"We will continue to draw strength and comfort from each other and we will become an even stronger university and community," UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang said at the memorial service Tuesday in Harder Stadium. Credit: Sonia Fernandez

May 30, 2014

Dear Community Members:

In the days since the tragic events in Isla Vista, I have been spending much of my time talking with and listening to our students and parents, as well as members of our dedicated faculty and staff. Dilling and I have also been walking through Isla Vista at night to be with our students. I want to update you now on steps the University has taken to enhance safety.

• Our UC Police Department, with additional police officers from our sister UC campuses, has increased its presence on campus and extended saturation patrols in Isla Vista through Commencement. Such intense efforts will continue to be strengthened in in close collaboration with the increased efforts of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office and otthe fall quarter, her local law enforcement.
• We have increased CSO patrols in Isla Vista, with extended hours; this is in addition to the 24/7 free CSO safety escort service.
• The University is completing a comprehensive lighting and security assessment and has been installing additional lights across campus. Also, we have recently committed additional funds to Santa Barbara County for more lighting in Isla Vista.
• We have implemented a new parking policy that limits weekend and after-hours access to our parking facilities to only UC Santa Barbara affiliates.

Finally, our UC Police Department wants to remind us all that we each play an important role in keeping our community safe. They are asking that if you “See Something, Say Something,” and report suspicious activity (911 for emergencies; 805-893-3446 for UC Police; 805-681-4100 for Isla Vista Foot Patrol). Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to call the CSO service at 805-893-2000 for a free safety escort at any time.

I am extremely proud of the way our community has come together during these difficult days to support each other and to remember and honor all the victims of last week’s tragedy. We are showing the world what it means to be a Gaucho. United in our efforts, I am certain that we are building a stronger university.

Sincerely,

Henry T. Yang
Chancellor

Dear UCSB Graduate Community,

GSA will be hosting a Graduate Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday, June 3, from 7 p.m. to whenever it winds down. There have been various memorials, meetings, and sessions to help all of us who are grieving move forward, but it seems there has yet to be a solely Graduate Student Forum to discuss anything and everything. As such, we believe this could be a very useful and cathartic organizing of our wonderful community. This event will ONLY be for graduate students – no faculty, no counselors, no admin, just us doing whatever is needed to continue the healing process.

We, as graduate students, interact with undergraduates in our labs, sections, as Associate Profs, and they have become our mentees, our friends and our family. It seems that most of us have been putting the needs of our undergrads first and have tried to maintain a strong front to support those most directly affected by this horrible tragedy. But WE need our time to heal, WE need our time to come together, and WE need to do this as a united community.

I hope that this message is not just seen as another one of the many emails that have gone out; rather, this is our attempt to utilize OUR community of graduate students, and work through the process of moving forward with our lives while remembering and using the recent events to create the positive change we all are hoping to see in the future.

Feel free to RSVP on our Facebook event page so we can have a good head count: https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/449091521902026/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular. OR just show up.

The meeting will take place following the GSA Assembly meeting from 6 to 7 p.m., which I encourage everyone to attend as we will be distributing the Excellence in Teaching Awards and the Dixon-Levy Award for service to the graduate community. Come celebrate those teachers and community members who have made such an amazing impact on the lives of the UCSB community at large!

Dinner will be served from Isla Vista Deli Mart at the beginning of the meeting, however we are buying extra to accommodate those who can only attend the townhall meeting.

So, please join us from 6 to 7 p.m. (Assembly) and 7 p.m. to whenever (the Town Hall Meeting). I really think that is something that will benefit everyone who comes.

Come as a group or by yourself. We want to further cement the bonds of our community and expand the support network that we present to each other.

Best wishes and don’t hesitate to send any questions or comments to me at this gary.haddow@gsa.ucsb.edu  or at garyhaddow@gmail.com.

Thank you,

President Gary Haddow on behalf of your GSA Officers

Counselors were on hand at the memorial service last Tuesday at Harder Stadium. Credit: Patricia MarroquinIn the wake of the Isla Vista tragedy, the UC Santa Barbara Office of Public Affairs and Communications (OPAC) has created a website titled “Isla Vista Tragedy Support Services.”

Departments across the campus, as well as University partners, are making resources and information available to support the campus community. OPAC has compiled these resources and listed them in a directory. The directory includes information and resources for students; for faculty and staff; and for alumni and the community.

Among those resources is a new website created by the Division of Student Affairs, titled “Student Emergency Resources.” The site contains up-to-date Academic Advising and Financial Aid information, as well as a list of easy-to-access Counseling resources.

OPAC requests that if you know of other resources to add, please send an email to ia-panews@ucsb.edu.

Student volunteers worked throughout the night to paint a memorial wall in honor of UCSB students lost in the Isla Vista tragedy. Credit: Melissa Barthelemy

Melissa BarthelemyA campus message wall has been repurposed into a memorial wall paying tribute to the UCSB students lost in the Isla Vista tragedy. Paying out of pocket to get this time-sensitive project going, History grad student Melissa Barthelemy says she and other volunteer artists “battled raccoons, skunks, and ferrel cats simultaneously (literally) until 1:30 a.m.” in The Arbor to finish the first phase of "We Remember Them: A Place of Healing at The Arbor."

“This project will continue to grow,” she said. “In the afternoon we will have copies of beautiful enlarged photos of the memorial events displayed at our station.” Melissa said “these two undergrads, in particular, were close to the victims and are proud to have pulled this art piece off.”

GSA is sponsoring a booth at the exhibit. It will be open today from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and depending on the number of volunteers, it plans to keep it open much longer. In a news release, the GSA said: "The motivation behind this is that we as graduate students want to reach out and support our undergraduates, as well as each other, during this difficult time. This is a place where we can come together to mourn and to help heal our community. It is also going to be focused on drawing attention to the actual victims of the Isla Vista tragedy, something that has paled in comparison to the media’s focus on the perpetrator."

"There is a large wooden exhibit that will feature chalk walls that can be written on, as well as art materials where the community can write cards to the families, thank you cards to the people and groups who got us through this difficult week, and view photographs, such as those from the Isla Vista Memorial Paddle Out," the news release stated. "What we need the most are volunteers to help staff this booth. Ideally two volunteers per one hour shift. If there are enough volunteers to support keeping the booth open for more days this week, that would be fantastic. If you are interested in dedicating an hour of your time to an important cause by staffing the booth or volunteering in some other way, please email Melissa Barthelemy at mjbarthelemy@gmail.com.

Melissa invites everyone to come out to The Arbor to view and pay your respects at the memorial wall.

Kara Smoot performing at Miss California 2013. Credit: Kara SmootIf you don’t know Kara Smoot now, you probably will very soon. She’s a second year Master’s student in Music and Vocal Performance, Miss Ventura County for 2013, Miss Tarzana for 2014, and could be Miss California 2014. Oh, and did I also mention she can sing in eight different languages?

If there were just one phrase I could use to describe Kara, it would be hardworking. She’s been working hard ever since she was 14, when she got her first job at Chick-fil-A. She earned money to help her family and applied herself in school to earn scholarships for college. Her hard work paid off with a scholarship to Pepperdine University, where she earned a B.A. in Music. 

It was also at Pepperdine that Kara turned her love for music into a passion for singing opera. Her passion paid off in yet another fellowship; this time to study music at UCSB. Now she’s set to graduate this June with a Master’s in Music and Vocal Performance. But instead of kicking back and enjoying her accomplishments, she’ll be competing to be the next Miss California, between June 24-28. Talk about busy.

When I met Kara in the Graduate Students Association lounge for this interview, she had just finished working with her interview coach for her Miss California competition. Over the course of the next hour, she told me all about her love of opera, about competing in pageants, and her life as a grad student.

How did you become interested in opera?

I joined chorus as an elective in middle school. When it came time for college, I had to make a choice. There were only two choices for vocal performance at Pepperdine: musical theater or opera. Originally, I thought I wanted to teach music or maybe become a choir director. But my experience with choir had exposed me to classics, so I felt more inclined to classical based performance: opera.

How many different languages do you sing in?

Seven to eight, not including English. I sing the four standard: English, Italian, German, and French. And some less standard, such as Czech, Russian, Spanish, and Latin. 

Kara Smoot performing in Die Fledermaus. Credit: Kara Smoot

What are your musical goals?

I want to become an international opera singer and perform with major opera companies. However, it’s extremely competitive. Right now, I’m transitioning from performing and studying at the university to auditioning for Young Artists Programs at different opera companies. In the Young Artists Programs, you get more coaching and training for performance, and you can make connections so you can be invited to sing for opera companies.

You also compete in beauty pageants. Are there any parallels to opera?

The work ethic. You need one to be a musician and a [pageant] title holder. It takes a lot of hard work and sacrifice. You have to put the music or the organization above yourself. It [opera] has also given me the tools to be successful in pageantry. I’m able to work well under pressure.

You have to think on your feet. You can rehearse something forever and then something always goes wrong in performance and you need to be able to think on the spot. It’s the same for a title holder. Things go wrong and you have to bounce back in a split second.

How did you get started doing beauty pageants?

Chrisy Alcaraz, Miss San Fernando Valley 2011 and Miss Sierra Nevada 2013. Credit: CG Photography. At Pepperdine, my best friend and sorority sister, Chrisy Alcaraz, competed in pageants. She enlightened me about what pageants were about. I got to see her process, her passion. It inspired me. 

You competed for Miss California in 2013, when you were Miss Ventura County. What did you learn from that and what advice would you give to those competing?

It was a great experience. I would say: know what you have to do to prepare, take every day one step at a time. It’s easy to get overwhelmed preparing for a pageant. Try to enjoy the process. Absorb everything.

Kara Smoot doing volunteer work. Credit: Kara Smoot.

I understand you are competing again for Miss California as Miss Tarzana. What is your platform?

It’s called Voices for the Arts. I’m raising awareness for Arts education in schools. I work with socially and economic disadvantaged children, serving as a mentor, and teaching music and voice lessons. I work primarily at El Camino Elementary.

Let’s talk about your life as a graduate student now. What is the one thing that most people are surprised to find out about you?

That I managed to survive two years of grad school without caffeine.

What one piece of advice would you give to an incoming graduate student?

I was surprised by how much free time there is in grad school. I would tell a student to be careful and use their time to study and get work done.

You’re so busy. What is the your most favorite thing you do to relax?

Health and fitness. I take workout classes. I love reading books about health and nutrition. It’s also important to unplug from devices and to enjoy the outdoors. I’ve done outdoor boot camps and work out with my personal trainer, or run the stairs at SBCC. Most of the time though, I work at the Santa Barbara Athletic Club and Fit Buddha, off of State Street.

What is your biggest accomplishment in life and why? 

Starting to work when I was 14. My parents were laid off in my teens and I had to apply myself in academics to be able to get a scholarship. I earned a scholarship to Pepperdine and was fully funded at UCSB.

Who was the biggest impact or influence on you and helped shape who you are today?

All of my music instructors from middle and high school who believed in me, fostered my music, and encouraged me. Also Louise Lofquist, who I worked with as an undergrad at Pepperdine, and my vocal coach here, Dr. Linda DiFiore.

What do you plan to do after graduate school?

Hopefully I’ll be Miss California 2014. If I win, I’ll prepare for the Miss America competition and to become Miss America 2015. Outside of pageants, I have engagements to sing with the Mediterranean Opera Studio in Sicily. Also, I’m training this summer at the Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, Germany. And I plan to keep working on learning new languages, learning new opera roles, and auditioning for Young Artists Programs.

To learn more about Kara's music career, visit her website. You can find her Miss California facebook page here.

Speaking at the inaugural Career Pathways event, which focused on the biotechnology field, were, from left, Brent Gaylord, Miguel de Los Rios, and Patrick Johnson. Credit: Patricia Marroquin

The saying goes, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” In the case of UCSB Ph.D. alum Miguel de los Rios, the journey began with a single hand drawing.

