Newsletter for 02/05/2023

New Announcements

Announcements

Winter 2023 University Deadlines

Please note the following upcoming university deadlines, and ALWAYS check the Academic and Administrative Calendar for important dates and deadlines. Bookmark this year's Academic and Administrative Calendar and refer to it regularly.

Master's Funding Opportunity!

The University of Pennsylvania in partnership with 9 other institutions make up the Center for Engineering MechanoBiology <https://cemb.upenn.edu/> (CEMB). This interdisciplinary, visionary center is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance the study of mechanical forces in molecules, cells, and tissues. We have launched a new fellowship program for STEM Master’s students who have a strong interest in conducting research and pursuing a PhD upon graduation. The goal of this fellowship program is to increase the number of underrepresented minorities pursuing graduate degrees in STEM-related fields, and establish long-lasting collaborations with faculty at Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) institutions.

Accepted fellows will conduct a collaborative thesis project with faculty
from their home institution and the CEMB. The summer following their first
year in a master's program, fellows will conduct research in the CEMB
collaborator’s lab. They will return to their home institution for the
second year of their master’s program. The program will offer monthly
mentoring and networking opportunities to prepare fellows for research,
grad school applications, and the PhD path. This is a co-mentorship
program, and will not remove the student from their home institution.

This is a great funding opportunity to support a master’s student in your
lab: fellows will receive a 1-year stipend of approximately $31,600 and
$10,000 in funds to support research at their home institution and travel
to collaborating labs and conferences.

Please share this opportunity with your colleagues and eligible students. I
have included the eligibility criteria below, and more information is
available in the attached document and on our website
<https://cemb.upenn.edu/programs/masters-research-fellowship/>.

*Eligibility Criteria*

Students that meet the following criteria are encourage to apply:

·         Be currently enrolled or intend to enroll starting spring or fall
2023 in a full-time research-based master’s degree program.

·         Have a GPA of 3.2 or higher

·         Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident

·         Be a member of a group that is historically underrepresented in
STEM graduate education (African Americans, Native American including
Native Alaskans, Hispanics and Native Pacific Islanders)

·         Have a strong desire to enroll in a PhD program after their
Master’s degree.

Grad Slam 2023

Grad Slam is a UC Santa Cruz Graduate Division-hosted competition that is open to all graduate students, except those who have won 1st, 2nd, or the people’s choice in a previous Grad Slam. Participants have a maximum of three minutes to explain their graduate research or artistic endeavor to a general audience.

The Baskin Engineering Preliminary Round is on Tuesday, February 14 at 7 p.m. Each graduate student that participates in this round will receive a $50 e-gift certificate to a UCSC-participating vendor. The top two presenters will be awarded $500 each and will move onto the final round scheduled for March 4th, where they will compete against the other finalists from each UCSC division. Register to participate in the Engineering preliminary round.

Need help preparing for your presentation? The Grad Division is hosting a Grad Slam Public Speaking Preparation workshop on Feb. 8th from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Register for the workshop. 

Learn more about Grad Slam 2023. 

Project from Wright Brothers Institute & T-REX Innovation Center

We recently launched a challenge with Wright Brothers Institute & The T-REX Innovation Center -GEOINT "Match Strike Challenge" Series – Design a Geospatial Intelligence Challenge that Could Save the World

Link to challenge/project: https://www.mindsumo.com/contests/geoint-challenge-series-what-s-your-dataset

Please note that students must be U.S. citizens to win this. Top submissions also win from a prize pool of $1,600!

Feel free to reach out to me (isha@mindsumo.com) if you have any questions.

2023 NASA Planetary Science Summer School Applications Due March 27, 2023

Offered by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, PSSS is a 3-month long career development experience to learn the development of a hypothesis-driven robotic space mission in a concurrent engineering environment while getting an in-depth, first-hand look at mission design, life cycle, costs, schedule & the inherent trade-offs.

Science and engineering doctoral candidates, recent Ph.D.s, postdocs, junior faculty, and certain master’s degree students, who are U.S. Citizens or legal permanent residents (and a very limited number of Foreign Nationals from non-designated counties), are eligible. There is no charge to attend, travel stipends are available, and applicants from diverse backgrounds are particularly encouraged to apply.  Diversity, equity and inclusion are important to us, and we strive to create a welcoming environment where participants’ contributions and unique perspectives are valued. 

