graduate student researcher ucsd

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Graduate Student Researcher (GSR)

A Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) performs research related to the student’s degree program in an academic department or research unit under the direction of a faculty member or authorized Principal Investigator. GSR positions are awarded by the professor who is the holder of the research grant. ECE students are encouraged to read about our  faculty’s research  and contact faculty directly to inquire about GSR opportunities.

Most GSR positions are for work to be conducted 25 percent time (10 hours per week) to 49.99 percent time (20 hours per week). Appointments typically cover fees and tuition (if applicable), and include a salary. Positions are available throughout the academic year and summer months, depending on the terms of the grant.

NOTE: If domestic students do not establish residency by the end of their first year of study, Nonresident Supplemental tuition will not be covered under any circumstances. This means that even if a domestic student holds a Graduate Student Researcher position after their first year of study, the student will be responsible for paying the non-resident tuition supplement. 

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GLI Graduate Student Researcher Program Application

Computer Science & Engineering

Graduate Student Researcher Positions

Updated September 21, 2015

Research Assistantships (RA) position are "officially" called Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) positions at UCSD.  RAs are typically awarded by the professor who is the holder of the research grant. Students typically are paid at 25% (10 hours/week) to 50% (20 hours/week). These appointments usually pay full fees and non-resident tuition (if applicable).  GSR positions are available throughout the academic and summer months. Students are encouraged to read about faculty research and to contact faculty to arrange for a GSR position.

For the current payrate for GSRs see the Graduate Student Academic Title Pay Rates page.  As of October 1, 2015, CSE is at the Step 8 rate.

Back to  Financial Opportunities

Depending on a faculty advisor’s grant funding, there are limited opportunities for appointments as a Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) during the academic year or summer.

During the academic year a GSR appointment can be held at anywhere from 25% to 49.99% time. Or, a GSR could be a joint appointment as a 25% GSR and a 25% Teaching Assistant (TA).

Summer GSR appointment can be held up to 100% time.

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Active Ph.D. students in the Department of Literature.

Comparative Literature

Catherine Nina Evarkiou

Ningning Huang

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry :  Fall 2017

Biography :

Ningning is a researcher and educator of Asian American literature /film and Transpacific Asian queer diaspora. Currently a PhD candidate from the Literature Department of UC San Diego, she also holds a master’s degree in Critical Asian Humanities from Duke University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Lingnan University, Hong Kong. In her dissertation, she explores the paradoxical temporality trapping Asian Americans and Asian diasporic queers, both progressing from pest-like immigrants toward the model minorities and regressing back toward immaturity as emasculated /neutered pets, via the critical lens of animal studies. Revealing that the regression of Asian Americans as ornamental animals is the dark side of their progression as model minorities, she envisions regression as a strategic pathway for Asian Americans to transgress the racial, gender and species boundaries. In addition to animal studies and critical race theories, she also focuses on queer and women of color critique, environmental studies, biopolitics, and film theories. Her paper,   “And I Shall Hear, Though Soft You Tread Above Me”:  The Racialized Queer Migrations of “Danny Boy”   is published by University of California Press in   Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture . Another paper entitled as   “Don’t F**k with Cats” and the Specter of Racialized Queer Violence   is under review by   The Journal for Critical Animal Studies . Ningning is also a bilingual creative writer seeking publication opportunities for her novella,   Joseph the Violinist .

Research Interests :

Asian American Literature and Film, Pacific Islands Studies, Transpacific Queer Diaspora, Comparative Ethnic Studies, Comparative LGBTQ Literature, Queer and Women of Color Critique, Animal Studies, Race and Science, Biopolitics, Ecocriticism, Critical Race Theories, Film Theories.

Melina Jung

Jasmine Yueming Li

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2023

Research Interests:

Sinophone science fiction novels and theater, epistemology of science and technology, embodiment and disembodiment, performing and installation arts in contemporary China

Academic Background:

M.A., Bilingual Bicultural Education, Columbia University, 2023 B.A., Chinese Language and Literature, Nankai University, 2021

Caleb Mertz-Vega

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry :  Fall 2021

Latin American Literature, Contemporary American Literature, Northern Andean Region literatures, LGTBQ+ literature, Queer Theory, Affect Theory, reader response, Gender studies, psychology and literature, religion and culture.

I was previously a restaurant manager for Emeril Lagasse in Pennsylvania but realized that I wanted to do more with my life. Deciding to move to San Diego—in part to get away from the cold—changed my life as I began attending San Diego City College where I remembered how much I loved learning. Transferring to UC Berkeley after three years, I again double majored in English and Spanish, earning both Bachelors by the end of 2020. It was during this time when I was finally able to embrace my love for LGBTQ+ literature and accept that I enjoyed literature the most when there was a character that I could identify with. Now, working toward my PhD in Comparative Literature, I combine that passion with a passion for teaching, knowledge, knowledge production and Latin America. I hope to teach and research at an R1 University in the future.

Publications:

Mertz-Vega, Caleb A. “Apetito «contra natura»: Celestina and Her Same-Sex Desires.”  Celestinesca , vol. 46, Dec. 2022, pp. 97–117.  ojs.uv.es ,  https://doi.org/10.7203/Celestinesca.46.21582 .

Fiction: From Jason's Journal . Kindle Direct Publishing, 2023 (2nd ed.). The Silhouetted Leaves . Publish America, 2009. The Unexpected . CreateSpace, 2012.

Conference Presentations:

“Affect and the Archive,” UCSD First Annual Literature Symposium, Faculty Club Atkinson Pavilion, San Diego, CA, June 2023

“Feminized and Queer/Cuir Bodies Around the Venezuela - Colombia Border,” Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association 120 th Annual Conference, Hilton Portland Downtown, Portland, OR, Oct. 2023.

“Feminized and Cuir Bodies on the Colombia-Venezuela Border,” Latin American Studies Association 2024, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia, June 2024.

AA Spanish & English – San Diego City College BA English and Spanish – University of California, Berkeley

Makenzie Read

Yomira Varela Guadiana

Dingding Wang

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2020

Literature and space; eco-writing; speculative fiction; East Asian literature, visual arts, and culture; posthumanism, nonconscious cognition, cybernetics; architecture.

Academic Background :

M.A in Critical Asian Humanities, Duke University, 2019. B.A. in English Language and Literature, Wuhan University, 2017.

Selected Publications :

“ Yugongyishan: Renleishi de xiandai yuyan ” 愚公移山：人類世的現代寓言 [Yugongyishan: The Modern Allegory of Anthropocene],   Science Writing   科普創作, No. 2, June 2020, pp. 23–26. “ Dang zhiguai xiaoshuo zaoyu zhengqi pengke: Cong Ai, siwang he jiqiren tanqi ” 當誌怪小說遭遇蒸汽朋克：從<愛，死亡和機器人>談起 [When Zhiguai Xiaoshuo Meets Steampunk: Starting from an Episode of Love, Death & Robots],   Jiemian Wenhua   界面文化, 20 April 2019. “ Shiyu yuanshengxiang de ditin g” 始於淵聲巷的諦聽 [The War Siren over Nanjing: The Soundscape of Historical Memory],   Xinhua Daily   新華日報, 7 Dec 2018: 18. Print.

Selected Translations :

Jason Goodwin,   The Gunpowder Gardens: Travels through India and China in Search of Tea . (Jiangsu People’s, 2019). Nathaniel Isaacson,   Celestial Empire: The Emergence of Chinese Science Fiction . (Jiangsu People’s: in preparation). N. Katherine Hayles,   Unthought: The Power of the Cognitive Nonconscious . (Jiangsu People’s: in preparation). Carlos Rojas, “The Eye of the Other: Wu Ming-yi’s The Man with the Compound Eyes and the Challenge of Seeing Otherwise” 他者之眼：吳明益《復眼人》和異樣觀看的挑戰.  Science Writing   科普創作, No. 2, June 2020, pp. 6-13.

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry :  Fall 2021

20th century Chinese literature and film; Literature and Cosmopolitanism; Urban literature and cultural history; Cityscape and memoryscape; Gothic Horror and Modernity/Modernism.

M.A. in Critical Asian Humanities, Duke University, USA, 2021. B.A. in Chinese Language and Literature (minor in German Language and Literature), Peking University, China, 2019.

Publications and Conferences:

“Bookstore-cafés in Contemporary China: New Concepts, Cultural Capital and the Future of Physical Bookstores.” Presented at the Southeast Conference of Association for Asian Studies 2021 at UNC-Chapel Hill. “Encounter Holmes and Lupin in Shanghai: Murders, Social Orders and Cosmopolitanism.” Presented at American Comparative Literature Association 2021 Conference. “Model Citizen (1986): An Outlaw’s Boundary Exploration of Taipei.” Presented at 2020 SPAS Annual Student Conference at University of Hawaii, Mānoa. “Modern and Diabolism: Spatial Organization and Narrative Techniques in Shi Zhecun’s Haunted House (1933).” Writing (xiezuo写作), 2019 (1). 

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2022

Modern Japanese literature, Japanese colonialism, the intersection of gender and colonialism, the intimate spheres and domesticity of the Japanese empire, and East Asian cinema.

I was born in Shanghai. I finished my undergraduate studies at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, focusing on Chinese literature and languages. However, “unfortunately,” I was more interested in the Japanese language and literature than Chinese literature. Maybe the reason is the large number of Japanese animations I have watched since childhood. Then I began to have contact with some modern Japanese literature. I was obsessed with Tanizaki Junichiro, Nakatsuma Atsushi, and Dazai Osamu in college. I studied East Asian Studies at Duke University in 2016, focusing on the CAH track. Aimee Kwon’s  Intimate Empire  greatly inspired me regarding its content and writing style. Leo Ching’s class also taught me how to reflect on colonialism, so I decided to write on Japanese colonialism. I went to study Japanese in Yokohama for one year after graduating from Duke. 

Currently, I am interested in Japanese colonial literature, especially female writers’ works. I am also interested in investigating the legacies of Japanese colonialism. I have been reading some works by Abe Kōbō and Tsushima Yūko. Although I use the word “post-colonial,” we can also argue that the war and colonialism in Japan have never ended. It was shocking to see some righteous left-wing Japanese writers not thoroughly reflect on the problem of Japanese colonialism. 

