Grad News Forum

On Saturday, April 6^th, over 150 children and adults turned out for the very first Science Day at Dartmouth. F. Jon Kull, dean of Graduate Studies, dubbed Science Day, organized by Graduate Women in Science and Engineering (GWISE), a “great success.”

Anna Prescott and Aarathi Prasaad, PhD candidates in Psychological and Brain Sciences (PBS) and Computer Science respectively, organized the event with help from a small army of volunteers from across Graduate Studies. The aim of the event was to excite children about the sciences and being a scientist. Graduate students, being highly motivated scientists, were up to the challenge.

A graduate student walks a young person through a computer simulation.

Another motivation behind Science Day was to encourage female participation in the sciences.  Dartmouth graduate students have a reputation of challenging the “science is for boys” stereotype. Science Day was no exception. “Over 50% of women led activities or gave demonstrations,” says Prescott. Whilst men were not discouraged, the high interest of female scientists in the event showed young people that science is gender neutral.

GWISE set up 20 stations from the departments or programs in Earth Sciences, Environmental Studies, Physics and Astronomy, Mathematics, PBS, Computer Science, Neurology and Biological science departments. Activities gave the young people an introduction to each discipline. For example, representatives from the Department of Physics and Astronomy illustrated centrifugal forces with a bike wheel and a rotating chair.

PBS had a particularly popular station. Rachel Pizzie, a PhD candidate in the department, gave participating students a “lie detector test.” She gauged excitement by measuring how well skin conducts electricity. Our hands sweat more when we are surprised or shocked, sweaty hands conduct electricity better. Pizzie placed sensors on volunteers’ hands to measure increases or decreases of sweat. From this she could determine her volunteers’ excitement to questions, much like a polygraph test. The audience’s excitement level did not need such a test.

Many parents noted that they were unable to get to each station, not because there were too many stations, or that the stations were too far apart, but because their children were so engaged that they lingered at each demonstration and activity.

The day’s success was facilitated by the dedicated efforts of graduate students. One parent remarked: “the students were great at explaining their research to the kids, and they had an infectious enthusiasm for research.”

Over 50 graduate students took five or six hours out of their weekend to help. They set up demonstrations, they showed the visitors around the college and they dropped pizza off to their hungry colleagues. Furthermore, GWISE took sole responsibility for organizing and funding the event.

Prescott remarked on the success of the day “there’s just something special about visiting the labs and campus buildings. We really wanted to show kids what careers in science look like.” She continued, “Meeting with enthusiastic kids to tell them about what we study, why it’s cool, why it’s important, and why we love it is a great way to reinvigorate ourselves!”

GWISE is going to build on the success of Science Day 2013, to make Science Day 2014 reach out to even more children and young people.

“Encouraging others to get involved in science is one of the most rewarding experiences a young scientist can have,” says Prescott.

by Dan Durcan

Graduate Student Appreciation Week, commencing April 6, is an annual celebration of the contributions that graduate students bring to Dartmouth. The week combines a wide range of scholarly and social activities.

Graduate students work hard.  Each one knows late nights and early mornings. However, all being said, you will have to look hard to find the graduate student who does not think this is all worthwhile. Graduate students’ dedication to their research and to the education of undergraduates is an invaluable contribution to Dartmouth. The research undertaken in both our PhD and Master’s programs, in both arts and sciences, reinforces Dartmouth as a world-class educational institution. TA-ships see graduate students burning the midnight oil, grading papers and then taking time away from their own work to spend time with students. Those who have done it know how much students benefit from the support of a TA, as a mentor and a role model. Despite the heavy workload and stressful life, graduate student’s community outreach and volunteer work is award-renowned, both in the local community and abroad.

Preparations for the poster session in Alumni Hall on Wednesday 10th April, 5pm-7:30pm.

So every year by the time it gets to spring term, some appreciation is due.

The idea for Graduate Appreciation Week came from the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students (NAGPS). In 1993, NAGPS established Graduate-Professional Student Appreciation Week (GPSAW) as a mechanism to support and appreciate graduate and professional students. Dartmouth proudly sponsors this decade-long tradition.

F. Jon Kull, dean of Graduate Studies, commented on Graduate Appreciation Week:

“I really think it is crucial for the work of graduate students at Dartmouth to be highlighted and appreciated. Being a graduate student is a fantastic thing; it shows a true dedication to learning and advancing in a field or discipline. Dartmouth as an institution is fortunate to have so many enthusiastic and talented graduate students. Their contribution is felt everyday.”

The full range of events can be found here. Keep an eye out for the Graduate Poster Session. The Poster Session displays the best of graduate student talent. There you will see the range of research undertaken and all the hard work paying off. President Carol L. Folt will announce the winners of the Graduate Faculty Mentoring Award at the session. In short, the poster session really brings together many aspects of the graduate student experience.