Miguel de Los Rios still has the original drawing he used to pitch his big idea. "I should frame it," he said.Armed only with a vision, a simple sketch, some naivete, and even a few aspirin, Ph.D. student De Los Rios was able to found a biotech startup, Chimeros, that launched his successful career in the biotechnology industry.

De los Rios was one of three panelists, all grad alums, who shared their biotech career success stories in the May 16 kickoff of Graduate Division’s Career Pathways series. This new series will give graduate students the opportunity to hear from graduate alumni about how they navigated the road to various types of careers. Future panel sessions will highlight careers in such areas as academia, industry, nonprofits, and government, and all will focus on the skills that alumni found to be critical to their success.

In welcoming the panel and the more than 50 graduate students in attendance, Graduate Division Dean Carol Genetti expressed her hope that these events “will help all UCSB graduate students to realize the broad variety of opportunities that their graduate degrees are creating and the steps they can take to move forward in the direction that best fits their life goals.”

Dr. Pierre Wiltzius, the Susan and Bruce Worster Dean of Science and Professor of Physics, served as the moderator of the lunchtime discussion, which delved into such issues as the challenges and rewards of launching a startup; the qualities and traits important for success in biotech; and the differences in style and operation between a small startup and a large biotech or pharmaceutical firm.

The panelists were:

Miguel de Los Rios
Ph.D., 2005, Biophysical Chemistry, UCSB; B.S., Cell and Developmental Biology, 1998, UCSB
Vice President of Research, Senesco. Previously Vice President of Research and Development, Fabrus Inc. (On May 16, 2014, Fabrus became a wholly owned subsidiary of Senesco Technologies.) Sole founder in 2003 of Chimeros Inc., a venture-backed biologics therapeutic company (Chimeros was acquired by Fabrus in 2012.) At Chimeros, he was Chief Executive Officer and Chief Scientific Officer.

Patrick T. Johnson
Ph.D., 2000, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, UCSB; B.S., 1994, Biopsychology, UCSB
Senior Director, Business Development, Allergan. Previously, Vice President of Development and Director of Cell Biology, Chimeros.

Brent S. Gaylord
Ph.D., 2004, Materials, UCSB; B.S., Chemistry-Material Science Engineering and minor in Mathematics, United States Air Force Academy.
Co-founder (with Patrick Dietzen and world-renowned UCSB material scientist and Professor Guillermo Bazan) and Director Dye Development, Sirigen. In fall 2012, BD (Beckton, Dickinson and Company) acquired Sirigen Group Limited.

The biotech panel members, from left, Brent Gaylord, Miguel de Los Rios, and Patrick Johnson, chat with Graduate Division Dean Carol Genetti. Credit: Patricia Marroquin

Each panelist gave brief biographical introductions, explaining how they got to where they are today and sharing lessons learned on the journey, before answering questions.

Patrick Johnson said he enjoyed his graduate studies at UCSB. Credit: Patricia MarroquinPatrick Johnson told the audience that when he came to UCSB as an undergrad in 1990, he “had no clue what I even wanted to major in.” In 1994, he said, after three or four switches in his major, he earned an undergraduate degree in biopsychology. He fell into a master’s degree program after that because, he said, it was “the best of all my options at the time and I was able to advance my knowledge in my potential career opportunities by continuing my education.” He had a “great time” pursuing his master’s degree and transitioned from it to a Ph.D. program.

Don’t feel like you have to know what you want to do

But even after he earned his Ph.D., he wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to do. “Don’t feel like you really ever should,” Johnson advised. “Sooner or later something will click and then hopefully you’ll follow that path.”

So Johnson stayed on at UCSB as a postdoc for several years, receiving a teaching fellowship and grant money.

Miguel de Los Rios simulates the drawing he shopped around to investors. Credit: Patricia MarroquinMeanwhile, Johnson’s friend and fellow UCSB grad student, Miguel de Los Rios, had an idea. “The idea that I had had nothing to do with the work I was doing at UC Santa Barbara or with my Ph.D.,” De Los Rios said. “There were no professors or projects running at the time at the campus who could help me develop the idea.” His friend, Brent Gaylord, had just finished his Ph.D. and started his own company, Sirigen, founded on research and work being done on campus. Gaylord encouraged De Los Rios to pursue his dream.

De Los Rios put pen to paper, sketched out the idea, and set out to turn that idea into reality.

“I started to meet with everyone I could possibly meet in the community to talk about my idea,” De Los Rios said. He talked with high-tech investors, former Amgen employees, and angel investors; and attended investment conferences and venture capital meetings. Patrick Johnson was among those friends who also helped.

“My first real break was when I called up a Tier 1 venture capital firm,” De Los Rios said in an interview after the panel session. He called Versant Ventures, which had previously been active in Santa Barbara. “So I think they were keen to talk to folks from UC Santa Barbara.”

“One of their more notable investments in Santa Barbara was Inogen,” said De Los Rios. Inogen is an oxygen therapy product company founded by three UCSB students, based on a winning idea that came out of the UCSB Technology Management Program’s business plan competition.

Grad student Miguel met with Camille Samuels, managing director at Versant Ventures who recently left Versant to join Bay Area-based venture capital firm Venrock.

“She spent two hours with me at her office,” said De Los Rios. “And she just tore me apart. The idea, everything. It was this eye-opening experience as far as what I needed to do, what I needed to learn before I could have a conversation with a VC [venture capitalist].”

‘Communication is an important part of how you drive your inner visions’

De Los Rios said he is thankful for the “hard, informative, constructive criticism” he received. “Most people can’t even get three minutes with a VC. And to have someone of her caliber spend two hours with me completely changed how I did everything.”  

The conversation, he said, “shaped my pitch, how I approached investors, and it made me think about the future of the company and what things I needed to figure out. It basically gave me the tools to go forward and actually try to present the company in a feasible way.”

Another person who played a big role in helping De Los Rios get started was Santa Barbara attorney David Lafitte of Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth. De Los Rios said  Lafitte “really didn’t understand everything I was talking about, but he liked how I said what I said.”

“He took a big risk and basically offered a line of credit to me” of about $150,000, De Los Rios said.  “What a fantastic mentor in those early years. I think that was another defining moment for what allowed Chimeros to launch.”

The panel members enjoy a laugh with the session's moderator, Dr. Pierre Wiltzius. Credit: Patricia Marroquin“Communication,” De Los Rios said during the panel session, “is an important part of how you drive your inner visions and your life forward. So always be cognizant of how other people perceive what you’re saying.”

So what was De Los Rios’ big idea? Here’s how he explained it to us:

“We figured out how to make protein building blocks self-assemble into nanocages that are exactly 32 nanometers in diameter. While controlling that assembly process, we can encapsulate any drug payload of choice. When the protein nanocage is fully assembled, with the drug payload encapsulated, we can now decorate the surface with a variety of targeting molecules or peptides to direct the nanocage to organs or tissues of choice.” Useful applications, he said, include oncology (such as prostate cancer) and metabolic disorders (diabetes; liver and kidney disorders).

Why the name Chimeros? De Los Rios coined the name from “chimera,” a monstrous, fire-breathing creature in Greek mythology that has the parts of three animals – a lion, a snake, and a goat.

“The idea was that all the parts come together for a unique organism,” said De Los Rios. “In our case, we were making something called a ‘chimerasome,’” a term he created for the company’s technology.

As a grad student in those early startup days, De Los Rios funded the company on a shoestring, using his monthly stipend of $1,200 to pay for such things as his grad student research, the experiments he conducted in his garage, and living expenses including his food, which consisted of a lot of Top Ramen.

“It was a very tough time,” said De Los Rios, but he doesn’t regret it. He is also thankful to his advisor, Dr. Kevin Plaxco, for keeping him grounded and urging him to finish his Ph.D.

‘We were naïve; we just did what we thought was right’

As young grad students and postdocs pursuing their dreams, “We just didn’t take no for answer,” Patrick Johnson said during the panel discussion. “We just did what we thought was right. We were naïve. Which is very helpful to be naïve. Because you don’t realize some of the challenges you’re up against,” he said.

“So I encourage you not to let knowledge get in the way,” Johnson added to laughter from the audience.

At a certain point, Johnson said, he realized he had to “take a leap of faith.” Johnson, who was helping out Miguel with the startup, said he had “a nice, cushy position” as a postdoc at UCSB and could have stayed a long time.

But he finally made the decision to leave the position and join De Los Rios’ startup full time. “You’ve got to balance the risk and the reward at the same time,” he said.

“We had a very fun time working for the company,” Johnson said. “It really was a very rewarding endeavor. We had no experience in the biotech industry.”

During his time at UCSB, Johnson took advantage of a course through the Technology Management Program that included biotech speakers. The goal was to have one person from each sector of the biotech industry come and talk every week for the entire academic year.

You never know where networking will lead you

Johnson said, “That’s how we got to meet Roy Hardiman [a UCSB alum and then an executive at Genentech], who has continued to engage with the campus.

“You never know where introductions are going to lead you,” said Johnson, adding that he was fortunate to meet a lot of these biotech individuals, including executives from Amgen.

“I finally got experience in the biotech industry through Miguel,” Johnson said. “We created our own experience. And then after that, it’s a little easier to meet people, to know what the industry’s like, to know what to do next. And then I was recruited out of our company to Allergan, where I’ve been for the last four years.”

Johnson worked on both the science side and the business side at Chimeros. “And now,” he said, “I’m all business at Allergan, where I look at new technologies, acquiring companies, bringing new therapeutics into the spectrum of our product offerings.” He’s currently doing all of that from an office in San Diego, where the company moved to stay competitive and to be in one of the big hubs of biotech activity.

Brent Gaylord is co-founder of Sirigen. Credit: Patricia MarroquinBrent Gaylord took a different path to the biotech industry and the founding of Sirigen, one that started within UCSB.

“My graduate work here at UCSB was definitely a product of the interdisciplinary nature of the research that goes on,” said Gaylord, who worked with researchers from Physics to  Chemistry to Biology.

Sirigen was founded by grad students Gaylord and Patrick Dietzen, and UCSB material scientist and Professor Guillermo Bazan. The company’s technology is based on Nobel Prize-winning research conducted by Professor Alan Heeger in conductive plastics and creates the potential for the development of novel dyes that are four to 100 times brighter than conventional dyes. Sirigen is another success story for the TMP program. Dietzen and Gaylord won the business plan competition in 2003, founded the company shortly afterward, and licensed all the key intellectual property exclusively from UCSB.

“One thing that’s definitely clear: There’s technology and then there’s that commercial plan,” said Gaylord. “And I think sometimes as scientists, you don’t appreciate the value of having a clear business plan or commercialization plan. Because they’re two very different things and both are very important. But sometimes you tend to focus very much on the technology.”

“We built a support network,” he said. “And I think that is so critical – meeting other people who are doing the same thing.” The company partnered with the UCSB technology transfer office “because we had to ultimately license that technology back,” Gaylord said.

For Gaylord, launching a career with a startup “was definitely for me a career choice. Because at the time I had been offered a position at Dupont to do central research there. Do you take the classic job or do you create your own destiny and try something?” He made the decision: “Let’s give this thing a try.”

