Colleagues and friends:

Yesterday, I had the great privilege of getting to know ten of UC Davis’ brightest master’s and Ph.D. students at the UC Davis Grad Slam Final Round. Though I took great joy in celebrating their research communication accomplishments, I must inform you that we are retracting our initial announcement regarding the winners of the competition.

The winners of UC Davis Grad Slam have historically been identified through a complex system that combines the judges’ scores with other data, such as time penalties. Unfortunately, after the event had ended, we identified an error in one of the formulas used in the scoring system. We will be modifying our judging and scoring procedures in order to avoid this type of issue in the future.

• The correct first place winner is Tooka Zokaie (Public Health), who was initially named the second place winner. Tooka will be representing UC Davis at the UC Grad Slam Final Round on May 3.
• The second place winner is Rachel Wigginton (Ecology).
• The third place winner is Divya Kernik (Biomedical Engineering).

We have contacted the finalists we incorrectly named as the first and third place medalists, and apologized for our mistake. I have to say that they were very gracious on hearing this difficult news.

We are moving quickly to correct the errors. We want to recognize the incalculable amount of time and energy all ten finalists put into preparing for the UC Davis Grad Slam Final Round, and the time that the event volunteers, judges and supporters put into supporting the finalists. We want to ensure that the honors are awarded in a fair and transparent manner.

Again, please accept my sincerest thanks for your participation and my apology for our error. Despite this difficulty, the finalists left the entire campus community feeling inspired by their research presentations, and I hope you enjoyed witnessing such a special event. Please let me know if you have any questions or comments about this matter or the event in general. I can be reached at pmohapatra@ucdavis.edu.

Prasant Mohapatra
Vice Provost, Graduate Education
Dean, Graduate Studies