In my spare time, I watch some movies and Japanese TV dramas. I am a huge fan of Sang-soo Hong and Murakami Haruki, although I do not want to write a paper on him. However, I might write a paper on Sang-soo Hong in the future.

Alice Zheng

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2023

Alice Zheng is a multilingual scholar, poet, and writer. Her current research focuses on transnational women and gender studies, memory, Chinese and/or Sinophone literature and cinemas. Other research interests include the transpacifics, diaspora, literary theory, experimental cinema, archives, poetics and translation. As a poet and writer, she has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and published in journals such as Cutthroat and Santa Ana River Review. Outside of work, she enjoys poetry, music, and traveling.

Cultural Studies

Ngoc Linh Bui

Manuel Carrion Lira

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2019

Materialisms, Post-human Theory, Decoloniality, Contemporary Native American and Indigenous Literature, Indigenous Mapuche Epistemologies, Feminisms, Anticolonial Thought, Two-spirit Theory, New Materialisms, Post-human Theory, Queer Theory, Contemporary Indigenous Art, Contemporary Latin American Art, Film Studies.

M.A., Arte, Pensamiento y Cultura Latinoamericanos, Instituto de Estudios Avanzados, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, 2017 Professional Practice Certificate, Design, Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile, 2013 B.A., Design, Universidad de Valparaíso, Chile, 2012

Professional Experience:

Artist at Residencia de Arte Colaborativo, Ministerio de las Culturas, las Artes y el Patrimonio, Chilean Government, Chile (2017-2019). Postgraduate Coordinator at the Faculty of Arts, Universidad Mayor, Chile (2015-2017). Lecturer at the Faculty of Arts, Universidad Mayor (2014-2017).

I come from a small agro industrial town called Quillota, located in Chile, South America. A place that once was an indigenous metropolis where the Inca, Llolleo, Mapuche, Diaguita, Bato and other ancient cultures shared a common space for intellectual and political development. The traces of that ancient history still remain along with our colonial/modern present. It was in this territory where I experienced homophobia, racism and classism for the first time, it is the place that was most important for shaping my multidimensional sensibility.

I am a non-heterosexual indigenous person. We call ourselves   epupillan   in our mapuche communities, which could be translated as two-spirit for the reality in Turtle Island (North America), since   epu   means two and   pillan   is a reference to an ancient spirit.

As a contemporary   epupillan   artist and thinker, I dedicate my work to analyze remaining colonial continuities in our epistemologies and ontologies rendered as a binary matrix of thought. I am particularly interested in materiality as a critical dimension to understand the paradox of the human/culture divide as well as the active/passive divisions of agency present in our way of organizing our worlds. What does it mean to give form to matter? Does matter participate here or is it just a passive receptacle for the human action? Are non-western practices and epistemologies funded in this same divide?

My work faces these kinds of questions through academic research but also through my artistic collective practice, allowing me to experiment and practice diverse approaches to question the spectator, reader or viewer. The "Catrileo Carrion Community" is our   epupillan   research-creation platform where we can modulate our questions through editorial, audiovisual, curatorial and contemporary art practices that include diverse techniques and resources such as book publications, political memory workshops, indigenous revitalization talks, video-art exhibitions, video-essays projections, archive exhibitions, collective essay writing, wool knitting, and poster and diagram design.

Our community is currently composed of Constanza Araya Miranda (Journalist and social communicator,   epupillan   weaver and author of the radio programs   Lafken Kürruf   and   Wente winkul mew ), Alejandro Carrion Lira ( epupillan   healer and creator), Antonio Catrileo Araya ( epupillan   writer, teacher and weaver) and Manuel Carrion Lira ( epupillan   artist and thinker).

We have published the following books:

• Poyewün Witral: bitácora de la comunidad de tejedoras de Neltume   (Self edited, 2019).   https://issuu.com/catrileocarrion/docs/poyewun_witral_para_issu  
• Torcer la palabra: escrituras obrera-feministas   (Tiempo Robado Editoras, 2018).   https://issuu.com/catrileocarrion/docs/torcer_la_palabra__sinposis_  
• Yikalay pu zomo Lafkenmapu   (Self edited, 2017).   https://issuu.com/catrileocarrion/docs/yikalay_pu_zomo_lafkenmapu   

Bias Collins

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry :  Fall 2018

Bias Collins is a queer, neurodivergent, transgender graduate student in the PhD in Literature program, Cultural Studies emphasis. His primary research focus is on analyzing adaptations of fictional dis/abled figures from literary to visual mediums, particularly in the genres of science fiction, horror, & the gothic. He is keenly interested in exploring the hybridity of morality & mortality in figures of the cyborg, zombie, & vampire and their reliance on dis/ability in their dis/configurations of the human body. His wider areas of research interests include Disability, Queer, Feminst, & Film Studies.

Art Credit : Trein Zuniga https://www.instagram.com/sparebikes/  

Monique Dixon

Erik Christopher Homenick

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry :  Fall 2017

My scholarly interests include representations of monstrosity in literature and films as well as the narrative/semiotic potential of music in films. My doctoral dissertation focuses on the outstanding narrative importance of music, especially by the composer Akira Ifukube, in Godzilla films. Other interests include 17th and 18th century French literature (especially the Marquis de Sade), cinema history, cinema sound, and musicology.

Bachelor's degree in French (Minor in Linguistics), San Diego State University Master's degree in French, San Diego State University

I have worked as a French and Humanities instructor at San Diego State University. Also, I have been an adjunct French professor at Mesa College, City College, and Southwestern College in the San Diego area. I have also served as a French translator for two video game companies, Sony Online Entertainment and Midway Home Entertainment.

Tatum Howey

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry :  Fall 2021

Visual and Media Studies; History of Technology; Poetics; Hermeneutics; Phonetics; Transgender Studies; Performance Studies; History of Representation; Phenomenology; Surveillance Studies; Materiality of Language; Biopolitics

My current focus, on the function of the screen and page as ontological exile for the transgender subject, seeks to examine the failures of representation of its constitutive body and the possible methodologies of self-determination through address, both in narrativization and performance, through which the transgender subject may become legibly constituted. I am currently thinking through both art historical and new media theories of visuality––specifically that from Martin Jay, Hal Foster, and Christian Metz––to research this precarious legibility. My interests are not limited to transgender representation in the arts, and I am currently engaged in a variety of critical theory, including using Walter Benjamin’s studies on toxicity to complete research on the “profane illumination” of Paul Celan’s late poetics and the artist Hamad Butt’s installation pieces that he made while succumbing to AIDS, which contain toxic chemicals. I am also writing through Johann Winckelmann’s theories of imitation and Jacques Derrida’s analysis of the phantasm to emphasize how mimicry and idolatry proliferate in queer communities. I have written on the liberatory force of the gesture for marginalized bodies in both performance and surveillance, and most recently the poetics of transmasculine vocalization through the additive technology of testosterone.

Nilufar Karimi

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

Musicology, sound studies, cinema studies (silent and sound films), gender studies, media technological advance and human mindset

M.A., Critical Asian Humanities, Duke, U.S., 2018 B.A., Chinese Language and Literature, Zhejiang University, China, 2014

Jessica Lizarraga

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

Hegemonic narratives, Post-colonial theory, border literature, transnational literature, and narco archetypes. 

B.A. in English from California State University, Fullerton

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

War and media, East Asian cinema, materiality and materialism, Chinese masculinity and melodrama, celebrity studies, interactive & algorithmic media, senses and media

M.A. in Film and Media Studies, Columbia University B.A. in Media and Communication, Swansea University B.A. in Literature of Theatre, Film and Television, Shandong Normal University

Selected Translation:

(From English to Chinese) 

William Urrichio. “Rethinking Documentary in An Interactive Age” In   Documentary and Methods ： International Forum on Documentary Film  紀錄與方法: 國際記錄影像論壇. Forthcoming.

Jane M. Gaines. “Radical Documentary: World Connection Before & After the Internet.” In   Documentary and Methods ： International Forum on Documentary Film   紀錄與方法: 國際記錄影像論壇. Forthcoming.

Joseph Vogel. 2018. “Whitewashing Slave Rebellion: The Confessions of Quentin Tarantino.” 昆汀·塔倫蒂諾的供詞: 《被解放的姜戈》與“洗白”奴隸起義. In   Contemporary Cinema   當代電影, May 2019, 86-93. 

Patrick F. Campos. 2011. “The Politics of Naming a Movement: Independent Cinema According to the Cinemalaya Congress.” 電影運動之命名論——依照菲律賓Cinemalaya電影大會所定義的獨立電影（2005—2010）. In   Contemporary Cinema  當代電影, July 2018, 101-109. 

(From Chinese to English)

Journal of Beijing Film Academy (ed.) 2019.   Beijing Film Yearbook 2017 , Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2019, 270 pages, ISBN: 9781783209316.

Alick McCallum

Bianca Negrete Coba

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

Chicanx Studies/Literature, Chicana Feminisms, Chicanx Histories, Multiethnic Literature, Critical Race Theory/Studies, Ethnic Studies, Mixed-Race Studies, Critical Gender Studies, Place/Space Studies, Gentrification Studies, Urban Planning/Studies, Prison Studies

BA English, Writing Minor, UC Merced MA Interdisciplinary Humanities, UC Merced

UCSD Literature Department Shen Fellowship, 2020-2024

Jessica Silbaugh-Cowdin

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2019

Jess Silbaugh-Cowdin is a queer nonbinary (she/they) PhD student in Cultural Studies at the University of California, San Diego. She studies theories of affect and emotion through emergent strategies in visionary and radical forms of contemporary speculative fiction and film. She also attended Clarion West Writers' Workshop in 2016, and she writes and edits speculative fiction in her free time.

BA, Psychology (minor in English), 2011 MA, Literature and Culture (emphasis on film), 2018 

Affect Theory, Emotion, Speculative Fiction and Film, Visionary Fiction, Octavia Butler, Speculative Imagination, Critical Fabulation, Black Radicalism, Emergent Strategies, Decolonial Methodologies, Environmental and Restorative Justice, Ecotheory, Black Feminist Thought, Queer Feminist Liberatory Practices, Queer & Feminist Theories, Anti-Colonial Pedagogy, Popular Culture

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2019

Animal studies, the alterity of animal, animal representation in different forms of art, Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature.

I was born and grow up in Beijing, China. During 2009-2016, I studied Tourism Management and Chinese Literature in Soochow University, which is in Suzhou, a city famous for its rivers and bridges in southern China. I finished my East Asian Studies MA program in Duke University in 2018.