Nuggets of knowledge from the biotech experts

Other advice, tips, perspectives, and reassurances from the panelists included:

• Get your elevator pitch down. You must be able to communicate your big picture idea when you arrive at the elevator with the president of the company. You’ve got 30 seconds.
• “Where you can take opportunities to present your research and talk and get in front of people, take every opportunity to do so.”
• “If you have a good idea, and you have a good plan, and you have the right people, I think there’s always a way to make it happen.”
• “You get told no a lot. It requires a lot of tenacity to keep going.”
• “Sometimes you look at startups as cool and glamorous things, but it’s hard work.”
• You’ve got to go where the jobs are. “The moral of this story is, ‘If you want to fish, go where the fish are.’”
• Other career avenues include patent attorneys (“very much in high demand”); communications; and investor relations. All of these benefit from someone with a science background.
• Being versatile and creative and having a can-do attitude are crucial when working in smaller companies. The “I’m just this” types don’t get very far.
• “I think it’s becoming increasingly more important for even a scientist to be able to communicate specifically in a business environment.”
• In any company it’s all about shareholders. You’re trying to drive that.
• On the difference between working for a small company and a large company: “Before it was: We could make a decision and go take action. But we never had the resources to do anything. And now we’ve got all the resources we need but it’s impossible to make a decision and get a consensus. You spend a lot more time in meetings and working with other colleagues and trying to pull things together” in a big company.
• “I would never trade in my graduate career or my postdoc for anything. Because you’re learning the entire step of the way. And that learning is invaluable.”

At this point in Miguel De Los Rios’ career, he’s having “a fantastic time.” He has worked on the science side of things, then shifted to the business side, and now he’s back on the science side again. He’s paying it forward, helping companies out of UC San Francisco, UC San Diego, and UCSB launch. “I’m certainly a nerd at heart. And happy to be a nerd,” he said.

“I think the story of how you start a company involves not just one person but usually a large network, a support group, so to speak, in many different aspects,” he said.

If De Los Rios could give one piece of advice to Ph.D. students who wish to get into the biotech industry, it would be simply this:

“Never give up.”

More than 50 graduate students attended the inaugural Career Pathways panel session, which focused on the biotechnology industry. Credit: Patricia Marroquin

Graduates from the 2013 Graduate Division Commencement ceremony. Credit: Patricia Marroquin

This Sunday, 409 students will be receiving their degrees in Graduate Division’s 2014 Commencement ceremony. Once again, Commencement falls on Father’s Day, making it an especially wonderful celebration for our graduates who are fathers, as well as the fathers of our grads.

Graduates wait for the ceremony to begin in 2013. Credit: Patricia MarroquinThe ceremony begins at 4 p.m. on the Faculty Club Green, but if you are unable to make it to the ceremony, UC Santa Barbara will again be broadcasting it live on its Live Webcast 2014 page. If you post any photos or other social media items on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or elswhere, UCSB is asking that you use the hashtag #UCSB2014 plus the applicable hashtag #PhinallyDone or #MasteredIt. Your Tweets and photos will appear on the UCSB Commencement page below the live webcast window.

This year, UCSB is surpassing the 9,400 mark for the number of doctoral degrees awarded, and surpassing the 22,500 mark for Master's degrees awarded. Last year, UCSB celebrated 50 years of doctoral graduates. Our first doctoral students received their degrees during the 1962-63 academic year, so we are now launching into our second half-century of doctoral education.

Here is some other information to know about Sunday’s ceremony:

The guest speaker will be Dr. Mike North, UCSB Ph.D. alum, Discovery Channel show host, and founder of the nonprofit ReAllocate.

The student speaker will be Lucile Savary, who will receive her Ph.D. in Physics this summer.

The student singer is Colleen Beucher, master’s candidate in Music.

A student is hooded in the 2013 Graduate Division Commencement ceremony. Credit: Patricia MarroquinUC Santa Barbara will be recognizing its first recipient of a Ph.D. in Feminist Studies. Carly Thomsen will accept her degree on Sunday.

The first Master of Science in Actuarial Science is being bestowed on Sunday, to Tiffany Sun.

The Graduate Division ceremony is both the most colorful and the most traditional of UC Santa Barbara’s eight graduation ceremonies. Degree candidates are dressed in regalia that have changed little in appearance since medieval times, when the hood served much the same purpose as a modern-day student's backpack. Over their shoulders, master's degree candidates wear hoods that are trimmed in colors representing the different disciplines.

The colors you will see most often on our master’s degree candidates on Sunday will be powder blue for the master’s degree in education; orange for engineering; gold for science; copper for economics; pink for music; and white for humanities and social sciences. 

Ph.D. graduates, if you are a little puzzled about the hooding process, view our how-to video below from last year on Managing Your Doctoral Regalia. More information for students – including marching; checking in at the Events Center, and photography – can be found on the Graduate Division student page.

Congratulations to all of our graduates!

“The Feminist Studies department at UCSB has provided me with immense support, encouragement and inspiration,” said Carly Thomsen, who will be the first recipient of a doctoral degree from the department. Credit: Spencer Bruttig

In 2009, the Feminist Studies graduate program was born, and on Sunday, the department will see its first recipient of a doctoral degree: Carly Thomsen.

Carly holds another honor as the 2014 winner of UC Santa Barbara’s Winifred and Louis Lancaster Dissertation Award for Social Sciences. Her dissertation, “Unbecoming Visibility Politics and Queer Morality,” focuses on tensions and estrangement among and between LGBTQ women in the Midwest and mainstream gay rights organizations.

Carly Thomsen presented her research in a three-minute format in this year's Grad Slam competition. She was a co-winner of preliminary Round 6. Credit: Patricia MarroquinCarly – who will move to Houston after graduation for a two-year postdoctoral appointment at the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Rice University – praised her department and her advisor for their guidance throughout the program.

“The Feminist Studies department at UCSB has provided me with immense support, encouragement and inspiration,” Carly said in an Office of Public Affairs and Communications news release. “I feel extraordinarily grateful to all the people who made it possible for me to be the first person to complete a Ph.D. in feminist studies here. Mostly, I thank my advisor, Leila Rupp. She’s a huge name in the area of sexuality studies and she recruited me in a way that made me think we would have a stellar relationship. And I was not wrong about that.”

In the release, Eileen Boris, Hull Professor and chair of Feminist Studies, said:  “It bodes well that our first Ph.D. is recognized by the larger academic community through the postdoctoral appointment and through the Lancaster Award.”

The GradPost featured Carly in June 2012 in a Graduate Student in the Spotlight column. In the article, she talked about how a single class changed her life and steered her on the path toward women’s studies. Also, Carly was a co-winner of Preliminary Round 6 of this year's Grad Slam competition, in which she presented a three-minute talk based on her dissertation.

For the full news release, read A Feminist First.

Lucile Savary. Credit: Lucile Savary.You probably don't know Lucile Savary, a graduate student in Physics, who will be this year’s UCSB commencement speaker. For the past six years, she has been busy studying condensed matter theory, and in the fall, she will continue her research as a postdoc at M.I.T. She’s also a French citizen.

Unlike other French citizens, Lucile decided to pursue her graduate studies in the United States, which is very unusual, since most French graduate students in the sciences stay in France.

On the website for the Balent's Group, a research group in the Physics Department at UCSB that conducts theoretical studies of condensed matter, Lucille's interests are listed as “impurity effects in frustrated magnets,” “quantum order-by-disorder,” “quantum spin liquids in quantum spin ice,” and “quantum criticality in iridium pyrochlores.” I was eager to find out if this had anything to do with time travel or teleportation.

We met in her office in Broida Hall 6113. Broida Hall turned out to be different than any other campus building I have ever visited. A person in a mouse suit joined me on my elevator ride up. On the elevator wall someone had installed a working model of a scale to measure the resistance of pull and push, which jerked up or down every time the elevator came to a halt. And when I arrived on the sixth floor, I noticed chalkboards on the walls covered with equations.

Since I got there a little early, I had time to admire the view from the sixth floor, which looks out over the campus and toward the Pacific Ocean. Not a bad place to work when you're a theoretical physicist interested in condensed matter theory.

When we met, Lucile looked a little tired and told me that she had just finished writing her dissertation the week before, her commencement speech this week, and still had to write for her dissertation defense on Friday.

We talked about her research in condensed matter theory, her life as a grad student, and her advice to students in her commencement speech.

You received a B.A. and M.A. degree in Physics at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon. How did you end up studying theoretical physics at UCSB?

It’s a funny story, actually. As an undergraduate, we had the option of finishing our degree with three months of research and three months of classes, or six months of doing research anywhere. So I looked for a nice place to study and found UCSB. Then I looked for someone interested in condensed matter theory. I contacted Leon Balents [her advisor] by email and when he didn’t reply I called him up after only two days. It worked out well. This was the only school I applied to for graduate school.

You do research in condensed matter theory and your dissertation is “Exotic Phenomena in Quantum Pyrochlore Materials.” Does this have anything to do with teleportation or time travel?  (Laughs). No. I study materials like the ones you have in your iPhone, electronic stuff. I look at such topics as how these materials can store more data in smaller spaces than the silicon materials we use today. I usually say that I study solids at the electronic scale, that I try to understand the things around us at the scale right below ours. My work has the potential to be useful in the future.

Let’s talk about your life now. You’re from France and went to school in Lyon. Where did you grow up?

Lots of places. I was born in Rodez, in one of the best cheese regions in South-Central France. I also lived in Limoges, Bordeaux, Paris, and for four years in Washington, D.C. Then later also in Grenoble and Zurich.

What do people find most interesting about you?

Lucile Savary doing improv. Credit: Lucile Savary.That’s a hard question. I’m not sure. Probably how often I moved and traveled and where I lived is relatively unusual. I lived in D.C. for four years when my father was working for the World Bank. It’s where I learned to speak English. I’d like to think this, and other things, have given me a little bit of perspective. But one should really ask other people (smiles). Otherwise, people are usually surprised that I like acting and comedy, when I am generally quite shy.

What is the one thing that people would be surprised to learn about you?

That’s also a hard question. But physics-wise, certainly: From early childhood, most people love physics, but I didn’t like physics until the final year of high school. There were all these different ideas and they weren’t clear to me. I had a good teacher who explained things very well.

What is one piece of advice would you give to an incoming graduate student?

The most important thing is to understand things fundamentally, not just superficially. On another note, we’re so worried and focused on the future. We spend much of our time working a lot. We forget to take advantage of our time right now as a graduate student. This is our twenties: we should take advantage.

On that note, what do you do to relax?

I play tennis, bike a little bit, and do hiking. I like to play board games: one of my favorites is pandemic. In France, I really enjoyed acting, and improv. Otherwise, I read an incredible amount of news. And I enjoy some amount of geeky things, like fun programming.

Lucile in Boulder, Colorado. Credit: Lucile Savary.

What is your biggest accomplishment in life and why?  

Getting my PhD here. (Pauses to explain). Virtually zero PhD students (in physics anyway) from France go to the US to do their study. Much of my school system in France was saying, why are you going there? I had to figure out everything. At one time, it was unclear at all if I was going to be able to finish.

Who has had the biggest impact or influence on you?

Leon Balents, for sure, has been fantastic. My physics teacher from high school; another teacher in my classes préparatoires, who got me to continue in this field. Most people with me in “classes prépa” went into engineering at one point.

What is the one thing you hope to be doing 5 or 10 years out of graduate school?

I hope to get a faculty job. It’s extremely difficult to get a faculty post/position. Some people do many post docs before getting one.

You were chosen to be this year’s commencement speaker. How did this come about?

I read a reminder email about it on the GradPost. I thought, maybe I should do that. Normally, when I do something it takes me a long time because I’m super careful. But I only had a couple days left to apply. I thought I would apply if I had something to say. It turned out I had a bunch of ideas.

What do you plan to talk about in your speech?

Accomplishing something. Don’t just study to do well, but to learn something. This way it will always be yours and it won’t be taken away from you. Learn to appreciate the wide variety of talents, and the broad array of aspirations. I try to convey that despite the variety of our fields we all kind of do the same thing: think logically, and rigorously. That also gives us some responsibilities.

Also, there’s so much emphasis placed on being smart. Academic intelligence is not the only useful skill in life, and academic success is not the only measure of our worth. I want you to remember that this is not the only quality in life. There are other things that matter as much, or more: openness, understanding, love, tolerance, and improvement.

Dr. Mike North, who holds three degrees from UC Santa Barbara, will address graduates at the 2014 Graduate Division Commencement ceremony on Sunday.