Session 1: Preparatory Sessions May 11-July 28.  Culminating Week with JPL’s Team X July 31-August 4

Session 2: Preparatory Sessions May 25-August 11.  Culminating Week with JPL’s Team X August 14-18

With workload of a rigorous 3-credit graduate-level course, participants act as a planetary science mission team during the first 12 weeks of preparatory webinars, with the final culminating week mentored by JPL’s Advance Project Design Team for refining the mission concept design & presenting it to a mock expert review board.  The culminating week is planned to be at JPL.

Applications are due March 27, 2023.  Register now for informational session February 14 11:00 am ET.

Spring - Fall 2023 GSR Opportunity: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Graduate Studies

The UC Santa Cruz Graduate Division seeks one 50% Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) for Spring, Summer, and Fall Quarters 2023 to support diversity, equity, and inclusion evaluation and programming.

The GSR will work closely with the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Graduate Studies to develop and advance DEI-centered evaluation and programs for graduate students at UCSC. The GSR will identify a project area of interest based on existing DEI program evaluation and development needs across campus, then work closely with campus stakeholders to evaluate and make recommendations for improvement.

Responsibilities

The GSR reports directly to Lorato Anderson, the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Graduate Studies, with indirect supervision from Dr. Don Smith, the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. The GSR will receive close mentorship and support to develop DEI-centered evaluation and program development skills. The exact duties will depend on the specific DEI project the GSR chooses to undertake, but below is a list of the main responsibilities and expectations of the position. Other related tasks will be discussed on an ongoing basis.

• Spring 2023

  • Identify DEI project based on already-identified needs from Comprehensive Institutional Analysis

  • Establish evaluation plan and goals in collaboration with relevant stakeholders

  • Develop and refine protocols

• Summer 2023

  • Data collection and analysis

• Fall 2023

  • Draft and finalize report, including recommendations for improvement. The report will be disseminated to campus partners for proposed implementation.

• Meet regularly with the Director of DEI and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies to discuss progress

• Maintain regular communication outside of meetings with the Director of DEI in Graduate Studies

Preferred Qualifications

The successful candidate will have some combination (not all) of the following.

• Skilled with basic quantitative methods (descriptive) and/or qualitative data analysis

• Experience with survey design and analysis

• Experience with program evaluation and/or mixed methods social science research

• Experience writing executive reports, research briefs, or research reports

• Strong verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills

• Demonstrated ability to communicate and work effectively with diverse groups of people, including faculty, students, staff, and administrators

• Demonstrated experience and/or interest in DEI-centered work, especially in education

Terms

This GSR position will cover Spring, Summer, and Fall Quarters of 2023 with a standard 50% time GSR appointment, which includes fee remission and GSHIP health insurance. GSR salary is determined at the divisional level and is therefore dependent upon the GSR’s home department and year in program.

Application Deadline and Process

Deadline: 9:00 am on Friday, February 10, 2023

Please submit the following before the deadline to lorato@ucsc.edu with the subject line “DEI GSR Application”:

• Current CV

• A letter of interest (1 page max) explaining your qualifications and why you are interested in the position

• Name and contact information of someone who can describe your research skills and experience. (No letter is necessary at this time; we will contact references as needed.)

If you have any questions, including about the start date, please contact Lorato Anderson at lorato@ucsc.edu.

GANAS VOCES Drafting Stages Workshop

Opportunity for PhD students and Postdocs

The Future Faculty Career Exploration Program is a rigorous four-day program designed for historically underrepresented scholars of color to experience a "behind the scenes" glimpse into life as a faculty member here at RIT.  Participants will have the opportunity to engage with RIT's diverse administration, faculty, and students while on campus. The program offers additional opportunities to enhance interview skills, practice job-talk presentations, and explore the research, teaching, and service expectations of RIT Faculty members. Attached is a flyer that outlines the program and provides additional information for potential applicants. 

FLYER: 2023_FFCEP.pdf

Silver Slug Scholarship Opportunity

This scholarship is intended for UCSC students, both graduate and undergraduate, who are also university career staff or dependents of career staff. Awards are typically between $1,000-$2,000 which can be very helpful toward purchase of a new computer or expenses related to research (travel, copying, paying assistants, etc) as well as life circumstances such as child care. Applications will be available at the Retirees Association website at this link beginning December 1 and will be due in February. 

UCSC Graduate Student Conference: Politics of Care | Open Call

We are writing to share with you our open call to our first-ever Graduate Student Conference - Politics of Care at UC Santa Cruz. This conference will take place from May 17th - May 19th, 2023. 

Conference Description:

The Graduate Student Conference hosted by El Centro: Chicanx Latinx Resource Center at UCSC is an event that intends to foster community and scholarship amongst graduate students. The conference planning committee invites abstracts from graduate and postdoc students inside and outside UC Santa Cruz, including global scholars, and from various disciplines whose work relates to the overarching conference theme. Scholars might pull from fields including but not limited to Latin American and Latino Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, Feminist Studies, and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. 