Reem Taşyakan

Anglophone Arab literature; Diaspora studies; Arabic literature in translation; Arab-American cultural studies; Middle East cultural studies; Arab-American ethnic and racial studies; Post-colonial studies; Arabic literary translation and translation theory; Modern Middle East history

From 2013-2019, I was a lecturer at San Diego State University and University of San Diego where I taught courses in Arabic literature in translation, Arab-American literature, and Middle East culture while conducting course-related and independent research. From 2011-2015, I worked in the translation industry performing Arabic to English translations and coordinating translation and interpreting projects for individuals, non-profit organizations, and corporations.

M.A., Middle East and North African Studies (MENAS), University of Arizona, 2011 B.A., Creative Writing, University of Arizona, 2004

Evelyn Vasquez

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2019

I am from East LA, Lincoln Heights (Clifton St., Ave 28, and Ave 26) and worked on Whittier Blvd. and Arizona Ave. throughout my childhood up to an adult. Triqua for life. I rep sopes from King Taco all day every day. Rap is my harmony. Cumbias are my jams. 

B.A., English (Literature, Criticism, and Theory Emphasis), University of California, Davis, 2016  Pasadena City College (2008-2013) 

Research Interests: 

I am currently interested in researching depictions of impoverished housing in the American city novel (late 19th and early 20th century). In these depictions, I investigate how authors detail the architecture of housing and the narrative structure in which they design living spaces in the city. Some of my previous research experience includes studying the tenement in American comics and urban documentation (planning for low-income housing and communities). Some of my more specific research has included analyzing comic book panels and tenement architectural drawings in Will Eisner’s  A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories  (1978).

Professional Experience :

While an undergraduate student, I studied abroad at Oxford, England and Santiago, Chile. After graduating from UC Davis in 2016, I worked at Pasadena City College, where I assisted students with transfer resources and provided personal statement workshops. I worked at Aspires West Pasadena, an after-school program, dedicated to fill in academic gaps. Some of the community work I have done include organizing a low-income housing community meeting to bring awareness of the housing changes occurring in the Lincoln Heights Neighborhood (2018) and the impact on the neighborhood residents. I conducted geography and reading workshops for Lincoln Heights youth in the summers of 2012 and 2013 at the local library and low-income housing center. 

Awards:  

Interdisciplinary Research Award, Graduate & Professional Student Association, UC San Diego (05/2022)  Jewish Studies Fellowship, UC San Diego (07/2021 & 2020 ) Sawyer Seminar Fellowship, UC San Diego (03/2021)  Student Training Academy for Research Success (STARS) Fellowship (09/2019) Fulbright U.S. Student Program, Teaching Assistant (09/2018) University of California Education Abroad Program Scholarship (UCEAP) (01/2016)     Mentorship for Undergraduate Research in Agriculture, Letters and Science (MURALS) (2015 & 2013)

Constance Von Igel De Mello

Chenfeng Wang

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

East Asian film and literature, memory and trauma studies, non-fiction and documentary studies, transcultural and transmedia adaptation studies

M.A., East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania, 2020 M.A., History, Tsinghua University, 2018 B.A., Chinese Language and Literature (Minor in Journalism), Tsinghua University, 2015

Shiya Zhang

Chengfan Zhou

Literatures in english.

Laala Al-Jaber

Email Address :   Contact Department Year of Entry : Fall 2016

The rise of the novel; Victorian literature; Gender Studies; Film Studies; Literatures of migration, passing, and mobility; Psychoanalysis; The Harlem Renaissance; Ethnic Studies; Performativity; Literary representations of The Other; Popular Culture Studies

I was the literature and popular fiction librarian at the Qatar National Library for two years. At UCSD, I worked as a graduate student researcher and served as a teaching assistant in the Warren Writing Program. While earning my master’s degree in comparative literature at Dartmouth, I worked on an oral history project and conducted interviews with undergraduates. I served as an intern for the ABA Journal and the CQ Researcher while pursuing my journalism degree at Northwestern. I am fluent in English and Arabic.

M.A. in Comparative Literature from Dartmouth College 2013 B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University in Qatar 2012

Joanmarie Bañez

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry :  Fall 2019

Joanmarie Bañez is a PhD candidate in the Literatures in English section. She is from Atlanta, Georgia, where she completed her BA and MA in English literary studies at Georgia State University. She studies aesthetics and narratology in multiethnic literature of the U.S. from the 19th-century to the present; kinship and transracial adoption narratives; and Asian American diaspora in the U.S. South. Her work can be found in the   South Atlantic Review   and   The Georgia Review .

M.A., English (Literary Studies), Georgia State University, 2019 B.A., English (Spanish minor), Georgia State University, 2017 Universidad de Málaga, Spring Semester 2016

Steven Beardsley

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry :  Fall 2018

Filipino/x American & Filipino/x Spanish American Literature of the 20th to 21st century; 19th and 20th Century American, Latin American, and Spanish Literatures; queer theory, particularly queer people of color critique and queer diasporic studies; Asian American, African American, Indigenous American, and Transpacific Literatures; psychoanalysis; feminist theory and queer masculinities; postcolonial studies and the subaltern; identity construction, subjectivity, and nationalizing projects; ecocriticism; and media and popular culture. I am currently interested in reading the intersections between Filipino and Filipinx American Literature and Indigenous Literature from the Philippines through a Queer Decolonizing framework.

Research Skills:

I am fluent in Spanish, and I conducted an interdepartmental honors project between the English and Modern Languages Departments at Hamline University in Minnesota titled:

“Revolution, Redemption, and Romance: Reading Constructions of Filipino Spanish American Identities and Politics of Knowledge in Rizal’s  Noli me Tangere  and  El Filibusterismo  alongside Filipino American Fiction.” This ninety paged project is published in the  Hamline Digital Commons . A section of it is also published through the  National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) 2016 proceedings .

I have two years of experience teaching English as a second language to Spanish and Russian speakers. I taught for the Center for Interamerican Studies (CEDEI) in Cuenca, Ecuador for one year (2016-2017). I then taught for Berlitz in San Luis Potosi, Mexico for one year (2017-2018). I also taught for Skyeng an online school based in Russia for three months (June-September 2018). I also have experience working as an independent contractor for the Center for Global Environmental Education (CGEE) where I helped design and write a  blog  discussing environmental education topics such as water conservation and alternative energy.

More about me on my  Linkedin profile

Mayra Cortes

Email Address :  Contact Department Year of Entry :  Fall 2015

"New World" Travel Writing English and Spanish Colonialism Transatlantic Studies Sound Studies Literary Histories of Class, Race, and Labor  Decoloniality Indigenous Studies Utopian/dystopian fiction

Nolan Dannels

Hannah Friederike Doermann

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry :  Fall 2017

Academic Background: C.Phil., English Literature, Graduate Specialization in Critical Gender Studies, UCSD, 2020 M.A., Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College, 2017 B.A., English Literature, Spanish & Queer Studies, Denison University, 2016 Research Fields: Children’s and Young Adult Literature Studies; Youth and Childhood Studies; Girl Studies; Fan Studies; Queer Studies; Critical Whiteness Studies; Ecocriticism Dissertation: Hannah Doermann’s dissertation, “Girls Will Be Girls: Reimagining Girlhood in Contemporary Young Adult Literature,” explores the racial politics of models of girlhood in Young Adult literature (YA). Employing theories of temporality from queer studies, postcolonial studies, and youth and childhood studies, this dissertation argues that YA takes girls seriously in the present moment and reimagines girlhood as a state of being rather than a state of becoming in service of the nation. Using different engagements with girlhood in YA as a site to explore the racial politics of this marketing category, she traces its history from its establishment as a marketing category for middle-class white girls to the predominance of neoliberal diversity politics and emphasizing interventions by YA authors of color who explore girlhood as a racialized category. Merging analyses of YA novels and girls’ online discussions of YA, this dissertation bridges of the gap between the study of literature for young people and young people themselves, intervening in the central debate in Childhood Studies about the slippage between the discursive category of childhood and the materiality of actual children by reading YA as a site that discursively constructs girlhood and is simultaneously shaped by the lived experiences of actual girls. Publications: “Embracing the ‘Silly Teen Girl’: Intergenerational Feminism, Perpetual Girlhood, and the   Twilight   Renaissance.”   Children’s Literature Association Quarterly,   accepted pending revisions. “Against Ecocidal Environmentalism: Anti-Capitalist, Queer & Decolonial Critiques of Mainstream Environmentalism in Lilliam Rivera’s   Dealing in Dreams .”   The Lion and the Unicorn , vol. 45, no. 2, April 2021, pp. 137-153. Teaching Experience: Instructor of Record, Literature Department, UCSD Girls in Literature (Summer 2022) Vampires in Literature (Spring 2022) Young Adult Literature (Summer 2021) Instructor of Record, Critical Gender Studies Program, UCSD Sexuality & Nation (Summer 2022)

Óscar Fernando García

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry :  Fall 2021

Research interests:

Latinx/Chicanx Studies; Queer Literatures and Theory; Critical Race Theory; Decoloniality; Media Studies; Vagrancy

Academic background:

B.A. English, Spanish (Literary Journalism minor), University of California, Irvine, 2021

Aimee Jurado

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

Aimee Jurado received her B.A. in English at California State University, Fullerton in December of 2019. Currently, she is a first-year Literature Ph.D. student at UCSD on the English Literature track. Her research interests include 19th-20th century American literature, American identity, and African American and Asian-American narratives. Outside of school and work, Aimee enjoys spending time with her family, friends, and dogs. She is an advocate for equitable education and higher education, and she hopes to weave this personal passion into her professional work.

19th-20th century American literature, American identity, African American and Asian-American narratives and their role in defining American identity, Victorian literature and its impact on American character, food as symbols in literature, and food fiction.  

LinkedIn Profile:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/aimee-jurado-22b643117/

Trung T. Le

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2017

Theory and Criticism, with focus on post(-)colonialism; film aesthetics; world literatures, especially Pacific literatures and Vietnamese literatures; cultural studies; linguistics; comparative literature; modernist and postmodernist literature

Current Research Areas:

The intersection of the body, the nation, and gender in the formation of identity; practices of encoding the body: the digital, the tattoo, bio-chemical and social influences on the body and behaviour; interdisciplinary studies: postcolonial theory, post-colonial period, and Vietnamese/Pacific literary zones.