“Graduate Appreciation Week gives the wider community the opportunity to take stock of their valuable contributions,” says Kull, “The schedule of events shows students they are valued, and the poster session allows their work to be displayed. The poster session is a great opportunity to learn more about Dartmouth Graduate Studies and some of the fantastic things achieved here.”

After the poster session is Pub Night at Molly’s Restaurant and Bar—we all need a break once in a while.

For more information about some of the achievements of Dartmouth’s graduate students, keep posted to the Grad News Forum and our Facebook and Twitter streams.

by Dan Durcan

Members of the GSC Exec Board at the Summit

A couple of weeks ago we wrote you an article on our upcoming trip to the University of Pennsylvania for the 10^th annual Ivy Summit. Well, we went, we had a great time, and we thought we’d share some of our experiences. Each fall, a different Ivy School (plus MIT) hosts the Ivy Summit. These are conferences dedicated to sharing experiences of student governance, as well as focusing on advocacy issues — this year’s focus was on building mental health resources.

In 2011, MIT hosted and, this year, six members of the GSC headed down to Philadelphia to the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). We arrived on the 2^nd of November and were immediately welcomed by a UPenn student delegate. Then we met our colleagues from the other Universities and promptly bonded over Japanese food.

On Saturday morning, over a substantial breakfast spread, the State of the Nine addresses were delivered in a room overlooking the skyscrapers of Philadelphia. The State of the Nine is an annual feature of the Summit where each Student Council President delivers a fifteen-minute presentation designed give an overview of graduate life at their school. Topics covered include changes in student welfare, advocacy campaigns, and overviews of social life. Subsequently, the student delegates at Dartmouth were able to learn about the structures of other student governments, as well as what their counterparts at the other schools were doing. All of this will help the GSC facilitate the best possible student experience at Dartmouth.

Following the State of the Nine we split off into groups to discuss more specific topics related to student governance and mental health. Here each college led a tutorial to share expertise. Dartmouth presented on: “Enhancing Graduate Student Participation and Cultivating Agency around Student Initiatives and Activities.” Again, our president, Julia Bradley-Cook, took the lead for Dartmouth, during our tutorial. Here she focused on agency, engagement, and participation.

One of the ideas that surfaced in our discussion was having “student deputies”. These are people who stand on committees or take particular responsibilities advocating for an issue. The advantage of deputies is that it allows people to interact with student governance on their own terms, dedicating their time to what they feel is particularly important. We look forward to implementing these positions soon.

After the morning’s proceedings, we broke for lunch – again, we ate and socialized with other graduate students. Then we went back to tutorials where we continued to share experiences and knowledge with other schools. The other school’s tutorials were as follows:

• Yale: Methods for facilitating conversation/student feedback with administrators
• Columbia: Quality of Life Survey
• Cornell: Emphasizing the Importance of Graduate Student Programming and Space
• Penn: Building Institutional Memory
• Harvard: Tailoring Mental Health Services to Graduate Student Needs
• Princeton: Striving for Balance in an Unbalanced Life
• Brown: Mental Health as “Foreign” to International Students
• MIT: The Power of Student Advocates as Change Agents
• Penn: Self Care as a Means to Protect Mental Health

Speaking on the Summit, Vice President Justin Richardson said: “The Ivy Summit was an excellent opportunity to showcase the great events and programs the Graduate Student Council puts together. It was good to learn from the other schools, to see how they help their student bodies, and what problems they face. I am very thankful to University of Pennsylvania GAPSA for hosting the annual event and am currently in contact with many attendees of the summit.”

That evening, conference delegates proceeded to a Japanese Karaoke Bar. Here we dined and hung out with other students from the Summit. Your social chair, Gilbert Rahme, wowed everyone with his performance of the Backstreet Boy’s “Quit Playing Games with my Heart.” I doubt Philadelphia will ever forget us.”

On Sunday morning we reconvened for a breakfast (the most substantial French toast I have ever seen) and to recap the Summit. Bradley-Cook met with the other Student Body Presidents to give feedback and to strategize for future years. After a long productive couple of days we said our farewells. There was just time to pick up a Philly Cheesesteak before our long journey home.

by Dan Durcan

Photo by David Bendell

On Sunday, June 10, graduating masters and doctoral students from Dartmouth’s Arts and Sciences Graduate Programs took the stage to celebrate Dartmouth’s 2012 Commencement ceremonies. Dartmouth’s Graduate Programs shone under sunny Hanover skies, as 175 students received their advanced degrees. The Grad Forum wishes the best of luck to all those who celebrated this June!

Video by Zach Williams and Dan Durcan 

Spring has sprung! Well, just incase you needed a few more excuses to get outside and enjoy the wonderful weather, here are ten great Spring activities.