It’s impossible to pigeonhole Mike North. On his resume, you will find these diverse titles: founder of the nonprofit Reallocate; founder and president of creative agency North Design Labs; creator/host/producer/cameraman of “In the Making” on Discovery Digital; Chief Technology Officer of Nukotoys; host of “Outrageous Acts of Science” on the Science Channel; host of “Prototype This!” on Discovery Channel; co-founder of [freespace], a global network of civic engagement centers; co-founder of the co-living space concept The Embassy Network; and a UC Santa Barbara Ph.D. alum. Now he can add yet another title to that list: guest speaker for the 2014 Graduate Division Commencement ceremony, on Sunday at 4 p.m. on the Faculty Club Green.

There are other words that have been used to depict the multifaceted Dr. North, some of them self-descriptions: inventor; innovator; inspirational speaker; scientist; engineer; collaborator; risk-taker; teacher; mentor; world traveler; Burning Man aficionado; docnorth (his Instagram username); “wild child”; “the black sheep of my group”; and “the Indiana Jones of Technology.”

He has gone scuba diving with sharks; built a 30-foot, 90-m.p.h., fire-breathing Viking ship and driven it from Santa Barbara to Burning Man; and lives in an eight-bedroom San Francisco Victorian that some have called a “high-tech commune,”  but which North describes as “co-living with intention” with creative “family.”

The Gaucho grad alumnus, born Michael Thomas Northen, holds three degrees from UCSB: a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 2001; a Master of Science in Materials in 2002; and a Ph.D. in Materials with an emphasis in nanotechnology in 2006. His Ph.D. project involved studying the natural adhesive found on the pad of a gecko’s foot and designing and fabricating the world’s first synthetic adhesive that can be turned on and off electronically.

"I was always building and making things," Dr. Mike North recalls.Mike wasn’t playing with geckos during his childhood in Laramie, Wyoming, but he was a curious and adventurous boy, describing himself as “a bit of a wild child.”

“My parents were very hands off with me and allowed me great amounts of freedom,” said North, who spent time with his parents and brother in a cabin at an elevation of 10,000 feet in Medicine Bow in Wyoming’s Snowy Range.

At the age of 5, he was driving a snowmobile and going cross-country skiing. “I was always building and making things, whether it was a secret fort in the mountains, or a zip line between a tree and my basketball hoop.”

In those days, his mother was a home economics teacher and his father worked for the University of Wyoming in the Atmospheric Sciences department as a photographic engineer and expedition leader. Later, his parents would move on to other occupations, including running a delicatessen and catering company after the family moved to Petaluma, California. From the ages of 10 to 19, Mike helped out in that family endeavor, learning how to run a business from his dad and how to interact with customers from his mom.

As a junior in high school, 16-year-old Mike traveled to Sweden for a year of study in Lund. The town is “kind of my second home now,” and North, who is fluent in Swedish, maintains a close relationship with the family he lived with there. 

North took a roundabout route to get to UCSB. He enrolled at Santa Rosa Junior College; dropped out after his first semester to work and live in Boston and then Sweden; and returned to Petaluma to work a construction job and re-enter junior college. He earned Associate degrees in Engineering and English from the Santa Rosa college in 1999.

“My older brother [Trent Northen], now with his own lab at Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, attended UCSB, and I'd be lying if I said that those trips down to visit him in IV in the early ’90s weren't part of the inspiration for coming to UCSB,” he  said.

Mike North is an inventor, innovator, and scientist.From 1999 to 2006, UCSB was North’s home. Throughout his undergraduate and graduate studies here, he gained the skills and experience that would lead to success in many areas. At UC Santa Barbara, collaboration, innovation, and yes, even failure, he said, helped him to grow and equipped him to take on the challenges of a nonprofit startup, ReAllocate; to travel the world (more than 40 countries) telling innovators’ stories online and on TV; and to share with and learn from diverse groups of exceptional people.

His UCSB advisor, Mechanical Engineering Professor Dr. Kimberly Turner, is looking forward to hearing what North has to say on Sunday.

“Dr. North is definitely one of those students who continues to have lifetime lasting impact on me,” she said. “It was clear from the first time I met him, as a UCSB undergrad, that he was destined for great things. He is definitely a man with passion for discovery, and a deep humanitarian side as well. From the highly engineered ‘fire-breathing dragon’ art car he built to take to Burning Man, to the first reversible gecko-based adhesion, Mike takes on everything at full speed. I cannot wait to hear what he has to tell our graduates, and I can be certain it will be energetic and profound.”  

In the following question-and-answer section, Dr. North shares details of his gecko dissertation research; what fascinates him about Burning Man; a little-known historical fact about himself; and more.

How was it that you came to UCSB for graduate school? You said that your older brother, Trent Northen, attended UCSB.

At Santa Rosa Junior College, I really enjoyed my Materials classes, and I fell in love with the Santa Barbara area. My brother was at UCSB at the time and told me about the five-year master’s/bachelor’s program. The combo of mechanical engineering and Materials seemed perfect to me, and when I looked at how strong the Materials program at UCSB was, it seemed a pretty clear choice. Interestingly, this was a big step in me letting go of my ego – at first I wasn’t going to go to UCSB, because I didn’t want to follow in my brother’s footsteps. But then I realized that was a silly reason to not do something. I loved UCSB from visiting my brother, it was a great program, and quite frankly the in-state tuition made it possible for me and my parents to afford me going to college there.

What kind of a student were you when you were at UCSB?

I was a great student. At my junior college I had tons of friends and a lot of social obligations. When I transferred to UCSB I had very few friends, and loved it! It allowed me to do want I really wanted to do, focus on my studies. (When I first went back to college – I dropped out of college for a year and a half during JC – I was working full time and going to school full time. This put me in a place of always wishing I had more time for my studies, to really enjoy them. When I transferred to UCSB, I was given that.) I was also extremely competitive. The best feeling in the world was absolutely crushing a test. The goal was to not only get the highest score, but also to finish the test first. A group of us really did compete, and also study together. We pushed each other forward. I received numerous honors and awards. I was also president of Pi Tau Sigma [International Mechanical Engineering Honor Society].

Please tell us a little bit about your gecko dissertation research.

Dr. Mike North is a popular inspirational speaker.I was the black sheep of my group. The project was a complete departure from my PI’s research focus. Her primary focus was parametric resonance in MEMS. My project was developing and characterizing a micro/nanostructured adhesive inspired by the gecko. Kim [Turner] was 100% supportive and loved the project, and gave me the confidence to be bold and daring in my work.

At the same time there were research groups at heavy-hitting institutes such as Stanford and Berkeley working in the same field. My work was different and allowed us to form nice alliances with these groups.

When I started the research, others were focused on just creating a nanostructured surface to mimic the gecko. My take was that there was a lot more to the gecko system than just the nanostructure. My premise was the hierarchical structure must play a significant role. We were the first to make a hierarchical structure integrating both micro and nano. This revealed that not only did this allow the adhesive to be effective on rougher surfaces, but also made it more resilient to damage.

But for me it was not about making an adhesive that sticks well – pressure-sensitive adhesives are hard to beat for that! To me it was about an adhesive that could be turned on and off. I decided to take the ball and run right for that goal line. I could have taken the structures I was making and optimize them for adhesion, but I was more about inventing and taking big leaps toward reversible adhesion. And that’s what I created, an adhesive that you could turn on and off electronically. The process was a lot of work (80-hour weeks in the cleanroom) and required a lot of experimentation. I failed often. I wore a hat that said “frequent failure” (much to the chagrin of my classmates – “how can you want to fail?”). I loved failure, because in those failures I would have moments of serendipity, of discovery of something new I hadn’t anticipated. Ultimately some of these discoveries are what led to the final success.

What was your first job out of graduate school?

Mike North on location with a flyboarder for one of his shows. Credit: @docnorth on InstagramPutting together and hosting “Prototype This!” on the Discovery Channel. The roles involved were: concepting the show, casting the other hosts, building the shop/set, coming up with the ideas for the projects, helping storyboard the episodes, bringing in partners, designing and building the prototypes, and even helping to produce the episodes.

Describe your current jobs and what they entail.

ReAllocate: Founder/Chair of an organization that leverages a volunteer network of high-level technologists, designers, and innovative thinkers to holistically address real-world problems. Its motto is “World Class Talent, Real World Solutions.” My roles now are largely spreading the word, bringing in partners, and continuing the vision for the organization.

“In The Making”: Creator/Host/Producer/Cameraman of my own new online show distributed through Discovery Digital Networks. They are three-minute episodes [think Grad Slam talks online!] on breakthrough inventions and technologies. I literally travel around the world discovering and shooting short episodes on people creating breakthrough projects. Discovery approached me and asked what my dream show would be. This is it. They are calling me the “Indiana Jones of Technology.”

[freespace]: I have helped to create a global network of participatory civic engagement and empowerment centers.

The Embassy Network: I have helped to create a global network of co-living spaces for individuals striving to make a difference in the world. My San Francisco roommates include the deputy innovation officer for the city; an executive at the satellite company Planet Labs; and a neuroscientist.  

North Design Labs: Innovation consulting and inspirational speaking.

Please explain your time as Chief Technology Officer of Nukotoys.

Nukotoys' Monsterology trading card app.Nukotoys was just getting started when they found me. They had just gotten a little bit of funding, and needed someone to help them develop their physical products. At first I just helped them out, but that quickly turned into consulting, and then as I took on a more and more significant role, I became the CTO of the company. Along with a savant programmer, we were a two-person research and development team, developing prototypes and ultimately products. At first I was drawn to the educational aspect, using video games and toys to educate kids. Our first product, Mission to Planet 419, was for helping kids get past the fourth-grade reading slump. We developed a space exploration game that taught kids how to use books and other methods to find useful information. During this process I was able to work in first-, second-, and third-grade classes in an underserved school in Chicago. I saw the power of using video games in the classroom. Kids were focused on the games, intent on completing tasks. This freed the teacher from her usual role keeping order and allowed her to become a one-on-one coach for kids. It was work that was doing something good for the world.

That project wrapped up and our attention turned to more money-making products. We developed a couple of video games that had integrated trading cards. Both Monsterology and Animal Planet trading cards made it into major retail stores and the Apple Store. It was a major accomplishment, but somehow after a couple years of working on it, didn’t completely fulfill me. Also, at this time ReAllocate was really getting up to speed and it was clear that if it were to succeed it needed my full attention. So I stepped down from my position at Nukotoys to completely focus on ReAllocate.

Dr. Mike North, in a clinic in Nicaragua, assembled a team of experts to help create a brace to treat children from developng countries who have club foot.

You are passionate about your nonprofit ReAllocate. How did you come to found it and what has the impact been on you?

I was working at Nukotoys. One day the CEO asked me if I’d be interested in doing some volunteer design and prototyping work to help his nonprofit develop a low-cost brace for treating kids in developing countries with club foot. Much like I did on Prototype This! I assembled a team of experts, including the prototyping expert from Burton Snowboards, Objet 3D printers (now Stratasys), and designers. We iterated various braces and nine months later I found myself testing prototypes in a clinic in Nicaragua. The moment I put this brace (which utilized the advanced skills and resources we have in the developed world) on the foot of a child who would be disabled for life without a device like this, it struck me. I was doing something powerful with these resources and it was without question the most meaningful thing I had done in my life. When I returned to the U.S., I decided that I not only wanted to make it possible for people in under-resourced parts of the world to have access to our resources, but I also wanted experts to have the experience that I did. So I founded ReAllocate to bring these two worlds together for their mutual benefit.

Please tell us about the Cooperative Innovation class you teach at UC Berkeley.