Samuel Lyons

Kellie Miller

Matthew Moore

Barışcan Ozkuzey

Maya Richards

Camille Uglow

Email Address :  [email protected] Year of Entry : Fall 2022

Early Modern English and French drama, Early Modern English and French literature, ecocriticism, dramaturgy, performance studies, Renaissance studies, eco-Shakespeare, environmental humanities

“On Overthinking.” Alchemy , Issue 22, August 2023 (creative translation)  https://quote.ucsd.edu/alchemy/on-overthinking/

Conference Presentations: 

“Shakespeare’s Blue Globe: An Ecocritical Examination of A Midsummer Night’s Dream ,” Writing Environments: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air Symposium, Literature Department, University of California, San Diego, June 2023

Academic Background: 

B.A. in Literature (General Literature, Intensive), University of California, Santa Cruz, 2021

Vyxz Vasquez

Email Address :   [email protected] Year of Entry :  Fall 2021

Protest Literature, Translation, Creative Writing, Asian American Studies, Poetry, Philippine Literature, Police Archives, Filipino Diaspora

MA in Creative Writing, University of the Philippines, 2019 BA in Creative Writing, University of the Philippines, 2012

Phuong T. Vuong

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

critical race theory, gender studies, queer theory, constructions of knowledge and the subject, Asian American studies, decolonial/settler colonial studies, 20 th and 21 st century multi-ethnic U.S. literature.

Phuong T. Vuong is a Vietnamese American poet and writer from Oakland. She is a PhD candidate whose critical research explores Asian/American women and queer writers and artists' work with the archives, creative refusal of recognition, and relations to land and water. Phuong is the author of two poetry collections including  A Plucked Zither  (Red Hen Press, 2023), which won the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award 2021. She has publications in  American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry ,  Prairie Schooner,  The Asian American Writers' Workshop:  The Margins,  and elsewhere. Her reviews and interviews have been published in journals such as  The Rumpus  and  The Adroit Journal . She often writes to interrogate language, migration, race, gender and other topics related to her research. You can find out more about her work at  phuongthaovuong.com .

MA in Literature, University of California- San Diego, 2023 MFA in Creative Writing, University of Colorado- Boulder, 2020 BA in Black Studies, Amherst College, 2009

Literatures in Spanish

Jessica Aguilar

Email Address :  [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2017

Master of Arts in Spanish, New Mexico State University (2016) Bachelor of Arts with majors in Spanish Literature and Latin American Studies, University of California, San Diego  (2014) University of California, Education Abroad Program at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (2012)

!9 th  Century Latin American Literature Contemporary Mexican Literature Critical Race Theory Critical Gender Studies Critical Ethnic Studies Decoloniality Narco-Politics Politics of Death  Critical Migration and Refugee Studies Central American Transmigration Studies Border Studies

At New Mexico State University, Jessica conducted research on Spanish Language Acquisition and Teaching Methodology for Heritage and Second Language Learners. Through the implementation of Case Studies, Survey Research, and Critical Discourse Analysis, she was able to present a Didactic Unit specifically designed for teaching Spanish to Heritage Learners. In addition, as a UCSD Competitive Edge fellow (2017), Jessica also worked on a project that took from Fredric Jameson’s concept of “National Allegory” to analyze the relationship between the mutilated body and neoliberal economic practices in Salvadoran short stories published between 1990-2000.

Jessica Aguilar is originally from the San Ysidro/Tijuana border region and a first-generation, low-income, transfronteriza student. She graduated from UCSD in 2014 with BAs in Latin American Studies and Spanish Literature and received a Master’s Degree in Spanish from New Mexico State University in 2016. While at NMSU, Jessica volunteered for the College Assistant Migrant Program, worked closely with the Center for Latin American and Border Studies, and was a member of literary workshop Pizca a las 6:30. Upon her return to San Diego, Jessica worked closely with unaccompanied migrant children from Central American backgrounds, something she continues to do during the summer time. 

Jessica is a founder and current Co-Chair of the Latina Doctoral Student Collective at UCSD. She also works for the Raza Resource Centro as a Graduate Learning Specialist (GLS), where she assists in the facilitation of high impact learning components of the Raza Research and Conference Program, and coaches undergraduate Latinx/Chicanx students in the creation of pathways to post-baccalaureate opportunities. 

Marisol Cuong

Yingjie Fei

Email Address :   [email protected]   Year of Entry : Fall 2020

Decolonizing theories Colombian armed conflict  Dirty war State terrorism  Nadaísmo Narratives on violence Chinese community and diaspora in Latin America

Spanish-Chinese translation and interpretation Translation work:  [Chinese] Mutis, Álvaro.   Relatos De Mar y Tierra .

Veronica Perez Garcia

Carolina Ramirez Moreno

Ana Villalpando

Andrea Zelaya

• Dissertation Defenses & Qualifying Exams

In Memoriam

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Financial Support

Non-uc visiting graduate students.

Participation of Visiting Graduate Students (VGS) in research activities at UC San Diego is inherently beneficial for the University, its current students and faculty, the VGS, and the home institution. Not only does such participation increase UC San Diego’s international profile, but the inclusion of diverse perspectives accelerates the progress of research and enriches the campus climate. In addition, VGS may bring specific expertise to a given research problem that is not available on campus, and their involvement can strengthen and cement collaborative interactions between UC San Diego faculty and international colleagues.

A Visiting Graduate Student is a pre‐doctoral graduate student (PhD, MA, MS, MBA, MD, or DO) pursuing research at UC San Diego related to their degree program at their home institution. If you are currently enrolled in a graduate degree program at another University of California (UC) campus or at San Diego State University, visit this website for more information on exchange programs .

A Visiting Scholar is normally a scholar from another university, research institution, government agency or non-profit organization on leave from his/her home institution who visits the University for the purposes of participating in a University-sponsored educational program, cooperative agreement, or collaborative research project under the supervision of a UC San Diego faculty, for a short period of time. (see Visiting Scholars )

System Access

The appointment submission process for the VGS is through the Visiting Graduate Student Appointment System (VGSAS) .  VGSAS is an online administrative portal and database.

To request Department Administrator access to VGSAS, an authorized individual (MSO) must submit a ticket to Services & Support or send an e-mail to [email protected] .  Once authorized, the Department Administrator will have the authority to assign users and user roles for the Sponsoring Department.

A user’s manual can be found under the heading Documentation  upon logging into the system. In addition, staff who would like to be added to the Visiting Graduate Students staff mailing list can sign up here: Graduate Financial Support FAQs (see Graduate Student Financial Support Listservs) .

Submission Deadlines

Domestic visitors.

• Appointment material should be submitted and routed to the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs at least 1 month in advance of the start date.

International Visitors

• Appointment material should be submitted and routed to the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairsat least 3 months in advance of the start date, and earlier for international visitors who require a visa.
• Once the VGS Appointment Form has been approved, the sponsoring department or ORU will submit the appropriate visa paperwork to the International Faculty and Scholar Office (IFSO) at Global Initiatives . International students coming on F1-STEM should also note the new F-1 STEM OPT Extension Protocol below.
• Students applying for J‐1 visas should review potential visa term restrictions at: http://ifso.ucsd.edu/dept‐facilitators/j1/index.html#Minimum‐Financial‐Support  

Eligibility

A Visiting Graduate Student is a pre‐doctoral graduate student (PhD, MA, MS, MBA, MD, or DO) pursuing research at UC San Diego related to their degree program at their home institution. The VGS must be enrolled in a degree-granting program or equivalent at an institution of higher education other than the University of California, and be physically present at UC San Diego for the duration of the appointment. The UC appointment must serve an academic purpose for the unit in which they are visiting. 

A VGS should be sufficiently advanced in their course of study at their home institution to be able to contribute meaningfully to ongoing research at UC San Diego without significant additional training (typically, in or beyond the third year of study, depending on the discipline). They should also be able to demonstrate sufficient oral and written language proficiency to enable them to participate fully both in research activities and in the social and cultural life of the campus.

VGS will not be permitted to enroll in UC San Diego courses for credit unless they do so via Extension, with payment of appropriate fees by either the student or their home institution. VGS may be permitted to audit UC San Diego courses with permission of the instructor. A VGS may not be enrolled in any degree program at UC San Diego.

Appointment into this title is not for physicians with patient care or researchers with clinical activity. For an appropriate appointment, contact the School of Medicine’s Dean’s Office .

Department Responsibility

Prior to the visitor's arrival, the appointment must be approved, via the Visiting Graduate Student Appointment System (VGSAS), by a Faculty Sponsor, the department chair or organized research unit (ORU) director, and the Dean of the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs.  

Acceptance of a VGS implies a commitment on the part of the host faculty member and/or department to provide, at a minimum, appropriate mentoring. Departments or programs with significant numbers of VGS should also consider arranging events to orient such students to practical and social aspects of campus life as well as US research culture, and to promote their continued engagement. In formal programs, it would be desirable to negotiate a contribution from the home institution to support such activities.

Titles and Appointment Criteria

Non-salaried visiting graduate student - visitor graduate (wos) job code 003730.

• A non-salaried VGS receives financial support for their visit from their home institution (grant, fellowship/scholarship) or personal funds.  See “Compensation” below for support level requirements.
• A non-salaried VGS does not receive financial support from their UC San Diego faculty sponsor. 
• Workers Compensation coverage is not provided to a Non‐salaried VGS.
• Effective August 2021:  Non-salaried Visiting Graduate Students must be entered into UCPath.

Salaried Visiting Graduate Student - Junior Specialist Job Codes 003329/003330

• A salaried VGS may receive partial or full support from their UC San Diego faculty sponsor via the Junior Specialist Title.  Approval for this title must be requested in advance by submitting an appointment to the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs. See “Compensation” below for support level requirements.
• All VGS are prohibited from being appointed as a Lecturer at UC San Diego or any title covered by the UAW/ASE contract with the UC system.
• For payroll entry guidelines, please see Chapter 10: Visiting Graduate Students in the Graduate Student Employment Policy & Procedures .
• Salaried VGS are eligible for Workers’ Compensation at UC San Diego if injured in the course and scope of their employment.

