student concerns:

Through our various honors and awards programs, Graduate Studies has recognized and celebrated the talent and dedication of dozens of exceptional graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and professors who have a huge impact on the UC Davis campus community through their research, teaching and mentorship.

Fifteen graduate students and postdoctoral scholars from the University of California, Davis, have been named the 2020-2021 fellows in the Professors for the Future (PFTF) program. Established in 1992, Professors for the Future is a year-long competitive fellowship program designed to develop the leadership skills of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who have demonstrated their commitment to professionalism, integrity, and academic service.

On May 1, Graduate Studies announced that it will be hosting its Virtual Celebration on June 11.  All eligible graduate students were sent a personalized email with directions describing how to register for the virtual celebration.  Graduates will have the opportunity to create a personalized slide and their names will also be pre-recorded by a professional name reader. The Virtual Celebrations will be available on the Graduate Studies Commencement webpage on June 11 at 10:00 a.m.

Recognizing the exceptional and stressful times that we are in, Graduate Studies and the Academic Senate engaged in discussions to determine ways to increase grading and course flexibilities that we know are needed to support graduate students.

Vice Provost and Dean Jean-Pierre Delplanque addresses National Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week and some of the challenges that graduate students face in the current environment. 

Due to the shelter-in-place order and the ongoing Coronavirus situation, UC Davis Graduate Studies has decided to cancel the 2020 UC Davis Grad Slam final round event on April 7. 

“We’re truly saddened by the event’s cancellation,” said Jean-Pierre Deplanque, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies. “This year’s participants have worked tirelessly to develop and refine their research presentations, but the rapidly changing situation made it impossible to proceed with an in-person event.” 

Second-year mechanical and aerospace engineering Ph.D. student Leslie Allyn Simms was selected to attend the 70th annual Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting from June 27 – July 2, 2021 in Lindau, Germany.

We know the recent news and uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19) may require you to assess current plans for Spring Quarter research and instruction in conjunction with your PIs, advisors, chairs, and instructors of record. As such, we would like to draw your attention to some recent campus guidance that is of particular importance to graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

Once again, UC Davis graduate programs ranked among the nation’s best in the 2021 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools (March 17).

The list reveals new rankings for business, law, education, engineering, medical and nursing programs. The annual Best Graduate Schools rankings are based on different types of data: survey results relating to academic excellence and statistical indicators that assess the achievements of a program or school’s students and faculty.

 UC Grad Slam is an annual contest in which master’s and Ph.D. students across UC campuses – in disciplines ranging from hard sciences to humanities – compete to sum up their research for a general audience. Students present the significance and fundamental points of their work at UC Davis in a clear, direct and interesting manner. Finalist Amelia Munson is a graduate student in the Animal Behavior program.

UC Grad Slam is an annual contest in which master’s and Ph.D. students across UC campuses – in disciplines ranging from hard sciences to humanities – compete to sum up their research for a general audience. Students present the significance and fundamental points of their work at UC Davis in a clear, direct and interesting manner. Finalist Kristina Rodriguez is a graduate student in the Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership program.

UC Grad Slam is an annual contest in which master’s and Ph.D. students across UC campuses – in disciplines ranging from hard sciences to humanities – compete to sum up their research for a general audience. Students present the significance and fundamental points of their work at UC Davis in a clear, direct and interesting manner. Finalist Kayce Mastrup is a graduate student in the Education Ph.D. program.

UC Grad Slam is an annual contest in which master’s and Ph.D. students across UC campuses – in disciplines ranging from hard sciences to humanities – compete to sum up their research for a general audience. Students present the significance and fundamental points of their work at UC Davis in a clear, direct and interesting manner. Finalist Peter Joseph Torres is a graduate student in the Linguistics program.

 UC Grad Slam is an annual contest in which master’s and Ph.D. students across UC campuses – in disciplines ranging from hard sciences to humanities – compete to sum up their research for a general audience. Students present the significance and fundamental points of their work at UC Davis in a clear, direct and interesting manner. Finalist Ellen Lai is a graduate student in the Integrative Genetics and Genomics program.