Dr. Mike North takes time out for a selfie while sitting in the makeup chair before recording an episode of "Outrageous Acts of Science." Credit: @docnorth on InstagramI teach this course in the fall. My goals with the course were to create my dream class and also to teach students valuable skills that I have learned since college/grad school. I also wanted to take a stab at a different way of “teaching.” The class is completely workshop- and project-based. Each week we have a three-hour workshop, where I generally bring in top practicing professionals from the Bay Area and the rest of the country. I work with the workshop leaders to design a course around what they think is the most useful skill they have to teach. Leaders range from the former Chief Marketing Officer of Sun Microsystems to the founder of bit-torrent.

The project aspect is the students form teams and select projects in the local community that address some sort of social need. Examples are helping transition prisoners out of San Quentin; developing a business incubator in West Oakland; and a community fish association. The skills they learn in class they apply immediately to their projects, and often the workshops focus on their projects.

At the end of the semester students then travel to international locations such as Kenya, India, and Guatemala to work on projects there.

I really try to emphasize the four deep skills I feel are critical for this sort of work: empathy, creativity, collaboration, and storytelling. On the first day of class, I told the students there would be a whole lot of written assignments, because I don’t feel like reading a bunch of papers, and neither does the world. The world is evermore communicating with pictures and videos. It was a little tongue-in-cheek, but I do believe that being able to tell meaningful stories in video is an essential skill. To my surprise this is where the students struggled most; most had clearly never created a video before.  

You enjoy attending the annual Burning Man in the northern Nevada desert. How many times have you gone, and when did you first start going? What fascinates you about it, and what do you do there?

On this Instagram photo, Dr. Mike North says goodbye to Barcelona and the freespace residence he visited. Credit: @docnorth on InstagramMy first trip to Burning Man was when my older brother called me up from Santa Barbara and asked if I wanted to go “camping.”  I was 18 and my older brother in college asking me to go camping was the coolest thing ever. I said yes, asked what I needed to bring. “You know, camping stuff, tent, sleeping bag.”  Five hours later he picked me up and we were off to the Burning Man.

I’ve been 16 times since.

I could go on and on about Burning Man. But to be brief it’s the highest density of creativity on the planet for that week. It’s a test bed for trying new things, both technologically and socially. People are open, friendly, caring, and supportive. It’s where I meet some of the most interesting people, doing some of the most significant work on the planet. Not to mention we create a city of 70,000 people for a week and then leave without a trace. Burning Man itself is like a rapidly iterating prototype of a city, changing and innovating every year.

I’ve built everything from art cars to giant art pieces. Now I help organize a camp of 200 global change makers called IDEATE (From Ideas to Reality). We have a power grid, water, kitchen, showers, and most of all community.

In what ways did UCSB prepare you for your career?

The usual stuff like a strong education, etc. I think the unique things to UCSB are the extremely collaborative nature of the school. I was able to work with people from different departments on my projects. People were open and helpful, the basis of collaboration. This is probably the most important skill that I possess, being able to find and work with others. My role on Prototype This! was largely bringing people together to work together.

Dr. Mike North is a creator and collaborator.I also learned a lot about innovation, how to take chances, how to fail and how to learn. This is largely due to my advisor Kim Turner giving me a lot of freedom to explore and try new things. An engineer’s ability to operate in a place of ambiguity is essential for innovation.  And guess what, it’s something engineers often struggle with.   

Do you have any suggestions for the UCSB educational system on how to better prepare our grad students for careers?

Create a state of the art maker space open to the entire university.

Who has been and/or is a hero, mentor, role model, or inspiration to you?

Instead of calling out individuals I’ll be a little more philosophical. Everyone you surround yourself with is a mentor or role model in some way. That’s why the most important thing in life is to surround yourself with people you respect, like, look up to, and enjoy. Spending time with people, you can’t help but be more like them.

What do you consider to be your biggest accomplishment and/or something you are the most proud of?

My biggest accomplishment in life and the thing I am most proud of are my friends and colleagues. Being surrounded by such an exceptional group of people is the greatest thing I could ever aspire to.

What does it mean to you that you will be returning to speak to our graduating grad students as our guest speaker?

Frankly, I’m just excited to share what is going on out in the world with the students. I’m involved in some pretty exciting projects and communities. The opportunity to share and inspire with the grads really gets me going! I also recognize it’s a huge honor, which means a lot to me because it means a lot to my parents.

Credit: @docnorth on Instagram

You live in a communal residence in San Francisco, an eight-bedroom Victorian called The Embassy, with other creative types. Please tell us a little about this.

Co-living at The Embassy is really about living with intention. It’s about surrounding yourself with people who are working toward something in life, something to improve the world. It’s about having a support network around you so that you can try things that are a bit more daring and bold. For me, it’s largely about having a family. I’m passionate about what I do in life and not ready for a family. But I think people do need family. This is a way to have family, without having to get up in the night to change a diaper.

What’s on your bucket list of things to do that you haven’t done?

I don’t have a bucket list. I keep my vision wide and take what opportunities appear on the horizon.

With your schedule, is it difficult for you to get together with family?

It is, but I make it happen. I flew back from Mexico City to go to my 6-year-old niece’s play. I spent Easter with my family and then crammed a trip to Switzerland and back into 4 days. A friend told me of an app that helps you calculate how many more times in your life you’ll see your parents. I got the point without downloading it and now make every effort to spend time with my family.

What is something that very few people know about you or that would surprise people about you?

I’m related to 11 of the Mayflower families. Now that’s American!

What do you do for fun and relaxation?

Relaxation: Yoga.

Fun: Dance my head off in front of a giant sound system.

Related links about Dr. Mike North:

UCSB Ph.D. Alum, Discovery Channel TV Show Host, ReAllocate Founder Mike North to Be Keynote Speaker at 2014 Graduate Division Commencement

No Tie-Dye Required. Bay Area Millennials Are Flocking to Communes, New York Times

How 3D Printing Saved Christmas, by Dr. Mike North

Rose petals were strewn as Louisa Smythe, the 1,000th graduate of the Bren School, took the stage. Credit: Patricia Marroquin

Four of the five Ph.D. recipients were on hand Friday at Bren Hall to accept their degrees. They are, from left, Eric Edwards, Sheetal Gavankar, Rebecca Toseland, and Trevor Zink. Credit: Patricia MarroquinUC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management marked a milestone on Friday at its 2014 Commencement ceremony when it conferred a degree on its 1,000th student. This “green” grad school celebrated by showering that student, Louisa Smythe, not with paper confetti but with multicolored rose petals.

At the 10 a.m. ceremony in Michael J. Connell Memorial Courtyard, the 18-year-old Bren School graduated 79 students: 75 earning MESM (master of environmental science and management) degrees and four earning Ph.D.s. Chancellor Henry T. Yang pointed out that the Bren class represented 1.4 percent of this year’s total UCSB graduating class, calling the ceremony “small but very special.”

Assistant Dean Satie Airame and Bren Dean Steven Gaines sing "Joy to the World." Credit: Patricia MarroquinBoth the chancellor and Bren Dean Steven Gaines acknowledged the six students lost in the May 23 Isla Vista tragedy, with Chancellor Yang calling for a moment of silence. Yang announced that six scholarships have been established in the students’ memories and each will be awarded a bachelor’s degree posthumously.

Awards and recognition were given to both students and faculty. Taylor Debevec was honored with the MESM Service Award, and two students – Casey O’Hara and Maxwell Ludington – received MESM Academic Achievement Awards. Professor Roland Geyer was presented with the Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award.

Ashley Conrad-Saydah, Deputy Secretary for Climate Policy at the California Environmental Protection Agency and a 2008 MESM graduate, delivered the keynote address, “Time to Leave the Choir.”  She called for students in the graduating class to “take a harder path,” and quoting Frost, urged them to “take the road less traveled, diverge, and cultivate alliances where you might otherwise be a lone ranger.” The student address was given by Emily DeMarco (MESM 2014).

Class Chairs Alison Amrhein and Elizabeth Ross applaud their class for 100% participation in the MESM 2014 Class Gift. Credit: Patricia MarroquinClass Chairs Elizabeth Ross and Alisan Amrhein presented the class gift, noting that this year they were able to get 100% participation from the graduating class. The gift, sun shades, will help shield students from the sun on the Deckers Outdoor Corporation Terrace, also known as the Deckers Deck.

Before, during, and after the ceremony, musical entertainment was provided by Bren School’s own student band, Brengrass. The music included a rousing rendition at the conclusion of the ceremony of Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World.” Joining in the singing was Dean Gaines and Satie Airame, Assistant Dean for Academic Programs.

Appetizers, desserts, and mimosas were served at an outdoor reception afterward. One table featured foods from Salty Girl Seafood, which won two awards – the Elings Prize and the People’s Choice – in the recent New Venture Competition 2014, hosted by the Technology Management Program. Salty Girl Seafood is a sustainable seafood distribution company founded by two Bren MESM graduates: Norah Eddy and Laura Johnson.

Congratulations to all the Bren School graduates; and congrats on reaching the milestone of 1,000 graduates!

Bren School graduates celebrate their degree with the traditional tossing of the caps. Credit: Patricia Marroquin

Brengrass performed such songs as "Happy," "This Land Is Your Land," "America the Beautiful" and "Joy to the World." Credit: Patricia Marroquin

Bren School graduates share a laugh at the ceremony. Credit: Patricia Marroquin

There were 410 students participating in Graduate Division's 2014 Commencement ceremony on Sunday. Credit: Patricia Marroquin

There was a common message expressed to the 410 graduates at UC Santa Barbara Graduate Division’s 2014 Commencement ceremony on Sunday, June 15, and it was this: The academic excellence and expertise graduates achieved at UCSB will empower them to make significant contributions to the nation and the world.

UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang said "You have demonstrated just how special you are." Credit: Patricia MarroquinOn this warm and sunny afternoon, Dr. Carol Genetti presided over her second Commencement ceremony as Dean of the Graduate Division.

In greeting the graduates, faculty, friends, and family members, UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang  expressed his gratitude and appreciation.

“You have demonstrated just how special you are,” the chancellor told them. “We have come to appreciate your curiosity, your devotion, and your determination. And, of course, your endurance. We look forward with excitement and confidence to what you will go on to do – in your lives and in your careers,” he said.

“There’s one thing I want you to always remember,” he added, “and that’s how you have helped make our campus a better place. For that, I say thank you.”

Chancellor Yang acknowledged the six students lost in the May 23 Isla Vista tragedy, and he called for a moment of silence. The chancellor announced that six scholarships have been established in the students’ memories and each will be awarded a bachelor’s degree posthumously.

"It was you and you alone who did the work to get this degree," Dean Carol Genetti told the graduates. Credit: Patricia MarroquinDean Genetti urged the graduates to “do your best not to lose touch” with your grad school friends. These colleagues shared laughs, tears, food, and office space with you, she said. They listened to your ideas, encouraged you, and provided constructive criticism when needed. “Old, dear friends are one of the greatest blessings that life gives us,” Dean Genetti said.

Faculty, too, were a great support system and “enabled and empowered your scholarship,” she told them.

While all of these people have been critical to your success, she added, “it was you and you alone who did the work to get this degree,” through determination, commitment, and persistence.

The ceremony’s keynote speaker was Dr. Mike North, a UCSB alumnus who is the founder of the nonprofit ReAllocate and a Discovery Channel show host.

“I think that being a grad of UCSB means that you have built into you a spirit of caring, community, and collaboration,” Dr. Mike North told the graduates. Credit: Patricia Marroquin“I think that being a grad of UCSB means that you have built into you a spirit of caring, community, and collaboration,” Dr. North told the graduates. “And I just want you to know that that’s very valuable in the world that you’re heading off into. Maybe it’s not something you studied. It’s in the ethos here. And so it’s something you’re going to carry with you for the rest of your lives. “

The student speaker was Physics Ph.D. Lucile Savary. She said that the combination of academic excellence and kindness found at UCSB is “truly unique.”

“We have contributed to knowledge,” she said. “This is something which will always be ours, which is important and lasting. Knowledge is forever.”