Terms of Service

• VGS may be appointed up to one year at a time. 
• Appointments may be extended up to an additional year without a break in service for a total of two years maximum with appropriate justification.  Departments requesting to extend a VGS appointment for longer than one year must attach a letter of exception to the amended application.  

Appointments Shorter Than 6 Months

• All VGS engaged in research activities at UC San Diego, and appointed for six months or less, must have financial support that meets the J-1 visa requirement of $2400 per month.

Appointments Longer Than 6 Months

• All VGS appointed for more than six months must have financial support comparable to that available to UC San Diego graduate students enrolled in similar disciplinary programs for the duration of their appointment. The source of support may come from their home institution (fellowship/scholarship or grant), personal funds, and/or salary from UC San Diego.
• Please see the following chart for a list of financial support levels by degree major: Visiting Graduate Student Compensation Levels .
• Regardless of the source of support, under no circumstances will the appointment of a VGS be approved if the visitor will receive support less than the minimum requirement for J1 visa holders. Under no circumstances should involvement of a VGS detract from financial support and/or resources that would be otherwise available to registered UC San Diego graduate students whether domestic or international.
• An exception approval is required when a department is requesting a salaried VGS appointment above the amount paid to a registered UC San Diego graduate student in a comparable department. 

  Junior Specialists

• I n all cases the maximum monthly dollar amount for the Junior Specialist title will be the Step 1 rate for Junior Specialists on the Represented Specialist Series, Table 24B .

Visiting Graduate Student Processing Fee

Each Visiting Graduate Student (VGS) is required to pay a $100 nonrefundable processing fee .  This is a one‐time fee that covers a period of stay up to 2 years. An additional $100 nonrefundable processing fee will be charged in the following instance: 

• there is a > 30‐day break in the appointment period and a new appointment packet is required

There are two options to pay the processing fee: 1) upon arrival at UC San Diego, the VGS may pay the fee directly at the UC San Diego Cashier's Office, or 2) the Sponsoring Department may pay the fee via UC San Diego recharge.  In all cases , the Sponsoring Department must supply an index number when submitting the original VGS appointment to the Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA).

The processing fee is due on the 15th of the month following the appointment start date. For example, if the appointment begins October 1, the fee must be paid no later than November 15. If the VGS does not pay the fee by the deadline, the fee will be automatically recharged to the Sponsoring Department. For this reason, it is imperative that Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA) is notified of any changes to the appointment period.

Application Procedure/Appointment Packet

All VGS must have a UC San Diego faculty sponsor who will host the visit. Prospective VGS should first contact the department chair or faculty with whom they would like to work and request an invitation. The host faculty and/or department are responsible for preparing and submitting the appointment packet three months prior to the visitor's arrival, in addition to preparing for the arrival (arranging for office space, if applicable). VGS may not enter the lab or university facility without an official approved appointment .

Dates of Visit

Start date of appointment should be a date in the future; GEPA will not accept retroactive appointment begin dates.

Summary of Research Project   

The proposed summary of research should include the specific activities and duties the applicant will perform during their visit

The following documents will be required to be uploaded in VGSAS as a condition of the VGS appointment approval process. All documents must be submitted in English.

• Current Curriculum Vitae
• Current Proof of Registration (i.e. copy of current transcript or letter from home institution) as a graduate student (PhD, Masters, or MD)
• Proof of Health Insurance, submit a copy of the completed UC San Diego International Center "Form C: Health Insurance Memorandum of Understanding"
• Once the updated form is complete, it can be uploaded to the VGS application for the visitor and kept at the department level. Do not send the completed oath/patent form to GEPA.

Export Control

Before agreeing to host a VGS from a foreign country, please review the information from the UC San Diego Export Control Office. That office can provide further guidance if there is a specific concern. http://blink.ucsd.edu/sponsor/exportcontrol/

Appointment Extension

The appointment extension process for the VGS is through the Visiting Graduate Student Appointment System (VGSAS). 

The following document is required when the VGS/Sponsoring Department is requesting an appointment extension:

• Current proof of registration and/or transcript from the home institution
• Exception letter (if applicable)

NOTE: By UCOP policy, the maximum stay for VGS is a total of 2 years.  Extensions are only considered for VGS who have not met this maximum.  VGS exceeding the 2 year maximum may want to pursue admission to UC San Diego to complete their degree.

F-1 STEM OPT extension : New regulations governing the F-1 STEM Optional Practical Training (OPT) extension are in effect as of May 10th, 2016 . In order for UC San Diego to either continue to employ or hire new F-1 students during their STEM OPT period, the institution must meet new requirements. Students will be responsible for alerting their departments to their need for STEM extension support, and departments will have to decide to either meet these new requirements or sponsor students in an alternative visa classification that provides work authorization. For more information, see:  http://blink.ucsd.edu/HR/supervising/hiring/staff/f1-stem-opt.html

Health Insurance

It is required that all VGS have health insurance coverage 24 hours a day, including time spent at UC San Diego conducting research.

Effective September 1, 2014, this requirement must be met through:

• The UC San Diego Visiting Scholar Benefit Plan offered by Garnett-Powers
• Another insurer
• Be provided by the student’s home country

To enroll in the Plan offered by Garnett-Powers, visit http://clients.garnett-powers.com/vs/ucsd/ or call toll free 1-888-441-3719.  Note: The VGS appointment must be approved by the Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA) prior to enrollment in the Plan. 

If the VGS has other insurance, certain requirements must  be met to waive the UC San Diego Plan.  If the VGS is international with his/her own coverage, that coverage must also meet these standards that meet or exceed the J-1 Visa requirements, as well as provide this same coverage to the student’s eligible dependents.  The minimum levels of coverage that must be offered through the student’s own insurance can be found on Form C, here.

If the student’s insurance meets these requirements, he/she may request a waiver (to decline coverage) for the Plan.  Instructions on how to submit a waiver can be found here:  http://clients.garnett-powers.com/vs/ucsd/waiver/ .

Benefits and Services

VGS will be provided access to the following campus services regardless of their source of support:

• Campus ID card (see Affiliates categories, Visiting graduate)
• Library privileges
• Discount rates to special events
• Eligibility to enroll in Garnett‐Powers and Associates Visiting Academic Benefit Plan
• Eligibility to purchase RIMAC (recreational facility) card
• Visa sponsorship (F1 opt, J, or B)
• UC San Diego email account (policy varies by department)
• Individual recharge accounts (policy varies by department)

Other Resources

• Off Campus Housing: http://students.ucsd.edu/campus-services/housing/off campus/
• La Jolla Del Sol (UC San Diego Affiliated Housing): http://hdh.ucsd.edu/arch/ljds.asp
• Parking:  http://blink.ucsd.edu/facilities/transportation
• Questions regarding visas should be directed to International Center: http://icenter.ucsd.edu
• Other Visiting Scholars: http://blink.ucsd.edu/sponsor/ora/appoint-visiting.html

Graduate Student Financial Support

All graduate students at UC San Diego are responsible for tuition and fees  each quarter. Students can receive financial support to help cover these costs in the form of fellowships, scholarships, financial aid, and academic student employment positions. To be eligible for financial support, graduate students must be registered full-time (12 units) and be in good academic standing .

The UC San Diego Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA) Financial Support website has the most up-to-date and relevant information regarding graduate funding. Please review it thoroughly. 

Fellowships/Scholarships

Throughout the year, fellowships and awards are available to all graduate students. Please review the following fellowships/scholarships resources: 

• MAE Fellowships/Awards

Academic Student Employment Positions

Both Ph.D. and M.S. students are eligible for Academic Student Employment positions, but priority is given to Ph.D. students.  Appointments are quantified by a percentage based on a 40-hour work week (i.e., 100% = 40 hours per week; 50% = 20 hours per week; 25% = 10 hours per week.) Graduate students cannot work more than 50% during the academic year, or 100% during the summer.

Graduate Student Researcher (GSR)

Paid research positions are available via grants awarded to faculty members. Students employed as GSRs at 25% or above qualify for GSR Tuition and Fee Remission which covers all tuition, fees, and nonresidential supplemental tuition (if applicable). Students should talk to their faculty advisor for availability.

Pay rates are posted on the GEPA website. MAE M.S. students are paid at the Step 4 GSR rate, and Ph.D. students are paid at the Step 6 GSR rate until they advance to candidacy, after which time they are paid at the Step 7 GSR rate. 

Teaching Assistant (TA) / Reader

Teaching Assistants and Readers are hired on a quarterly basis to support teaching instruction. Appointment percentages are assigned based on course enrollment. Students in the MAE Department and Program in MATS will be notified when quarterly applications are opened. Students can also apply for positions in other departments on the UC San Diego Open Instructional Assistant Positions website. Offers are typically extended one month prior to the start of the quarter. Students employed as TAs or Readers at 25% and above are eligible for TA Fee Remission which covers the majority of resident tuition and fees. The Teaching + Learning Commons offers training opportunities for TAs and future faculty members.  

International Graduate Students:  International graduate students who are nonnative speakers of English must be certified as having requisite language skills before they can serve as teaching assistants. If offered a TA position, please contact [email protected]  to schedule an English Language Certification Examination (ELCE). The ELCE must be taken during finals week or the week after (of the prior quarter) in order to be eligible to work as a TA the following quarter. Please find more information about the ELCE here . 

The New Academic Student Employee (ASE) Orientation is required of all students who are first-time Associate Ins, Teaching Assistants, Readers, and Tutors. The MAE department staff will provide the orientation information once it's scheduled. 

Visit GEPA's website for additional information regarding support for student parents .

Travel Funding

The MAE Department provides travel grants of up to $1,000 per fiscal year (July-June) to Ph.D. students who are presenting their work at conferences. Applicants must be in good academic standing and must be registered for the quarter during which the conference occurs. Students applying for grants during the summer must have been registered during the preceding spring quarter.

To apply for travel funding, Ph.D. students must submit an MAE Ph.D. Student Travel Grant Form prior to booking travel arrangements. If approved, the student will receive a confirmation email from the MAE Student Affairs Office with the award amount. Prior to travel, the student must contact the faculty assistant (who will be included in the award confirmation email) for details on travel requirements. Payment of funds will be processed as reimbursements.

Additional Resources:

• International Institute Graduate Research and Travel Awards
• All student travel reimbursements (even those not funded by the MAE Department) require a Student Certification for Business-Related Travel

It is UC San Diego policy that U.S. citizens on support will not have out-of-state tuition paid by the University after their first year. Therefore, if a domestic student does not establish California residency prior to the start of their second year, they will be responsible for out-of-state tuition. Please review here for more information about the Residence for Tuition Purposes policy. 

