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Vibrations
The Newsletter for the EAS Community
Nominations Close April 26!
The Thomas W. Schmitt Annual Staff Prize honors a staff member whose contributions embody the values and spirit that enable the institute to achieve excellence in research and education.
The Team Impact Award recognizes and rewards those teams that make significant contributions to the work and mission of the Institute. Teams who receive the award should be able to demonstrate that their work impacted and supported the research and/or education programs at the Institute.
Selected Upcoming Events
April 24, 2023, 11:00 am - 11:45 am
Conversations on Artificial Intelligence: Machine Learning for Conservation, featuring Professor Pietro Perona and Suzanne Stathatos
Location: Online
April 25, 2023, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Caltech Young Investigators Lecture: "Exoskeleton-Based Training For Novel Motor Skill Acquisition" - Keya Ghonasgi, PhD candidate, UT Austin
Location: Gates-Thomas 135
April 25, 2023, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm
World Fest - International Food Fair
Location: Moore Walk
April 25, 2023, 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm
Charge Up! Entrepreneurship Series: Government Grants, ARPA-E and SBIR, with Doug Wicks, Program Director, ARPA-E
Location: Earle M. Jorgensen Laboratory, Rm. 109 and via Zoom
April 25, 2023, 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm
2023 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition
Location: Cahill, Hameetman Auditorium and YouTube
April 26, 2023, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Consciousness & Reality Colloquium: "Does Consciousness Continue After We Die? - Jim B. Tucker, Director of the Division of Perceptual Studies, University of Virginia Health System
Location: Online
April 28, 2023, 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
GALCIT Colloquium: "Leveraging Ambient Radio Noise for Passive Radar Remote Sensing of the Terrestrial and Space Environment" - Sean Peters, Assistant Professor, Department of Physics, Naval Postgraduate School
Location: Guggenheim 133 (Lees-Kubota Lecture Hall)
April 28, 2023, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
APACT - AAPI Heritage Month Kickoff Celebration
Location: Dabney Hall, Garden of the Associates
May 17, 2023, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Wouk Lecture: "Rethinking Evaporation: Thermal and Optical Evaporation from Pure Water and Hydrogels" - Gang Chen, Carl Richard Soderberg Professor of Power Engineering, MIT
Location: Ramo Auditorium
May 19, 2023
James K. Knowles Lectures and Caltech Solid Mechanics Symposium, featuring R. Narasimhan, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Location: 135 Gates-Thomas
Spotlight On Our People
Kristen Bazua
Administrative Assistant, Mechanical and Civil Engineering
Hi, my name is Kristen Bazua. I joined Caltech this month as an Administrative Assistant in the EAS-MCE department, and I'm thrilled to be a part of such an excellent community. I graduated with a BA in Art History from California State University, Los Angeles in 2019, having always held an appreciation for creativity and visual arts. Outside of work, I love to be outdoors, read (mainly nonfiction), or visit Round1 to play their crane machines. I was born and raised in Southern California, but since a spontaneous visit to Seattle last year I've gained an appetite for solo travel; a couple places I'd love to visit next are Oregon and Utah!
Tomi Esho
Graduate Student, Applied Physics and Materials Science
I was born and raised in Ibadan, Nigeria, moved to the U.S. for college, and obtained my bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. I started at Caltech in 2018 and later joined Professor Austin Minnich's research group. Currently, I study electron and hole dynamics in semiconductors within the framework of the Boltzmann transport equation with the goal to help develop a richer understanding of physical processes in materials as well as predict interesting phenomena. I love to play, watch, and talk about anything related to soccer.
We'd like to feature you!
Calls for Nomination & Funding Opportunities
Caltech’s Office of Foundation Relations maintains an online database and email subscription service of primarily non-federal funding opportunities as a resource for the Caltech community. Opportunities include calls for proposals released by private foundations, public charities, associations, corporations, internal Caltech opportunities and federal limited opportunities.
Caltech Center for Evolutionary Science Grant
The Center for Evolutionary Science has a limited pool of funds to support Institute-wide research into evolutionary change via both biotic and anthropogenic forces. The Center supports the investigation of these phenomena at any time scale or level of biological complexity. Applications are open to faculty in all divisions, and may or may not be the product of interactions between laboratories. Applications should include a one-page proposal detailing your project with relevant background information and a short explanation of the work's significance to understanding evolutionary phenomena, a brief budget, and a Division Approval Form (DAF). Submit applications to evolution@caltech.edu by May 5, 2023.