Dr. Savary told the graduates that “the qualities and values needed to graduate and the people we interacted with here will help us make well-informed decisions for a better future.” She ended her address by leading the audience in an enthusiastic cheer of “Go Gauchos!”

Student speaker Lucile Savary led the audience in the cheer, "Go Gauchos!" Credit: Patricia MarroquinHonors and recognitions during the ceremony included:

The Louis and Winifred Lancaster Dissertation Awards were presented to Dr. Carly Thomsen of Feminist Studies for Social Sciences; and to Dr. Ahmed Almheiri of Physics for Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering.

Three students were recognized for University Awards of Distinction: Dr. Torrey Trust of Education; Dr. Emily Rivest of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology; and Dr. Carly Thomsen of Feminist Studies.

A significant milestone was celebrated at the ceremony. Dr. Thomsen is the first recipient of a Ph.D. in Feminist Studies from UCSB. She and the entire Department of Feminist Studies were congratulated.

Music master’s graduate Colleen Beucher sang the National Anthem and led the audience in the University song, “Hail to California,” at the ceremony’s conclusion.

For more photos, visit the GradPost Facebook page’s Graduate Division Commencement 2014 photo album.

Congratulations to all our graduates!

Education graduates wait in the sunshine before the ceremony began. Credit: Patricia MarroquinColleen Beucher led the audience in singing "Hail to California." Credit: Patricia Marroquin

Recent Bren School grad Casey O'Hara is working as an environmental journalist this summer at the Oregonian newspaper in Portland.Casey O’Hara has worked in the roles of high school science teacher; musician in Bren School’s Brengrass band; medical-device developer; award-winning documentary filmmaker; and Bren School master’s student. This summer he’s tackling a new role back in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, putting his Bren education to good use as a science news reporter at the Oregonian newspaper.

Casey is one of 15 students nationwide to be awarded a Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This is the 40th year that AAAS has assigned science and engineering scholars to top newsrooms for summer reporting jobs. 

Since the program’s inception, more than 625 student scientists, engineers, and medical professionals have been supported. In some cases, AAAS says, the fellows have produced the only original science-news reporting at their assigned media outlets over the summer.

Casey and the 14 other fellows were selected from a pool of 130 outstanding applicants. Collectively, the fellows are likely to generate 200 to 300 original science stories for print articles, blogs, podcasts, radio segments, and multimedia features.

Casey, whose focus at Bren was the school’s new Strategic Environmental Communications and Media emphasis, said he learned about the fellowship opportunity from his brother, Corey O’Hara, who is pursuing a Ph.D. in sustainable agriculture at Tufts University. “He realized that it was just the sort of thing I would be interested in,” said Casey.

The Bren alum is honored to have been selected, noting that AAAS “is one of the most well-respected organizations in promoting scientific collaboration, education, and outreach worldwide” and has supported many notable science communicators. Previous fellows include Erica Goode and Kenneth Chang of the New York Times; Richard Harris, David Kestenbaum, and Joe Palca of NPR; and renowned biologist Eric Lander, co-chair of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Casey received both the University Award of Distinction and the MESM Academic Achievement Award at Bren's Commencement ceremony in June. Credit: Patricia Marroquin“I am excited to have a chance to work with professional environmental journalists and editors at the Oregonian,” said Casey, “and to build a network with the other fellows in the program, who will be working at media organizations across the country.”

Casey headed off to Oregon after participating in Bren’s Commencement ceremony, where he received his MESM degree and was honored with the University Award of Distinction and the MESM Academic Achievement Award.

During the summer, Casey will work with the editor of the Oregonian’s Investigations Team, focusing specifically on environmental issues. “The Oregonian, like most newspapers, has shifted in large part to digital media, so I expect to be incorporating multimedia into my work over the summer as well,” he said.

“While my fellowship is technically a ‘Mass Media Science Fellowship’ through the American Association for the Advancement of Science, much of my writing has been on topics that cross between environmental science, policy, and management,” Casey said. “So my Bren background has been invaluable. It has definitely prepared me well to communicate the bigger picture of these issues.”

Already a few weeks into the fellowship, Casey is doing just that, and has had a number of articles published.

Some of the topics he has reported on so far include mass bumblebee die-offs attributed to pesticides and starvation; funding for wolf conservation and livestock replacement; and tent caterpillars’ war with wasps and other natural enemies. “I'm currently working on a story related to fishery management that I think fits in well with some of my Bren classes as well,” Casey said. You can see the complete list of Casey’s Oregonian articles here.

Once his fellowship is over, Casey hopes to continue working in the education field. “Prior to UCSB/Bren, I taught high school physics and green tech engineering in the San Francisco Bay Area,” Casey said. His goal, he said, is “to extend my career in education, working with other teachers and education professionals to improve environmental science education and outreach.”

For more information about the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Fellowship, visit the AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellows Program website. You may also read about all 15 AAAS fellows.

Casey O'Hara, second from right, performed with the band Brengrass during his Commencement ceremony in June. Credit: Patricia Marroquin

Shawn Warner-Garcia is a 5th-year Linguistics student and the Graduate Division's new Professional Development Peer.It was probably inevitable that Shawn Warner-Garcia would pursue an education in a communication-related field. Shawn’s mother is a speech pathologist and her father is a journalist. Growing up in Jacksonville, Florida, she had many opportunities to travel with her family and her church, “which has cultivated my respect and enthusiasm for cultural and linguistic diversity,” she said. She is also a performer, classically trained as a vocal musician. Shawn calls upon all of these skills and passions in her roles as a UCSB 5th-year Linguistics Ph.D. student and the Graduate Division’s new Professional Development Peer.

After graduating from high school, Shawn left the Sunshine State and moved to the Lone Star State, where she earned two degrees from two Texas universities: a BA in Language and Linguistics from Baylor University in Waco, and an MA in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin.

When she moved to Texas she didn’t know a soul, but she soon met “some of the most wonderful friends and mentors.” Texans, she said on her website, “really do have a special brand of genuineness and camaraderie.”

She ended up marrying “one of those amazing Texans,” Jonathan Garcia, who she says has been “incredibly supportive” as she pursues her Linguistics studies, specializing in Sociocultural Linguistics with interdisciplinary emphases in Language, Interaction, and Social Organization; Applied Linguistics; and Feminist Studies. The couple live with their 8-month-old son Austin in UCSB Family Student Housing.

In this column, Shawn shares details of her research; how she has dealt with graduate school life; who has been a source of motivation for her; her greatest accomplishment; and more.  

Tell us a little about your research.

My research is on issues of language, gender, and sexuality in Shawn Warner-Garcia, with her husband Jonathan on their wedding day; and with son Austin.Christian contexts. I chose this topic because it combines many of the things that I am passionate about: linguistic analysis, social justice, equality and diversity, and religion and spirituality. I hope to be able to shed light on the ways in which contemporary Christians are forging new identities and ideologies about issues of gender and sexuality. 

What has graduate student life been like for you?

I have really enjoyed the ebb and flow of graduate student life. There have been seasons of feverish activity – when I am taking lots of classes, attending lots of workshops, going to lots of conferences. And then there have been seasons of purposeful pulling back – when I travel during the school breaks, when I gave birth to my son last fall, when I enjoy leisure activities with friends and family on the weekend. Finding a balance between working at a high level and enjoying people and experiences are really important for me as a graduate student. It’s not always easy to do, and I’m constantly having to make adjustments, but it helps me build a lifestyle that is both fulfilling and sustainable.

Is there any particular event that had a big impact or influence on you and helped shape who you are today?

Such deep questions! I suppose I can briefly talk about what made me decide to go to grad school and pursue a career in academia. I was sitting in one of my linguistics classes as a junior at Baylor, and I looked at my professor, Dr. Clay Butler, and thought to myself, “I want his job. I want to teach and research and mentor in all the ways that I see him being successful.”

What has been a source of motivation or drive for you in your graduate studies?

My husband, Jonathan, has been incredibly supportive of me in everything that I’ve done, but particularly in my pursuit of a career in academia. He really is the best partner and friend I could ever ask for. When he pursues his passions like theology, politics, and fitness, it inspires me to pursue my passions. 

Shawn Warner-Garcia attended the International Gender and Language conference in Vancouver, Canada, in June with friend and colleague Chris VanderStouwe. Shawn, in the bottom row second from right, is proud of her participation in the SKILLS program. These are the 2010-2011 participants.

Name an accomplishment you are most proud of and why.

For the last four years, I have been proud to be a part of SKILLS (School Kids Investigating Language in Life and Society), which is an academic outreach program that brings linguistics curriculum into Santa Barbara County high schools. The program encourages high school students to see themselves as researchers and experts in their own cultural and linguistic heritage. The students are introduced to college-level materials and mentored by UCSB undergraduate and graduate students throughout the program. I have alternately served as a curriculum consultant and program coordinator for SKILLS.

What do you do to relax? Any hobbies, pastimes, favorite places to go, favorite things to do? What makes you happy?

The men in Shawn Warner-Garcia's life: husband Jonathan and son Austin.Good people, good food, and good wine are all I need to make me happy. In equal parts, I love spending time outdoors as well as relaxing in front of the TV with my family.

I love to travel. And when money and time permit, I actually do it! I have been to probably half of the states in the U.S., and I’ve even liked most of them. Outside of the U.S., I have traveled to Thailand, France, Romania, Austria, Italy, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Mexico, and Canada. I’d love to add Australia, New Zealand, Israel, India, Japan, Germany, and England to that list. And I just wish I lived in Italy.

I was a classically trained vocalist in high school and minored in music composition in college, so naturally I love music of almost all sorts and kinds. I play a little guitar, a little piano, but mostly I just like to belt out show tunes when no one is looking.

What is one thing most people don’t know about you?

I am a BIG football fan. I am currently in mourning until August 3, when preseason games start up again. In the NFL, I root for the Jaguars, Cowboys, and (since moving to California) Chargers. In college football, I grew up an FSU fan (much to the dismay of my parents, who were UF fans), then started rooting for Baylor and UT when I attended those schools. I would say that Baylor is my ultimate college team (and I'm so proud of the success they've had in recent years).

Explain what you do in your role as Professional Development Peer advisor. What are your goals as Professional Development Peer advisor?

As the Professional Development Peer advisor, I help graduate students achieve professional and personal goals related to their graduate career, whether it be conducting a job search, learning how to network more successfully, or finding a good work-life balance. My goal is to reach as many students as possible in ways that are relevant and meaningful to them, through workshops, GradPost articles, and one-on-one meetings.

(Editor's note: You may email Shawn for professional development assistance or to schedule an appointment to meet with her one-on-one.)

Forbes updates its interactive map on a regular basis to show which campuses have the most school spirit via its #MyTopCollege social media campaign. On July 14, Cal State Fullerton led the nation.

Grad students, what makes UC Santa Barbara so special? Oh, there are so many things – award-winning departments, programs, and schools; our nationally recognized and imitated Grad Slam competition; exceptional, successful students and alumni; distinguished faculty; a spectacular, scenic campus location; to name just a few.

UCSB Graduate Division's award-winning Grad Slam competition is nationally recognized.Now Forbes wants to hear from you. Every year it ranks America’s Top Colleges based on such factors as graduation rate; student satisfaction; and post-graduate success. The magazine is asking students and alums to tell them, via social media, what makes their college special.  

Use the hashtag #MyTopCollege (and #UCSB) on your Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook posts to make your voices heard. Forbes has created an interactive national map that shows which campuses have the most school spirit. As you can see in the College Leaderboard above, as of today, July 14, Cal State Fullerton and San Diego State University lead the country in school spirit.

Forbes plans to publish its annual Top Colleges ranking on July 30. “Everyone who submits their own college fun fact or unique tradition has a chance to appear [on Forbes' My Top College website] and in Forbes magazine,” Forbes says.