International students will have nonresidential supplemental tuition waived for three years after the successful completion of the Senate Examination.

Direct Deposit

In order to avoid payment delays, it is highly recommended that students enroll in direct deposit. Please review the process for direct deposit enrollment here. 

Additional Resources

• GEPA- Financial Support
• Financial Aid & Scholarship Office
• Ph.D. Student Transitional Support

• Search This Site All UCSD Sites Faculty/Staff Search Term
• Graduate Programs

Chemistry PhD

Thank you for your interest in the UC San Diego Chemistry & Biochemistry Graduate Program. We have over 300 bright and talented graduate students with diverse backgrounds from all over the world. We offer programs for the Doctoral, Masters, and Joint Doctoral degrees. Below you will find information on the needed application materials and criteria.

Application Deadline

PhD Admissions Deadline for Fall 2024 is December 6, 2023 (to be confirmed)

General Application Information

To begin your online application or to check the status on your application, please visit  connect.grad.ucsd.edu/apply . Information you enter may be saved at any time.

The Admissions & Recruitment Committee recommends submitting your application as soon as you complete it, even if we have not yet received all your letters of recommendation. We also highly recommend that you answer some/all of our additional questions about your educational experiences.

We review PhD files continuously beginning in late November and try to get the good news out to those we are recruiting to our program as soon as possible. If you have yet to hear from us, your file is still pending a final decision.

Please note that submitting your application requires an associated   application fee   although under many circumstances you may request that this fee be waived. Please read the application fee link above and inquire with  [email protected]  if you have any questions or would like more information on the waiver options.

Transcripts

Statement of purpose.

We recommend that you structure your Statement of Purpose to address the following four prompts:

• Describe your personal and professional motivations for pursuing research in the field of chemistry and/or biochemistry.
• the overall context and importance of the work,
• the specific goal of the work you were doing, (c) the methods by which you worked to achieve those goals
• what you learned and what your new understanding means for the future of the project. Include a short discussion of how your research experience has shaped your decision to apply to our graduate program.
• Specify one or more faculty members in our department whose current research aligns with your interests. Provide some insight into why you made the choice(s) you did.
• Describe any obstacles that you have overcome to achieve your academic and personal achievements as well as any contributions to equity, diversity, and inclusion you have made.

We do not have a word limit, but we do recommend keeping your statement of purpose clear and concise.

Letters of Recommendation

We  require three letters of recommendation. Letter writers that are able to provide context and clarity with respect to your ability and potential to excel in a graduate program are the most helpful in evaluating your application (e.g. a research advisor or a professors from a course that knows you well). UC San Diego students applying for the MS program need to submit at least two letters – at least one from a professor in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry.

If your letter writer needs a new link to submit their letter, please follow the instructions below:

• Log into  online application
• Click “Update Application”
• Go to “Letters of Recommendation” page
• Click “Resend” next to the name of your letter writer

GRE (not required)

Research experience, additional educational experiences, fee waiver programs.

There are a couple of fee waiver programs offered by the Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA) and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

• Please fill out the application as much as you can  ( https://connect.grad.ucsd.edu/apply/ )
• Do not submit the application nor enter any payment information
• Take note of your application's reference number (you'll need that for the next step)
• Fill out our Fee Waiver Request Form
• The deadline to be considered for one of the department's application fee waivers is December 4, 2023.
• If selected for an application fee waiver, we will contact you with further instructions by December 5, 2023.

English Proficiency Exams (International Applicants Only)

Applicants that have recently studied full-time for one uninterrupted academic year at a university-level institution in which English is the language of instruction and in a country in which English is a dominant language, are exempt from language testing requirements.

Demonstrated proficiency in the English language (TOEFL, IELTS, or PTE) is required for all other international applicants whose native language is not English. Requirements for demonstrating proficiency are listed below.

International applicants must include an official report of their TOEFL iBT or TSE scores from  ETS . The university-wide minimum TOEFL score for graduate admission is  550 for the paper based test (PBT), and 85 for the internet based test (iBT) . The minimum for the   IELTS Academic Training exam is a score of 7   and a score of   65 for the PTE Academic.

At minimum, international applicants must also have a   TOEFL iBT Speaking subscore of 23 , an   IELTS Speaking subscore of 7 , or a   PTE Speaking subscores of 65 .

Commitment to Diversity

The  Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry welcomes all applicants. The university and department have a long-standing commitment to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion within STEM fields from. Our commitment to diversifying the scientific workforce also includes people who self-identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community, people of socio-economic disadvantaged backgrounds, and individuals with disabilities.

Outreach Conferences 2023

National organization for the professional advancement of black chemists and engineers (nobcche).

September 11 - 14 | New Orleans, LA

American Chemistry Society National Meeting

August 13 - 17 | San Francisco, CA

California Diversity Forum

October 14 | San Francisco, CA

Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)

October 26 - 28 | Portland, OR

Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS)

November 16 - 18 | Phoenix, AZ

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Fall 2024 PhD Deadline:

Dec 6, 2023

Graduate Student Resources

FINANCIAL SUPPORT Academic Student Employment Positions ( go ) Travel Funding ( go ) Residency Requirements ( go ) Direct Deposit ( go )

INTERNATIONAL STUDENT INFORMATION

HEALTH BENEFITS

STUDENT SURVIVAL SKILLS

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

All graduate students at UC San Diego are responsible for tuition and fees  each quarter in order to utilize University resources.  Students can receive financial support to help cover these costs in the forms of fellowships, scholarships, and academic student employment positions.  To be eligible for financial support, graduate students must be registered full-time (12 units) and be in good academic standing .

Departmental fellowships are provided to the most oustanding applicants to the Ph.D. program though the generous support of the Jacobs School of Engineering.  These awards are very competitive and not all applicants who are offered admission are offered departmental fellowships.  Throughout the year, other fellowships and awards are available to all graduate students.  Students are encouraged to follow this link for a list of annual fellowships and awards .

Currently, there is no funding provided by the department for MS students. For more information on financial support, please see "Additional Resources" below.

Academic Student Employment Positions

Both Ph.D. and M.S. students are eligible for the appointments listed below, but priority is given to Ph.D. students.  Appointments are quantified by a percentage based on a 40-hour work week (i.e., 100% = 40 hours per week; 50% = 20 hours per week; 25% = 10 hours per week).  Graduate students cannot work more than 50% during the academic year, or 100% during the summer.

Graduate Student Researcher (GSR)

Paid research positions are available via grants awarded to faculty members.  Students employed as GSRs at 25% or above qualify for GSR Tuition and Fee Remission which covers all tuition, fees, and nonresident student tuition (if applicable).  Students should talk to their faculty advisor for availability.

Pay rates are posted on  the Graduate Division website . MATS M.S. students are paid at the Step 1 GSR rate, and Ph.D. students are paid at the Step 3 GSR rate until they advance to candidacy, after which time they are paid at the Step 4 GSR rate 4.

Teaching Assistant (TA) / Reader

Teaching Assistants and Readers are hired on a quarterly basis to support teaching instruction.  Appointment percentages are assigned based on course enrollment.  Students in the MAE and MATS Departments will be notified when quarterly applications are open.  Students can also apply for positions in other departments on the UCSD Open Positions website .  Offers are typically extended one month prior to the start of the quarter.  Students employed as TAs or Readers 25% and above are eligible for TA Fee Remission which covers the majority of resident tuition and fees.  The Teaching + Learning Commons offers training opportunities for TAs and future faculty members.  

Before they can be appointed as a teaching assistants, all  international graduate students  at UCSD are required to demonstrate a high level of oral and aural competence in the English language. International students must contact  [email protected]  to schedule an English Language Certification Examination (ELCE) as soon as they are offered their  first  TA position. The ELCE must be taken during finals week or the week after to be eligible to work as a TA the following quarter. Students can  follow this link for more information on the ELCE .

All new Associates In, Teaching Assistants, Readers, and Tutors must attend the New Academic Student Employee (ASE) Orientation.  Department staff will distribute orientation information as they are scheduled.

Pay rates are posted on  the Graduate Division website .

Visit Graduate Division's website for additional information regarding  support for student parents .

Fee Remission

Graduate Students hired as Instructional Assistants at 25% or above are eligible for Fee Remission which covers the majority of Resident Tuition and Fees.  The TA Fee Deferment Program allows graduate students appointed at a minimum of 25% for the entire quarter to pay the balance of their registration fees (excluding nonresident supplemental tuition) through payroll deduction.

Travel Funding

The MATS Department provides travel grants of up to $1,000 per fiscal year (July - June) to Ph.D. students presenting their work at conferences. Applicants must be in good academic standing and must be registered for the quarter during which the conference takes place. Students applying for grants during the summer must have been registered during the preceding spring quarter.

To apply for travel funding, Ph.D. students must submit an  MATS Ph.D. Student Travel Grant Form prior to booking travel arrangements . If approved, the student will receive a confirmation email from the MATS Student Affairs Office with the award amount. Payment of funds will be processed as a reimbursement.

The GSA also has funds available for graduate and professional students;  follow this link for more information .

Residency Requirements

Non-residents of the state of California must establish residency immediately upon entering the State.  If students do not establish residency by the end of their first year of study, out of state tuition WILL NOT BE COVERED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.  This means that even if a student holds a TA or Graduate Student Researcher position, the out of state tuition will not be covered under these jobs.

Establishing residency can be a lengthy and frustrating experience. Students are encouraged to start with this  residency information  and read it thoroughly from beginning to end. Departments can't answer questions about residency because it involves laws of the State of California. All questions must be sent to the Residence Deputy.

International students will have nonresident student tuition waived for three years after successful completion of the Senate Examination.