2023 Chapman Memorial Award - Call for Nominations
We are soliciting nominations for the 2023 Richard Bruce Chapman Memorial Award, a $1,500 prize to be awarded at Commencement. The prize is for "a graduate student who has distinguished him/herself in research in the field of hydrodynamics." The original records of the fund mention Chapman’s interests in the fields of "Free-surface phenomena, free-surface waves, cavities and jets, and ship hydrodynamics." Nominations should include a copy of the student’s thesis (electronic version) and a brief letter of support from the thesis advisor. If a student is expecting to finish soon, a preliminary draft can be considered. Please submit the nominations to Melissa Hill in the EAS Division office by Monday, May 15, 2023.
2023 Demetriades-Tsafka-Kokkalis Prizes - Call to Submit Nominations
The Demetriades-Tsafka-Kokkalis Prizes consist of four prizes (Biotechnology or Related Fields; Nanotechnology or Related Fields; Environmentally Benign Renewable Energy Sources or Related Fields; and Seismo-Engineering, Prediction, and Protection) are awarded to a Ph.D. candidate for the best thesis, publication or discovery. The prize for Entrepreneurship or Related Fields is awarded to a graduate or undergraduate student for the best business plan, proposal, start-up or related efforts at Caltech. The prizes are open to the entire Institute. Nominations from faculty should be submitted by email to Melissa Hill by sending the name and the thesis of the nominee. The deadline for nominations is Monday, May 8, 2023. For the Entrepreneurship prize, please provide the name, CV and business plan of the nominee. The announcement of the prizes will be included in the commencement brochure. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Melissa Hill with any other questions.
EAS New Horizons DEI Award - Submit Nominations
The Division of Engineering and Applied Science seeks nominations to recognize and honor individuals who have contributed to EAS’ goal to be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive engineering community while maintaining excellence in their campus roles and/or academic and research goals. The award is available to members of the EAS community, including current students, postdoctoral scholars, staff, and faculty. Nominations are accepted from anyone in the EAS community, EAS alumni and members of the Caltech community. Nominations will be considered for three years; new materials may be submitted for prior nominees.
To nominate an individual or group, please submit a letter of nomination (up to 1 page in length); multiple letters can be submitted in support of one nomination. In the letter, please outline the contributions made by the individual or group and the impact that the activities have had on the community. The deadline for nominations is May 10, 2023. Send nominations to dei.eas@caltech.edu and contact Melany Hunt with any questions
Merkin Institute Grants
Merkin Innovation Seed Grants
These awards provide early support for translational projects, emphasizing partnerships between Caltech labs and clinicians, who will typically be from outside Caltech. Projects developed from the Bob Grubbs Medical Innovation Symposia are encouraged, but projects and clinical partnerships developed in other ways are equally welcome. Funding amount: up to $100k. Submission deadline: Wednesday, May 31, 2023.
Merkin Spark Grants
The project is to be conceived and driven by graduate student applicant(s). It should not be an immediate or obvious extension of ongoing or proposed research in the host lab or labs. Novel applications of methods and variations across labs are encouraged. The project should be designed to generate go/no-go data for an innovative direction or novel technology that will ultimately translate to improve human health. These projects can be at any stage on the path toward translation, as long as the purpose and vision for translation is clearly stated. Collaboration between students in different labs to create project proposals is encouraged, but not required. Funding amount: $10k. Submission deadline: Wednesday, May 31, 2023.
COVID Updates: Visit together.caltech.edu for the latest communications from the Institute.
- As of Monday, April 17, 2023, masking is recommended, but no longer required in instructional spaces. This change does not alter other health and safety requirements related to the use of masks in research settings as part of traditional laboratory protocols, or public health requirements for masking as part of an individual’s isolation period. Please continue to respect others’ preferences for mask use.
Effective Friday, March 17, the last day of winter term, the Institute will close its Caltech-sponsored surveillance testing program, and suspend the current twice-weekly testing requirement for students and employees. Read the full update.
- Voluntary surveillance testing is available to all (more info).
- Masks at no charge are available to persons with a Caltech ID at the Bookstore.
Division of Engineering and Applied Science