So share a photo, a fun fact, or a simple reason why you think UC Santa Barbara is tops in the nation. Don't forget the hashtags #MyTopCollege and #UCSB. Read a Forbes blog post about the campaign.

#MyTopCollege #UCSB @Forbes

UCSB is our Top College because of its exceptional graduate students who go on to become successful alums. Credit: Patricia Marroquin

The 2013-14 academic year included such events as the grand opening of the farmers market; the award-winning Grad Slam competition; and a memorial service to honor students lost in the Isla Vista tragedy. Collage credit: Patricia Marroquin

Another academic year at UC Santa Barbara has come and gone. It was a year of triumphs and tragedy, awards and accolades, food and frivolity for our campus community. Here are some of the poignant, impressive, educational, tasty, and just plain fun news items we’ve covered over the academic year recently ended:

Academic Achievements and Excellence Are Celebrated at UCSB Graduate Division’s 2014 Commencement Ceremony

A Milestone Moment at UCSB Bren School’s 2014 Commencement: 1,000th Degree Is Conferred

UCSB Awards its First Feminist Studies Ph.D., to Carly Thomsen

Grad Slam 2014: Recaps of Rounds 1-10; Semifinal Rounds 1-2; and Final Round

History Grad Student, Other Volunteers Create Memorial Wall in The Arbor

1,500 Proud Gauchos Take to the Water for Memorial Paddle Out

20,000 Hearts Were United at Memorial Service to Honor Six UCSB Students

UCSB Classes Suspended on Tuesday, a ‘Day of Mourning and Reflection’

2 UCSB Ph.D. Students Shed Light on Research During Graduate Research Advocacy Day

U.S. News & World Report Ranks UCSB’s Chemical Engineering, Materials Programs Among Nation’s Best

UCSB Reads “Big Burn” Book Giveaway

Why I Love UCSB: A Special Valentine’s Day Video (featuring Graduate Division Assistant Dean Christian Villasenor and Family

UCSB Goes Smoke-Free and Tobacco-Free

Enjoy a Day in the Life of UC Santa Barbara

Physicist, Philanthropist Fred Kavli of Kavli Institute of Theoretical Physics Dies

UCSB Makes List of Top 25 Universities to Work For; Grad Student and Grad Alum Staff Members Agree

UCSB Gets Fresh on Wednesdays at Gaucho Certified Farmers Market

Grad Slam Wins Graduate Education Excellence and Innovation Award

UCSB Ranks No. 33 on Times Higher Education List of the World’s Top 200 Universities

UCSB History Ph.D. Alum Robin Fleming Wins Prestigious MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award

GSA President Speaks of Library’s Importance to Grad Students at Groundbreaking Ceremony

Snow Day  at Storke in November

New UCSB Students Discover Campus, Colleagues at 2013 Orientation

The Office of Public Affairs and Communications has summed up the year in 2 minutes and 19 seconds! Take a trip down memory lane by viewing  “UCSB 2013-14: The Year in Review,” below. And be sure to look for our grad students in this video! Graduate students are featured at 1:08 (Leah Kuritzky presenting in the Grad Slam); 2:01 (Carly Thomsen is acknowledged at Commencement for her Ph.D. in Feminist Studies); and 2:02 (the Bren School awards its 1,000th degree at 2014 Commencement). Enjoy!

UCSB 2013-14: The Year in Review from UC Santa Barbara on Vimeo.

ARC/California Pre-Doctoral Sally Casanova (SC)/UC LEADS Scholars presented their final summer research projects. Credit: Walter Boggan

”Through the ARC/SC/UC LEADS program, I have a much better understanding of the department and the work that goes on in a lab, and I am definitely more confident in my interest in the (psychology) program as I’m sure this is an environment I can really thrive in,” said Brandon Patallo, a senior undergraduate student in Psychology from Hunter College in New York. This summer, UC Santa Barbara’s Graduate Division made a huge impact on 13 scholars’ lives, helping them to reach their personal, academic, and professional goals through the Academic Research Consortium (ARC)/California Pre-Doctoral Scholars Sally Casanova (SC)/UC LEADS program.

Each year, the UCSB Graduate Division identifies outstanding scholars nationwide from different disciplines to be immersed at an environment where they can learn, grow, and get a taste of what it is like to be a graduate student, especially at UCSB. This year, the program welcomed 13 scholars. They came from Morgan State University, Hunter College, DePaul University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, California State University-Northridge, Rice University, as well as a few UC schools, such as UCLA, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, and UCSB.

The program provided a unique and valuable experience to these scholars as they were matched individually with UCSB faculty and graduate student mentors to receive training and to conduct research. During this seven-week summer program, the scholars were able to explore their fields of interest and further develop their knowledge and skills to prepare for graduate studies in the near future.

Intensive but Meaningful

In order to be able to fully focus on research while at UCSB, the ARC/SC/UC LEADS program generously provided housing, meals, and a living stipend to scholars. With these amenities taken care of, the 13 scholars were able to focus on their full schedules, which included working daily with their faculty advisors and mentors.

In addition to working with their mentors, the scholars attended GRE preparation classes twice a week and program workshops once a week. The workshops addressed important topics, such as living as a graduate student, applying for graduate school, finding funding, working with faculty advisors, strengthening presentation skills, and building a digital reputation. In addition, scholars had to do GRE homework, write a personal statement draft, and prepare for their research colloquium at the end of the program.

Was the program tough? Maybe. But was it meaningful and worthwhile? Absolutely. Marzieh Tousi, a chemical engineering scholar from UC Riverside, said, “I have met some of the most amazing faculty members in my major, and I also now have a big picture of how interesting and challenging it is to study and do research at UCSB.” Marzieh added that the program not only made it possible for her to do research in a lab she was interested in, but she was also paid to do what she loves.  

Motivation and Goals

When scholars were asked what motivated them to join the ARC/SC/UC LEADS program, they all mentioned that they wanted to gain a hands-on experience in conducting research at UCSB – a university many of them have considered as their top choice for graduate school.

"I was looking to be a part of the best program that I can find, and UCSB is rated very highly for my intended graduate major, material science and engineering,” Marzieh of UC Riverside said. “Some of the most well-known professors are at this university and it’s a privilege to work under their supervision.” Her goal was “to get a better understanding of what it is like to do research in one of the best universities in the nation and to get to know some of the faculty who could potentially be my principal  investigator.”

Paulina Nava, an art history and Latin American studies scholar from DePaul University, said she chose a summer program at UCSB “specifically for its impressive collection of Chicana/o art archives and its Chicana/o studies program.” Her goal was to “gain some research experience in art history methodologies.” She added that she is “very grateful” to the program because she gained a valuable opportunity “to see what it’s like to work with a faculty mentor who is interdisciplinary and who applies theory into an art context.”

Aside from research experience, scholars were motivated to come to UCSB to network with the institution and faculty members, and to enhance professionalism. Temitope Adoeye, a psychology student from Morgan State University, said she joined the program "to not only gain additional research experience but also to network with institutions I am interested in applying to.” Brandon Rose, a current UCSB undergraduate scholar studying cell developmental biology, said that he applied to the program to “get close to my faculty mentor.” While Temitope’s goal was to "make connections with faulty members who could place a face to [her graduate school] application,” Brandon specifically wanted to  “improve [his] scientific communication skills when addressing an educated but general audience.”

Impact

From left, Adanari Zarate, Dr. Ines Casillas, Scholar Mariano Nava, Scholar Paulina Nava, and Dr. Gerardo Aldana. Credit: Walter BogganThe ARC/SC/UC LEADS program has made a tremendous impact on these scholars’ academic and professional lives. Temitope Adeoye from Morgan State said she benefited a lot from the workshops the program offered. In addition, she appreciated the many useful resources offered throughout the program. "Besides the information shared within the workshops, the faculty members and students presenting serve as wonderful resources as well! Dr. Victor Rios was able to connect me with faculty in the School of Education, Chris Vestuto from GRE prep has offered to continue to assist with my GRE preparations, and presenters also offered their contact information to assist with personal statements and the application process,” said Temitope.

Robyn Barrios, a psychology student from UCLA, specifically found the GRE resource helpful. Robyn said, "The ARC program has prepared me to apply and excel in a graduate program by giving me firsthand experience with research and enrolling me in a GRE program that would have otherwise been a serious financial challenge.”

In addition, scholars emphasized how their knowledge, skills, and expertise have been strengthened through the program. Brandon Patallo of Hunter College said, "I’ve specifically gained experience with SPSS and furthered my understanding of regression analysis. I’ve also gained a lot of insight on disseminating research and community engagement.” Daniel Vong, a computer and electrical engineering student of UCSB, also shared how the program has influenced him as a researcher. "The program has impacted me very positively by providing the knowledge and skills of research. I have gained clean room nanofabrication experience, which will allow me to make nanoscale items to conduct research with. Weekly group meetings have enhanced my oral presentation skills,” said Daniel.

The ARC/SC/UC LEADS program also helped the scholars to start thinking in detail about their futures. Jennifer Walker, a bioengineering student from Rice University, said, “The ARC program required us to prepare a statement of purpose. Because I’m only going into my junior year, I had never fully contemplated what I wanted out of my graduate school experience. Therefore, this exercise greatly helped me realize what I want and therefore will help me decide what my next steps should be.”

Brandon Rose of UCSB shared how this program helped opened doors to consider graduate school in the near future. "Before applying to the program I never really considered graduate school. I have always wanted to attend medical school. This program has inspired to strive for a much more competitive and unique program. I am now preparing myself for an M.D./Ph.D. program. If I get into an M.D./Ph.D. program it will be because of a path that began with my acceptance as a scholar here in this program at UCSB,” he said.

Challenges

During the seven-week period, it was not always easy for the scholars to excel in every aspect. Some of the scholars mentioned that doing homework for the GRE class was the most challenging task throughout the program. Brandon Rose of UCSB said, “The homework for the GRE class was nearly impossible to do while working full time. Typical days for me were scholarship meetings in the morning and work in the lab until about 7 to 8 p.m. By the time I got home I usually had to work out to release stress and eat dinner. By then it would be around 9 p.m. and I didn’t have the time to do the GRE homework to the best of my ability. However, the class was very helpful and the books will help me prepare for the GRE and my score will definitely be better than if I didn’t have these resources."

ARC/California Pre-Doctoral Sally Casanova (SC)/UC LEADS Scholars enjoying pizza at a local pizza parlor in Goleta. Credit: Roxanna Van Norman

In general, the majority of the scholars mentioned that balancing their time was the most challenging. One scholar, Daniel Vong of UCSB, said that he was "so absorbed” in his research that he would “often forget to eat meals.” Paulina Nava of DePaul University said that "the biggest challenge this summer has been balancing life and work. It’s important to work, but it’s also important to take breaks. I have gotten better about this, but it is a work in progress.” While balancing time was challenging for most scholars, Temitope’s biggest challenge was “to develop autonomy to complete project(s).” Nevertheless, at the end of the program, Temitope happily said, "Though overwhelming initially, I am proud of my work and feel I will be better prepared for the independence and responsibility I may experience in graduate school."

Good Memories

Scholars not only have developed knowledge, skills, and expertise, they also developed friendships through this program. In fact, Brandon Patallo said, "the biggest challenge I faced this summer was coming to terms with the fact that I have to leave soon!” Although the program kept the scholars busy during the seven-week program, they were able to spend some time to enjoy leisure with new friends they have made through the program. For example, Daniel Vong hiked the Seven Falls, Paulina Nava visited Los Angeles to see the artwork and the environment she had read so much about, and other scholars went together to see a Los Angeles Dodgers game and visit the Knott’s Berry Farm amusement park. Some scholars mentioned how they really enjoyed the local activities, such as going to the Fiesta on State Street and hanging out at the local pizza place with the entire scholarship group.  
Overall, these 13 scholars said that they now all feel prepared to apply at a graduate school and succeed as a graduate student. And they all promised that UCSB will definitely be at the top of their list.  