Direct Deposit

In order to avoid payment delays, it is highly recommended that students enroll in direct deposit.  There are three forms of direct deposit for graduate students:

• Student Business Services : Stipend payments for domestic  students 
• Payroll : TA, Reader and GSR employment checks.  Students will be unable to enroll in this form of direct deposit until they have completed hiring paperwork and an employee number has been generated.  Students may opt to enroll in the Aline ADP Pay Card .
• Disbursements : Travel and other personal reimbursements

Additional Resources

• Tuition and Fees
• Registration Fees
• UCSD Graduation Division
• UCSD Financial Aid Office
• Tax Information
• JSOE support for PhD students transitioning to a new advisor

The International Student & Programs Office (ISPO) is a multi-purpose facility created to foster cross-cultural exchange and international education for the UC San Diego campus community. The International Student & Programs Office provides services and programs for UC San Diego's 4,000+ international students and scholars and for approximately 500 study abroad participants. Services include orientation, visa and immigration regulation advising, personal academic advising, and travel document issuance. Please contact ISPO for all questions and concerns regarding the student visa process.

Here are some helpful pages on the ISPO website:

• iPortal Instructions: https://ispo.ucsd.edu/submit-request/instructions-troubleshooting.html
• Resources for Campus Partners: https://ispo.ucsd.edu/campus-partners/index.html
• Recent Immigration Policy Updates: https://ispo.ucsd.edu/news/immigration-policy.html
• Contacting ISPO: https://icontact.ucsd.edu

HEALTH BENEFITS   ( Student Health Services )

The  Graduate Student Health Insurance Plan (GSHIP)  is a comprehensive health insurance plan. Enrollment in SHIP is mandatory for graduate, medical, and foreign students at UCSD. The health insurance premium is assessed and paid with registration fees. Spring SHIP coverage continues automatically through the summer. Waiver of SHIP enrollment requires approval of the SHS Insurance Representative after review of proof of existing comparable insurance. Waiver of SHIP also waives GSLIP.

Other Health services:

• Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) : Integrative and student-centered services designed to support students towards their academic success, personal development and well-being while at UC San Diego.
• Office of Students with Disabilities (OSD) : UC San Diego welcomes students, faculty, staff, and campus visitors who have disabilities and wish to participate in the academic endeavors, professional opportunities, and campus events available in our community. In a collaborative effort to share campus resources for and about people with disabilities, this site provides resources to encourage all campus partners and constituents to engage in UCSD programs and activities.
• Pregancy Resources
• National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1 (800) 273-8255
• Speaking of Suicide : A site for suicidal individuals and their loved ones, survivors, mental health professionals and the merely curious.
• UC Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) : UC SHIP is a student-focused benefits package for UCSD graduate and undergraduate students, including strong medical, behavioral health, pharmacy, dental, and vision care benefits. UC SHIP is compliant with the Affordable Care Act requirements and works to complement your care at the Student Health Services right on campus. Enrollment is automatic for registered students; waiver application is also available.

Campus Services

• Student Legal Services : Student Legal Services can give legal education, counsel, and referrals to UCSD Students. Access the link for additional information and appointment scheduling.
• Basic Needs Center : The Hub Basic Needs Center provides resources for connections to nutritious food, Calfresh, stable housing, and financial wellness resources.
• Basic Needs Assistance Form : If you are a UC San Diego student who is facing challenges with your access to adequate food, stable housing, or financial resources, you're encouraged to complete this form
• Calfresh : CalFresh food benefits are funds that can be given to help supplement their food budget and buy food. Follow the link for additional eligibility and application information. 
• Triton Food Pantry : The mission of the Triton Food Pantry is to provide a discreet service to UCSD students in need of food. All current UCSD undergraduate and graduate students can access this service. 
• Financial Aid and Financial Literacy Resources : Information on Financial Aid resources, as well as comprehensive information on budgeting and financial literacy. 
• Jobs on Campus : Information to help you connect you to job resources. Find job postings, career fairs, and job readiness information by accessing the links.
• Undocumented Student Services : Personal guidance, immigration legal services, community building, partnerships, and referrals for Undocumented Students.
• Teaching + Learning Commons : Provides resources to students to be successful in their academic career.  
• Educational Technology Services (ETS) : Computer and email help.
• Transportation & Parking Services

REU Program

REU Site: UCSD Biomaterials Research to Increase Diversity and Graduate Enrollment (UCSD-BRIDGE)

The Jacobs School of Engineering (JSOE) at UC San Diego hosts a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program to engage student participants in biomaterials research. The objectives of the program are to train undergraduates in basic research through challenging bioengineering projects performed with research mentors from our faculty. REU faculty mentors have expertise in biomaterials research and are highly supportive of undergraduate research.

About the Program

• $700 per week stipend
• Free on-campus housing
• Travel to and from San Diego and to the annual BMES Conference
• Oral and Poster Presentations at UC San Diego Research Symposium
• Weekly research and professional skill  development workshops
• Perform biomaterials research with program mentors (see Current Projects ) 
• Field trips and social events
• Full-time undergraduate student
• U.S. citizen or permanent resident
• Full-time availability during the program
• Participants must be 18 years of age by the start date of the program and completed at least 1 year of college coursework

Dr. Alyssa C. Taylor, NSF-REU Site Director

[email protected]

• personal and academic information
• a personal statement
• a copy of your unofficial school transcript (as a pdf)
• letter of recommendation
• research faculty mentor preferences
• All components of the application must be submitted before the deadline to be considered complete.
• Only complete applications will be reviewed.

Brian Aguado, Ph.D. Assistant Professor 

Engineering biomaterials to study sex differences in heart disease Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death, yet our mechanistic knowledge of the sex-specific molecular mechanisms that guide disease progression, particularly in women, remain poorly characterized. Studies evaluating mechanisms rarely state the sex of cells used or are performed primarily in male animal models, causing a knowledge gap. Student participants will test the hypothesis that X and/or Y sex chromosome dosage contributes to sex differences in cellular responses to engineered microenvironments. Participants will work with Dr. Aguado and graduate student mentors and learn hydrogel fabrication, valve cell culture, in vitro assays, and high-content imaging/analysis to investigate biological mechanisms driving sex-specific valve disease. 

Pedro Cabrales, Ph.D. Professor 

Engineering a battlefield deployable whole-blood analog Hemorrhage is the leading cause of nearly 90% of potentially survivable battlefield fatalities. While whole blood is regarded as the optimal resuscitation fluid, it presents inherent limitations, including limited viability, the requirement for cold storage, and logistical challenges on the battlefield, rendering it often inaccessible when needed most. Our current undertaking involves a program dedicated to creating a field-deployable, shelf-stable whole blood analog (WBA), which can serve as a viable alternative for resuscitating trauma patients in scenarios where conventional donated blood products are unavailable. Participants will play a pivotal role in establishing a comprehensive program centered on the development and assessment of the mechanical and chemical properties of this WBA. The participant will test the hypothesis that the WBA can effectively rescue trauma victims without demonstrating inferiority compared to stored whole blood. Participants can collaborate closely with Dr. Cabrales and experienced graduate student mentors. This experience will equip participants with valuable tools and insights for studying, engineering, developing, and evaluating this innovative whole-blood analog.

Shaochen Chen, Ph.D. Professor 

3D printing and biomaterials for regenerative medicine Our research focuses on 3D bioprinting and biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. We explore new knowledge of cell-material interactions in the full range of physical dimensions, time span, and biological dimensions. Our group not only investigates the fundamental scientific issues, such as cell interactions with micro and nano-environments, biomaterials science, and biomechanics, but also solves the technological and translational issues associated with tissue/organ repair and regeneration. Student participants in this REU program will test the hypothesis that the biomaterials will support cell growth and the bioprinted tissues have proper functions.

Karen L. Christman, Ph.D. Professor 

Nano-material strategies for the heart Nanomaterial delivery strategies are particularly attractive since they can be delivered via leaky vasculature created by a heart attack. We previously developed nanoparticles that aggregate after matrix metalloproteinase cleavage of a protective layer, but this still led to off target accumulation in the liver and spleen like all nanoparticles. We are now developing protein-like polymers that have improved circulation times and reduce off-target accumulation.  Participants will test the hypothesis that nanomaterial targeting modifications can improve retention in the heart. Participants will learn nanomaterial characterization, and peptide therapeutic assessment in vitro and in vivo. 

Adam J. Engler, Ph.D . Professor

Understanding mechanical memory in cancer Cells within tumors transform from epithelial into mesenchymal cells in part due to tissue stiffness, but once outside the tumor, why does the soft niche not cause the cells to become epithelial again? The participant will hypothesize that in a stiff environment, cells undergo epigenetic changes that enable them to become mesenchymal, and that they use these changes to "recall" the gene expression profiles once the dynamic hydrogel is softened. The participant will learn biomaterial characterization of dynamic hydrogels and tissues as well as learn to assess cell responses and determine the epigenetic changes that occur in the nucleus to create “mechanical memory.”

Stephanie I. Fraley, Ph.D. Associate Professor 

Engineering a 2.5D culture format for Drug Discovery High-throughput screening of small molecule compounds to discover novel biological activities relies heavily on planar imaging of cells to monitor changes in response to treatments. However, cells cultured on planar substrates do not retain their physiological cell state, giving rise to false positive/negative results. In this project, the participant will develop a 2.5D culture format that retains necessary 3D biomaterial cues while enabling compatibility with high-throughput imaging. The participant will hypothesize that these cell states can be recapitulated on a planar surface amenable to high-throughput screening for drug discovery by controlling cell shape using 2D patterning of collagen on glass or polyacrylamide followed by coating with high density collagen. The participant will learn microcontact printing, photolithography, collagen gelation, polyacrylamide substrate engineering, biomaterial molding, and various microscopy techniques.

Reem Khoja, Ph.D. Assistant Teaching Professor 

Machine learning for biomaterial applications Students will explore machine learning tools for studying three-dimensional tissue cultures with a focus on biomaterial applications on organoid culture. In Dr. Khoja’s fully-equipped cell and tissue culture lab, the participant will test the hypothesis that light stimulation influences the temporal development and neural electrophysiology of cortical organoids by modulating key biological pathways, including neurogenesis, synaptic plasticity, and calcium signaling. Long-term real time imaging via biocloud platform is an essential component for testing the hypothesis by analyzing growth patterns using machine learning tools. Graduate students of Dr. Khoja’s will be available to support student researchers throughout their journey fostering a collaborative interdisciplinary bioengineering research experience.

Kevin King, MD, Ph.D. Associate Professor

Cardiac Injury and Repair Cardiac injury leads to death, inflammation, fibrosis, and dysfunction in the heart, making it the most common cause of death in the US and the world. Student participants will test the overall hypothesis that mechanical forces cause and result from cardiomyocyte injury. The participant will use quantitative image analysis of tissue sections, single cell multiomics, and spatial transcriptomics to link structure and function after cardiac injury and after cardioprotective therapy to infer the causes and consequences of pathologic forces in the heart.

