Congratulations to the Graduate and Postdoctoral Research Symposium award winners

The 2017 Graduate and Postdoctoral Research Symposium was a great success with over 160 poster presentations from postdoctoral scholars, doctoral and master's students across disciplines. The Graduate School awarded over $16,000 to a total of forty-nine award winning participants. Our judges consisted of a dedicated group of faculty advisors, postdoctoral scholars and doctoral students who volunteered their time to evaluate and respond to the work of their students and colleagues. This year's judges were impressed with the quality of research represented and students were enthusiastic in discussing their work with peers. See the full list of awardees.

This was the second year for Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition with twelve presenters nominated by their school, college or department. A panel of six judges from across campus and the broader community evaluated the presenters' ability to convey their research in three minutes with one compelling visual slide. "The competition was intense," says Graduate School Associate Dean, Annmarie Cano, "It was exciting to see how students were able to distill complicated concepts for a general audience, and great to see the audience engagement in selecting a People's Choice winner." The audience selected Nisansala Muthunayake from the Chemistry Department as winner of the People's Choice Award for her presentation, "Antibiotic Resistance: No Action Today, No Cure Tomorrow." There was a tie for first place between Daniel Harrison from Anthropology for his presentation, "From Wilderness to Maritime Landscape: The Transformation of the St. Clair Flats, 1670 to 1937," and Xavier Swiecki, from Art and Art History, for his presentation, "The Aldobrandini Wedding-- Or Is it?". Swiecki will go on to compete at the upcoming Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) meeting in April.

The BEST (Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training) program offered a business card competition for the first time this year. Three entries were selected that exemplified elements of effective business card design. The first place winner was postdoctoral scholar, Nadia Saddat, from Nutrition and Food Science. In the awards presentation, Judith Moldenhauer, Associate Professor in Art and Art History, highlighted the winning cards' successful design features. In response to the high level of interest, BEST will offer the competition again in the future to help doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars prepare for networking opportunities and entry into the job market.

Read more about the 2017 Graduate and Postdoctoral Research Symposium and award winners.

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