For more information about these scholars and the projects they worked on, click here to see their abstracts from their final colloquium presentation.

Economics Ph.D. student Bryan Leonard.Bryan Leonard is in Germany for what he calls “a once-in-a-lifetime chance” to interact with Nobel Laureates, top economists, and fellow graduate student researchers. Bryan, a 4th-year Economics Ph.D. student, was one of 29 outstanding graduate research students selected to attend the 5th Lindau Meeting in Economic Sciences in Lindau, Germany, August 19-23. The meeting offers students the opportunity to participate in economics lectures and discussions with Nobel Laureates from around the globe.

Bryan’s selection to the U.S. delegation was a multi-stage process. Explains Bryan: “My advisor, [Bren School Professor and Professor of Economics] Gary Libecap, suggested that I apply to attend the conference. The initial application was for consideration to be UCSB's nominee. I was selected to be UCSB's nominee, and then selected by Oak Ridge Associated Universities [ORAU] to be a nominee for the U.S. delegation to the meetings. Finally, my application was approved by the Lindau Council itself.”

Bryan is a Sustainable Water Markets Fellow, “a program through the Bren School that seeks to do policy-relevant research on promoting water markets and other related institutions to promote the better management and allocation of water in the Colorado Basin,” Professor Libecap told the GradPost. The fellowship is funded by the Walton Family Foundation with a grant to the Bren School. Bryan’s theoretical and empirical research explores existing water rights and why they may be difficult to modify in promoting water markets in a manner similar to what has been done in fisheries, for example. He also is examining the economic effects on the source county of the water transfer from the Palo Verde Irrigation District in eastern California to San Diego.

Bryan said he is “most looking forward to hearing from the Nobel Laureates directly and to interacting with them in a less formal setting.” He will have the opportunity to do that. Each morning, Laureates lecture on a topic of their choice related to economics and then preside over informal roundtable sessions exclusively for students in the afternoons. During lunches and dinners, Laureates will join participants at local restaurants for additional discussions.

The meeting has grown since its beginnings in September 2004. That year, the first bi-annual Lindau Meeting in Economic Sciences drew nearly 200 students. This year, more than 400 student researchers from 40 countries are participating. The Economic Sciences meeting supplements the tradition of the annual Lindau Meeting of Nobel Laureates in natural sciences, which began in 1951. The students are sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Mars Inc., and ORAU.

To see the complete list of participating students, visit the 2014 Lindau Meeting page. Read Mars' news release about a Lindau panel discussion at this year's event. Also, read our GradPost article about last year’s UCSB attendees, Stephen Donaldson (Chemical Engineering), Neil Eschmann (Chemistry), and Leah Kuritzsky (Materials).

UC Santa Barbara has been ranked No. 15 on a list of Top 100 National Universities, leaping seven spots from last year, and once again, the university’s excellent graduate education programs and research played a significant role in this recognition.

Washington Monthly magazine, which released its annual 2014 National Universities Rankings this week, ranked the institutions based on their contributions to the public good in three categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students); Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and Ph.D.s); and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country). The magazine, which takes into consideration what the schools are doing for their students and the country, describes its list as “a different kind of college ranking.” Its rankings are unlike other national lists such as the one compiled by U.S. News & World Report, which places importance on such factors as a university’s financial endowment, admissions selectivity, and academic reputation.

UCSB joined seven other University of California campuses on the Top 100 list. UC San Diego was No. 1 on the list for the fifth time. UC President Janet Napolitano said: “For four of our campuses to be ranked in the top five and for UC San Diego to be ranked No. 1 for the fifth consecutive year is a significant achievement. All eight of the UC campuses that were ranked in the top 100 institutions deserve heartfelt congratulations from the entire UC community.”

Washington Monthly praised the UC system, saying that it “has a distinct blend of size, diversity, and research excellence. By enrolling top students from a huge state with a highly varied population, UC campuses are able to balance academic excellence with scientific prowess and a commitment to enrolling low-income students that is unmatched at similar national universities.”

For the second consecutive year, the magazine also released its “Best Bang for the Buck” rankings, which are based on the economic value students receive per dollar, and UCSB was ranked No. 13 on the list of 81 institutions, joing seven other UC campuses.

For more information, read the Office of Public Affairs and Communications’ news release, “UCSB Among the Best.” View all the universities on Washington Monthly’s Top 100 list and those on its list of “Best Bang for the Buck.” You may also read the GradPost’s 2012 article on the rankings.

Dibella Wdzenczny (pronounced /di'bjɛlɑ 'ʤɛnʧnɪ/, but you can just call her "Di") is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in the Linguistics Department who studies the indigenous languages of Siberia. Di is fascinated by the extreme diversity of human language as well as its core similarities, and she is dedicated to looking at language from every possible direction. Her area of expertise is in historical linguistics, which is the study of language change over time, and she is especially interested in how cycles and patterns of language change interact with each other in the grammar of a language.

Di Wdzenczny

Di shared her passion for language documentation as a finalist in the 2014 Grad Slam, where she spoke about the possible extinction of indigenous languages in Siberia due to language assimilation. She talked about the ways in which linguists are working with community members to document and preserve heritage, culture, and linguistic diversity.

Di has a Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Medieval Studies from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!) and a Master's degree in Linguistics from Eastern Michigan University. While at Eastern Michigan, she also worked at the LINGUIST List, a professional communication and networking site for the worldwide community of linguists. Read on to learn more about her research and grad school experiences.

Tell us a little about your research and how you came to choose the topic.

From the very introduction of it, I was fascinated by historical linguistics and the realization that you can make educated guesses about the history of a language or language family. It was during my Master's degree program, when I was trying desperately to find a language area that I could dive into, that I started to focus on the indigenous languages of Siberia. When I had applied to Ph.D. programs, I was still in the mindset of "I'm interested in all of it – point me in a direction!" Then, in one of my morphology classes, we did an in-class exercise on a language I'd never heard of before: a Kamchatkan language called Itelmen, which is spoken in Siberia. It just grabbed me and I had to know more … and I suppose the rest is history.

What was it like to participate in the Grad Slam?

Di with fellow winner of Grad Slam Round Seven, Nate Emery. Credit: Patricia MarroquinIt was fabulous. There was definitely adrenaline and electricity in the room at all rounds, and it was admirable how many grad students wanted to give it a shot. Grad students tend to have a reputation as shut-ins and occasionally socially stunted, but it was clear that lots (if not most) of us are active, happy people who truly love our work and really want to tell the world about it.

And, of course, one of the best parts was getting to the finals alongside my fellow colleague and friend in the Linguistics Department, Don Daniels. Back when I was applying to different graduate programs, a big part of my decision to come to UCSB was because of the work Don was able to do here and how happy he was with the program. For both of us to be in the Grad Slam finals felt like a huge success.

What has been a source of motivation or drive for you in your graduate studies?

Di in the Kamchatka region of Russia with her friend and colleague Tatiana, who is an Itelmen Ph.D. student.I'm pretty self-motivated, so aiming for that "next big thing" is always good. I'm just generally the type where I'm never quite satisfied with anything I do, so I'm always out to do it better or take it to the next step.

I also feel motivated out of gratitude for the women linguists who have come before me. They were the ones who, back in the day, were fighting the good fight for equality (and some of their stories are stomach-turning), and I'm very lucky to be able to have an immensely easier time following in their footsteps. Several female linguists – such as Sally Thomason, Claire Bowern, Marianne Mithun, and Carol Genetti – have been brilliant mentors to me and I owe it to them to excel the best I can.

What do you like most about grad school and what do you like least?

I enjoy the encouragement to explore the best. I find myself constantly curious, and it’s not only encouraged but supported by our faculty. Seeing some little thought you had that started as "Huh, that’s funny" turn into a published paper is immensely satisfying.

As for my least favorite thing … well, it's nothing that doesn't come with the station. The UC-wide standard fellowship and TA pay is rough living in the Santa Barbara-Goleta area, and the stress can really be a killer. A little bit of stress can be a great motivator, but there’s a fine line between that and when it's unbearable and you want to do nothing but eat ice cream and watch Netflix. Santa Barbara may be expensive, but at least we have McConnell's.

Tell us a little about your upbringing and childhood interests.

One of Di's favorite things about Detroit (besides the sports, of courseǃ) is Detroit music, such as Motown. Hitsville U.S.A., where the Motown Museum is located, chronicles the history of the Motown sound, which started in Detroit and paved the way for everything from disco, funk, and a lot of modern hip hop. Credit: Chris ButcherI'm a second-generation American from Detroit. My family have mostly been autoworkers, and I was the second person in my entire family to get a college degree, and once I get my Ph.D., I'll have the highest degree in my family. That being said, I absolutely love (what used to be) American car culture, and I had jobs restoring cars before I went to college.

As a kid, I was super artistic; I have a natural talent for drawing and I was also musically inclined, but my family definitely had a particular academic destiny set for me, so I was only allowed to take those artistic interests so far. Now that I'm on my own, however, I've grown back into them.

Is there any particular event or events that had a big impact or influence on you and helped shape who you are today?

Well, not to get grim, but probably one of the biggest-impact events in my life was the car accident that completely crushed the left side of my body when I was 16. Having to deal with the aftermath of that accident certainly gave me a better sense of humor about life and made me contemplate things I'd previously taken for granted.

I was told for a long time that my bones would never heal entirely after the accident, but I got a second opinion and "Humpty Dumpty" was put back together post-haste. Although I still have a fair share of permanent injuries, I realized my recovery was entirely in my hands at that point, and that was when I took up dance. I started with hip hop and jitting (a native Detroit style of footwork dance), and moved on to ballet, ballroom, and everything else. I'd uncovered something I realized I couldn’t live without, and it taught me a lot about drive and overcoming obstacles and that all of this was up to me. The experience also taught me that you never really do anything without someone else's help.

What are some of your current hobbies and favorite things to do?

Di in costume for a traditional Tibetan dance performance in 2013. Credit: Sino West Performing Arts

I generally love to be outside and to just walk around, and Santa Barbara is a pretty nice place to do both those things. Dancing is also a wonderful retreat from working hard at a computer for most of the day. I'm not sure what's scarier – performing on stage or giving a presentation at a big conference. On stage, you don't get PowerPoints, but you also don't have people watching who might hold your career in your hands either.

Name an accomplishment you are most proud of and why.

I don’t know if "proud" is the correct word, but it was one that certainly meant a lot to me personally. The first time I performed en pointe (in ballet pointe shoes) was huge to me, because it gave me the sense that I'd truly recovered physically and mentally from my car accident, and it represented a lot of hard work and determination.

Do you have any advice for current grad students?

Di's patronus is a Siberian tiger. Credit: Tom Bayly

Outside of the obvious things (go to conferences, network, get published, etc.) there’s three things: socialize, get some exercise, and find a hobby outside of your research (a combination of this one plus either of the other two is super bonus points). The people in your lab/cohort are your peers, and they're in the same spot as you are most of the time. They can be a fabulous support network if you let them. And other grad students too! Meet people at Grad Slam, or the Happy Hours, etc. We're social creatures – I know not everyone is an extrovert, but we all benefit from some type of socializing. Plus, it stops you from stress overload. (If you do have stress overload, go to CAPS. It's a free counseling resource for UCSB students and they're fabulous.) Having an interest outside your research reminds you (and others, frankly) that you're a whole human being. Whether it's growing vegetables or MMA cage fighting, something that's not your work is a mind massage and always makes you more productive. I'm sure I don't have to explain "get some exercise" – everyone knows those benefits. Even an evening stroll across campus or on the beach can be a breath of fresh air (literally and metaphorically). Because endorphins and all that. And if you’re in a position to be able to, I suppose, get a pet. Caring for another creature is such a satisfying experience, and they're proven stress-reducers. Plus, they can help you get exercise and socialize! Hooray!