Graduate Division Dean's Update: 8/5/25

August 5, 2025

Dear Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars,

This summer is flying by—how is it already August? (Fun fact: the Eiffel Tower actually grows in summer—metal expands in heat, making it about six inches taller!)

I want to share an exciting new resource for you. I’ll be sending a separate email with full details, but since we all know how many emails get lost in the shuffle, I’m giving you a sneak peek here as well.

Through a collaboration between Biological Sciences, the School of Medicine, GPS-STEM, and the Graduate Division, we’ve purchased an institutional license to Nature Masterclasses. This platform offers hundreds of on-demand courses to support your professional development as researchers. Topics include:

  • Funding strategies
  • Publishing and disseminating your work
  • Data analysis
  • Grant writing
  • Peer review
  • And much more

Anyone with a uci.edu or health.uci.edu email can access these courses. Click here for a step-by-step guide on registering your FREE account. Make sure to visit our landing page for more information on this valuable opportunity.

In the meantime, keep taking care of yourselves: connect with your community, listen to music you love, take long walks in the sun, and don’t forget to hydrate. (Another random fact: drinking enough water actually helps you think more clearly—your brain is about 75% water!)

I’m looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Office hours for the remainder of July and August are listed below. They are first come, first serve:  https://uci.zoom.us/j/7277477

Thursday, August 7 – 12:30 PM
Thursday, August 14 – 11:30 AM
Monday, August 18 – 11:00 AM
Thursday, August 28 – 12:30 PM

Now on to the rest of this week’s events and opportunities:

Influencing Policy from an Academic Perspective
August 12 | Noon – 3 PM PT
NATSCI 1 – 1114

Register: https://grad-uci.12twenty.com/events/30006101285870
Join us for a dynamic workshop designed for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars interested in shaping policy with their academic expertise.

  • Hear a PhD alum’s journey into policy
  • Gain practical resource and advocacy training
  • Engage with a policy panel featuring current faculty
  • Participate in breakout sessions for deeper interaction with panelists 

Become a Mentor with UC Irvine’s Next Gen Pathways Program
Want to support incoming grad students while building your own leadership skills? The Next Gen Pathways mentoring initiative is now recruiting mentors for the 2025–26 academic year.

This peer mentorship program connects experienced UC Irvine graduate students with new students navigating the transition into grad school—especially those who are first-gen, international, parenting, or facing hidden challenges. Mentors help with everything from research and time management to navigating campus life and offering encouragement.

✅ Flexible time commitment
✅ Matching based on shared experiences
✅ Self-paced training (~60 min)
✅ Mentorship experience for your CV

🔹 Register to mentor: uci.mentorcollective.org/register/uci-grad/mentor
🔹 Learn more: grad.uci.edu/next-gen-pathways

Your experience can make a real difference.

Take Advantage of Division of Career Pathways’ Professional Photo Booth

The Division of Career Pathways (DCP) is pleased to introduce our all-new Professional Photo Booth, a complimentary, walk-in service at the Division of Career Pathways offering FREE professional headshots for UCI students, staff, and faculty. These professional headshots are perfect for your LinkedIn/ Handshake/ Zoom profile, department website, and also works for UCI Digital ID photo requirements. 

Rapid Response Networks for Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Please see this list of resources for rapid response networks in California for immigration and customs enforcement. Also please make sure to subscribe to the DREAM Center newsletter for important updates, upcoming events, and scholarship opportunities. For the most updated news regarding visas and immigration, please visit our Immigration Policy Updates page or the UCI International Center.

Wellness and Inclusion Services

We know that getting through graduate school takes a lot of effort, so we provide support to our students along the way. Many of Graduate Division’s services can help you maintain your work/life balance. At UCI, we believe that healthy Anteaters are productive Anteaters, which is why UCI Graduate Division has our counselors available for any student or postdoc who feels they need to talk with someone.

Services Offered: Academic support; Equity and inclusion support; Time management strategies; Tools to master effective communication skills; Strategies for navigating professional and academic expectations in graduate school; Referrals to campus services

Please reach out to Dr. Phong Luong (pbluong@uci.edu) directly to schedule an appointment.

Helpful Resources Provided by UCI Libraries

Here are a few helpful links below provided by the UCI Libraries. UCI Libraries developed a guide to help new scholars navigate the realm of scholarship.

Graduate Student Research Support Guide

Digital Scholarship Services (DSS) Main Site

  • https://www.lib.uci.edu/dss
  • This site provides an overview of UCI Libraries’ digital scholarship services with contact information, workshop details, and other tools and resources

DSS Programming Workshops

LibGuide on Software for Data Analysis (by Danielle Kane, Computational Research Librarian):  https://guides.lib.uci.edu/dataanalysis
Links to her other Libguides (GIS, Data Visualization):  https://guides.lib.uci.edu/prf.php?id=5952d46c-7cdb-11ed-9922-0ad758b798c3

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES 

Fulbright Student Program Applications Open
The Fulbright Student Program supports graduate students doing research or teaching abroad.  You can apply independently or with an institutional endorsement from UCI. If you would like to pursue an institutional endorsement, you must adhere to the UCI internal process which is outlined here.

  • Deadline: August 18, 2025

CRI Postdoctoral Fellowships
In response to recent disruptions in federal funding, CRI is committing an additional $2.5 million in funding to support 10 additional postdoctoral fellowships over the next year. This investment directly supports early-career scientists, ensuring that we continue fostering the next generation of IO researchers.

 

  • Deadline: September 1, 2025

Dean’s Recent Alumni Fellowship
This fellowship aims at easing the transition from graduate school into full-time careers either in academia or other industries. While the fellowship is unpaid, a recipient of this fellowship will receive access to resources that will pay immense dividends going forward and was developed in consultation with young professionals and alumni to provide resources they wished they had access to while in graduate school. Click above for more information and to apply.

  • Deadline: Rolling

More information is located on the Current Fellowships page and 2023-24 Funding Timeline.  Additionally, please reach out to Turner Dahl (tdahl@uci.edu) with any questions you may have.

In Closing
In another life, I think I’d be a science historian—I can never resist a good dive into the quirks of medical and scientific history. Lately, I’ve been reading The Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories of Mysterious Illness, which explores real-life cases of baffling conditions, and I just finished the podcast Hysterical, which investigates a 2011 outbreak of Tourette-like symptoms among high school girls in Le Roy, New York. The series reveals how stress, social dynamics, and media attention can spark genuine physical illness without a clear biological cause.

Since I’ve clearly got strange medical mysteries on my mind, I’ll leave you with two “strange but true” historical cases:

  • France, 1978: An entire village mysteriously fell asleep for over a week—residents grew dizzy, hallucinated, and collapsed. The culprit? The local baker’s flour, contaminated with a hallucinogenic fungus called ergot, the same fungus linked to some of the hysteria during the Salem witch trials.
  • Strasbourg, 1518: Dozens of people began dancing in the streets—and couldn’t stop—for days. Some danced themselves to exhaustion or even death. Historians suspect mass hysteria or food poisoning from mold with hallucinogenic properties.

All the best,

Jaymi Lee Smith
Interim Vice Provost for Graduate Education
Interim Dean of the Graduate Division