This year’s theme of the conference will be The Politics of Care.

We hope the presentations during this conference will shed light on the often unseen, under-valued, and under-theorized labor involved in “care” and its associated social and political dynamics and conditions. We suggest adopting a care-centered lens to interpret the social, political, and economic challenges that different communities have faced across times and geographies, as well as forms of social justice organizing, political resistance, and mutual aid that are rooted in radical care. Through the rise of neoliberalism in the past 50 years, societal well-being has been centered on financial capital and market interests, at the same time forging a neoliberal logic that rewards individual self-enhancement, self-sufficiency, and competition. Inspired by The Care Manifesto (2020), we open this space to ask and discuss, what would society look like if we centered care?

While remaining open to many definitions of care, we envision care as, most broadly, a form of social relations that enables interdependent subjects to repair and sustain survival and resilience (Malatino, 2020). Foregrounding the power dynamics resulting in an uneven distribution of care, “care webs” cohere through collective practices of mutual aid that attend to respective needs and capacities (Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, 2018). Care practices can prefigure the radically anti-oppressive worlds of our dreams, but they can also be colonized, commodified, and co-opted to advance state and imperial control. At this critical fulcrum, we are soliciting innovative and inter/transdisciplinary, intellectual dialogue to happen in the following four tracks:

• Neoliberalism, Capitalism, and Care

• Global Politics, Citizen-making, and Care

• Environmental Crisis and Care

• Care as Radical Healing

Abstract applications are now open. Those who are interested in submitting an abstract should apply at tinyurl.com/politicsofcare by March 17th by 11:59 pm (PST).  If you have issues with your submission, please contact the conference committee before the submission date at elcentro@ucsc.edu.  

Special thanks to our Graduate Conference Committee:

Betania Santos (PhD Candidate, SOC & El Centro Graduate Intern)

Brittney Jimenez (PhD Student, LALS)

Boyeong Kim (PhD Candidate, LALS)

Graciela Sierra-Moreno (PhD Student, Literature & AIRC Graduate Intern) 

Koda Sokol (PhD Candidate, SOC & Cantu Center Graduate Intern)

El Centro: Chicanx Latinx Resource Center at UC Santa Cruz

For a full conference call, details, and a shareable flyer please see attached documents. Please share widely with your networks.

Jobs

Fly SFO 2023 Summer Student Intern Program

 *   Deadline to apply:  Interested applicants are encouraged to apply as soon as possible as this announcement on Tuesday, February 14, 2023.
  *   Starting Salary: $33.2750 per hour
  *   Link to apply: 2023 Summer Student Intern Program<https://www.flysfo.com/2023-summer-student-intern-program>
  *   Handshake Job #7380049 (scheduled to open at 4:00 PM on 1.9.2023.

2023 Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship - Accepting Applications

The Intelligence Community (IC) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program offers scientists and engineers from a wide variety of disciplines unique opportunities to conduct research in a wide range of topics relevant to the Intelligence Community. The research is conducted by the Postdocs, while working in partnership with a Research Advisor and collaborating with an advisor from the Intelligence Community.

The Program supports postdocs to conduct research at universities, colleges, and U.S. government laboratories throughout the United States.

In partnership with the Research Advisor, the Postdoc composes and submits a technical proposal that responds to a research opportunity identified at: https://orise.orau.gov/icpostdoc/current-opportunities.html

Join us in a IC Postdoctoral Fellowship Virtual Recruitment and Information Fair on Wednesday, Jan. 25 from 1 to 4 p.m. EST to learn more about the 42 opportunities available for the Intelligence Community (IC) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program<https://orau.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7cc1c2ca7548e1e5e8e984f57&id=22f004bf21&e=2fd97df5f0>. Topic authors will be available to answer your questions. Register Now!<https://orau.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7cc1c2ca7548e1e5e8e984f57&id=991e6a0f3f&e=2fd97df5f0>

Award Details:
*                  Stipends range from $78,000 to $82,000, depending on research location.
*                  Annual travel budget of up to $6,000
*                  Appointments for two years, and option to extend for a third year
*                  Host institutions receive an annual laboratory budget of up to $5,000.
*                  Advisors receive a $10,000 stipend and a travel budget of up to $2,000.
Postdoc Eligibility:
*                  U. S. citizenship required
*                  Ph.D. received within 5 years of the application deadline

Learn More<https://orau.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7cc1c2ca7548e1e5e8e984f57&id=392fefe459&e=2fd97df5f0>