Vira Kravets, Ph.D. Assistant Professor

Beta cells and diabetes pathogenesis The participant will study whether some insulin-producing pancreatic b-cell subpopulations are more vulnerable to glucolipotoxic conditions via bioengineering approaches such as applying multiscale confocal imaging of Ca 2+ dynamics of the cellular network, paired with phasor-FLIM to measure in-vivo metabolic activity and machine learning analysis to study islets in the live pancreatic tissue slices from human and mice. The participant will test the hypothesis that responder beta cells are disproportionately affected by high glucose and fatty acid application, and lose their role in triggering insulin secretion, leading to type-2-diabetes like pattern of response.

Ester Kwon, Ph.D. Associate Professor 

Nanomaterials for traumatic brain injury Drug delivery to the brain remains a challenge. The participant will engage in research to test the hypothesis that the organization of biological molecules at the nanometer length scale can create nanomaterials to lead to new types of interaction with brain tissue. The participant will gain experience on how to synthesize and characterize these nanomaterials and evaluate nanomaterial interaction with constituents of the brain. The participant will work directly with Dr. Kwon and a mentor to develop an individual training plan, learn experimental techniques, and communicate research findings.

Prashant Mail, Ph.D. Professor 

Aberrant cell transformation processes The major research thrusts in the Mali laboratory are two-fold: one, development of molecular toolsets for genome, transcriptome, and proteome engineering and their application to systematic genome interpretation and gene therapy applications; and two, study and engineering of cell fate specification during development utilizing human pluripotent stem cells as the core model system. Given the parallels in phenotypes (such as self-renewal and tumor forming ability) between pluripotent stem cells and cancer cells, a key research thrust is also in dissecting aberrant cellular transformation processes such as during tumorigenesis. The student participant will test the hypothesis that misregulation of developmental genes in adulthood has the potential to drive tumorigenesis.

Nicole Steinmetz, Ph.D. Professor 

Biology-inspired nanotechnologies targeting human health applications Research in the Steinmetz lab focuses on the engineering and repurposing of plant viruses as nanotechnology for applications in human health and agriculture. Summer projects include plant virus engineering through chemistry and genetics, all the way to testing novel formulations in preclinical animal models or in plants. Student participants will test the hypothesis that the adjuvant properties of plant viruses enhance anti-tumor immunity.

Applications for our Summer 2024 program are now closed.

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Graduate Student Researchers Unit

The University of California employs approximately 12,061 graduate student researchers. These graduate student researchers play an important role in helping to fulfill the university's research mission.

The new unit (BR) includes Graduate Student Researchers,   Graduate Student Research Assistants , Fellows, and Trainees, who are employed by the University at all campuses and is represented by the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW).

• Learn more about the unit

Currently, there are no active negotiations taking place for this bargaining unit. The current contract is in effect through May 31, 2025 and will be posted soon. Negotiations for the next contract will begin before the current contract expires.

Bargaining Updates

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

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The Summer Research Program (SRP) is made up of 8+ programs which are either 8 or 10 weeks long. Each program has a cohort and a coordinator. While requirements for each program are different, program coordinators work together to create a summer community that brings together students from all the programs. ALL SRP students are paid a stipend!

SRP equips students with the skills to become research scholars, encourage students' pursuit of graduate study, and increase graduate school enrollment among underrepresented, low-income, and first-generation college students.

• 8-week programs run from June 24, 2024 - August 16, 2024
• 10-week programs run from June 24, 2024 - August 30, 2024

Requirements for all summer programs:

• Must be enrolled  full-time
• Work at least 30 hours / week with a mentor throughout the 8 or 10 week program
• Attend SRP Orientation
• Present their research at the Summer Research Conference  in mid-August
• Be present throughout their entire program
• Students  cannot work or take classes in the summer while in SRP

*Each program has additional specific requirements. Look through the programs to ensure you qualify before applying.

Genentech Scholars Program

Learning-Aligned Employment Program (LAEP)

McNair Program

UC Scholars

Undergraduate Research Scholarships (URS)

The Graduate College at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

2024 research live winners.

The Graduate College is pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 Research Live! competition.

Now in its ninth year, Research Live! is a fun, fast-paced competition that celebrates graduate student research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Twelve finalists shared their passions in three minutes or less at the Campus Instructional Facility Atrium on Tuesday, April 2. 

The winners are: 

The Visionary Award : $200 Vincent  Carlson , Theatre, "Shatterpoints: An Adaptation Theory"

The Storyteller Award : $200 Vignesh  Srinivasakumar , Computer Science, "AI Teaches AI to Teach"

The Impact Award : $200 Satinderpal  Kaur , Entomology, "Flooding, Food Security and Plant-insect Interactions"

The Design Award : $200 Andrew   Freeman , Electrical Engineering, "Breaking the Ice: Fast and Reliable Aircraft Wing Deicing"

The People's Choice Award : $200 Dhanush Gandavadi , Bioengineering, "Origami for Cancer Therapy"

The Grand Prize : $500 Kyle  Timmer , Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, "A Biomimetic Scaffold to Improve Rotator Cuff Shoulder Repair"

Learn more about Research Live! and see the complete list of finalists.

Education | Johns Hopkins graduate student workers union…

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Education | key bridge collapse live updates: politicians in the spotlight; weather delays ship container removal, education | johns hopkins graduate student workers union reaches tentative agreement with university.

The Johns Hopkins University graduate student workers union reached a tentative agreement with the private university Friday.

Members of the Teachers and Researchers United, or TRU, are Ph.D. students who teach or conduct research while earning their degrees. They will vote to ratify the contract over the next month, which sets a minimum stipend of $47,000, guarantees stipends for four years of a five-year degree and provides up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave.

“It’s definitely a relief to get to this point,” said Andrew Eneim, a fifth-year Ph.D. student and TRU member who’s helped organize the union for the past four years. “It’s why we did all this work in the first place.”

If the agreement is approved, TRU members would become some of the highest-paid graduate workers compared with the cost of living in the country, Eneim said. TRU’s 22-member bargaining committee and Hopkins representatives agreed to the tentative contract.

A Hopkins spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Graduate workers are paid stipends for teaching and research. But work opportunities are limited, and the stipend amount could vary depending on the field of study and department. That created a $20,000 disparity between the lowest- and highest-paid graduate workers, Eneim said, a gap that would be closed by the agreement. Workers would be guaranteed funding for teaching assistants, research assistants and fellows for at least four years depending on their department.

“Everybody is getting paid fairly, and there aren’t these tiers that the university created in the past,” Eneim said.

More than 3,300 Hopkins Ph.D. students voted to unionize with a 97% vote in February 2023. TRU is affiliated with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America and began bargaining with the university last May.

Graduate student unions have been around since the 1970s, but there’s been a surge in organizing at elite, private universities. The National Labor Relations Board in 2021 reversed a rule that had excluded undergraduate and graduate students from filing a petition to the board, opening the door for TRU to become an official union.

As a private institution, Hopkins is subject to the National Labor Relations Board’s federal jurisdiction. Conversely, the University of Maryland, a public university, does not have collective bargaining rights.

TRU members can’t strike or promote a work slowdown or stoppage as part of the agreement that would expire in June 2027.

Stipends would start at $47,000 in July and increase to $52,000 by July 2026. Graduate workers would each receive a one-time $1,000 signing bonus if the contract is ratified.

Along with the university covering health insurance premiums for dependent children and spouses, employees would receive a subsidy of $4,500 per child annually for children aged 6 and under. Employees with children aged 6 to 18 would be eligible for a $3,000 subsidy per child annually. There is an annual maximum of $12,000 per family.

Those with adult dependents would be eligible for an annual $3,000 subsidy per dependent.

International students would be able to apply for an $80,000 yearly fund to cover visa renewal fees, as well as being eligible for 14 days of leave to maintain immigration status.

Other highlights of TRU’s agreement include the right to peacefully protest without being met by force, free local transit passes for Baltimore and Washington, timely resolution of sexual harassment/Title IX complaints, explicit performance standards and just process in discipline and discharge procedures, and the use of progressive discipline, not law enforcement, in cases of mental health crises and drug abuse.

“We have work to do in the coming weeks to inform our members and ratify what we believe to be the best contract in higher ed labor,” Wisam Awadallah, a TRU member, said in a statement.

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Graduate Education

Office of graduate and postdoctoral education, 12 grad students named as finalists for 2024 three minute thesis competition.

Mar 26, 2024

After six intense preliminary rounds, twelve exceptional scholars have emerged from a pool of 65 talented candidates, earning their place as finalists in Georgia Tech's highly anticipated annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. On Friday, April 5, 2024, these finalists will hit the stage, harnessing their research expertise, to deliver compelling presentations in a three-minute format.

Congratulations to the following twelve finalists:

Karina Bhattacharya MID Industrial Design 

Vinodhini Comandur, Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering 

Mo Jarin, Ph.D. Environmental Engineering 

Anamik Jhunjhunwala, Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering 

Valeria Juarez, Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering 

Alexandra Patterson, Ph.D. Bioengineering 

Jeffrey Pattison, Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering 

Kantwon Rogers, Ph.D. Computer Science 

Mallika Senthil, MS Biomedical Engineering 

Wenting Shi, Ph.D. Chemistry and Biochemistry 

Shreyas Srivathsan, Ph.D. Aerospace Engineering 

Raghav Tandon, Ph.D. Machine Learning 

This year’s 3MT competition takes place on Friday, April 5, 2024, at 5:30 p.m. in the Atlantic Theater in the John Lewis Student Center. The entire Georgia Tech community is encouraged to attend the competition, which occurs as the finale of the 2024 Grad Student Appreciation Week. 3MT will also be streamed online and can be viewed at https://gatech.zoom.us/j/98696536715 .  Audience members and online viewers can vote for their favorite presenter to win the People’s Choice Award.  

Ph.D. winners can win up to $2,000 in research travel grants. The master's winner will receive a $1,000 research travel grant.   

Tech’s 3MT competition is coordinated by the Office of Graduate Education in partnership with the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL), The Naugle Communications Center, and the Language Institute.  

For more information, visit grad.gatech.edu/3mt . 

Brittani Hill | Marketing and Communications Manager 

Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Education 

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