1. Start a garden!

Perhaps one of the best things about New Hampshire summers is growing your own produce, flowers, and herbs. Have an apartment? No problem! Many people garden indoors, and there are tons of resources to help you start your own garden. But if you want a proper garden and don’t have the yard, there are shared garden spaces—the Co-op offers a community garden in Norwich, for example—throughout the Upper Valley. If you’re not ready to start your own garden but still want fresh produce, you can always ask your friends with gardens if you can volunteer to help them out in exchange for vegetables—after all, everyone loves some help.

This is the time of the year to start planting, so don’t delay!

2. If you haven’t done so already, it’s time to start your spring cleaning!

Don’t be shy: open the windows, air out your apartment, and sort through the piles of junk you’ve accumulated over the winter. I think that giving my apartment a nice, deep cleaning can be quite refreshing, and is often the jump start I need to get over the gloominess of winter.

If the thought of cleaning overwhelms you, or you have an item that needs a little care, but you’re unsure of how to clean it, visit this site, which literally explains how to clean everything.

3. …and, after you’re done spring cleaning, remember to donate!

C’mon, be honest, you don’t need all those old clothes! How about that jewelry you never wear? And what about those bags of candy from Easter that you never opened because you didn’t want to spoil your diet? Remember those books you never read that collect dust next to the sofa? Well, it’s time to find a home for them.

There are lots of organizations that will take your donations and get them to people who need them, like The Listen Center. Whether it be non-perishables, clothing, furniture, or books—donation centers are always looking for usable items. The Graduate Veterans Association is collecting cans for the Claremont Soup Kitchen–summer donations are especially important as youngsters miss out on school lunches.

4. Mountain bike

Do you like going head-first down a mountain at insane speeds? Well, if you enjoy skiing in the winter, you’ll probably love mountain biking! If you’ve got a free afternoon and want to get some exercise, the Upper Valley is filled with scenic trails that wind through the woods and along the Connecticut River. Or, if are looking for a fun way to spend a day off from work, bring your bike to one of Vermont’s ski areas for a day of downhill trail riding.

5. Watch the grass grow… literally 

Trees Surrounding BEMA

Remember a few months ago when those trees were just sticks? Where on earth did all of these green leaves come from? Look around campus: everything is in full bloom and Dartmouth is teeming with wonderful fragrances. The purple lilacs behind Wentworth—correctly pronounced “lie-locks” for all you “lie-lacks” New Englanders—are as beautiful and fragrant as ever, so be sure to take a moment to stop and smell our state’s flower.

Also, FO&M recently took down all of the ropes that were surrounding all of that beautiful, new grass that I know you have all been dying to nap on!

6. Go to Commencement and some thesis defenses

Want to see first hand that it actually IS possible to graduate? Then go see your fellow peers defend their theses.

Want to see some beautifully dressed, and potentially, extremely famous people? Then go to Commencement!

The thing I like most about commencement is that it reminds me how awesome it is being hunkered down in the wonderful world of academia, and not searching for a job in the private sector.

7. Get ready for a summer filled with gelato!

Ok, Gelato pretty much makes it on every “Top 10” that we publish. However, this time there is more: the interior of Morano Gelato has been expanded, they now offer more flavors, and rumor has it that they will soon be serving sandwiches and wine—it’s the perfect way to escape the summer heat!

And if you’re really hankering for some good ol’ American ice cream, try some different flavors at the Dairy Twirl in Lebanon, or Fore U in West Lebanon.

8. Go mini golfing

So, you got an ice cream at Fore U—now what? Head on over to their mini golf emporium, nestled right next to Home Depot, and have fun navigating the tunnels, windmills, and water traps that dot their course. Once the sun sets, head on up to Fairlee to catch a double feature at the drive-in movie theater–you know you wanna!

9. Go swimming

Get that blood flowing in the clear waters that surround Hanover. While it’s still a little cold for my liking, give it a few weeks and it will be a bit more palatable.

And, while you’re waiting for the water to warm up, stop by Alumni Gym and start getting in shape for bathing suit season!

10. Enjoy a fair or festival

There are a number of fairs and festivals taking place in New England this season. If you’re looking for something new, look no further than the Vermont Sheep and Wool Festival, the NH Music Festival, or the Quechee Balloon Festival. Whatever your interests, there is probably a festival for you within driving distance of campus.

One of my favorites is the Kingdom Farm and Foods Fest (especially the High Mowing Seeds field day). Be on the lookout for brochures that contain most of the festivals for the various states!

by Dan Osipovitch
photos by Wesley Whitaker

Each year during Graduate Appreciation Week, the Graduate Studies Office hosts the annual Graduate Poster Session in the Top of the HOP. At the poster session, PhD students from Dartmouth’s Arts & Sciences Graduate Programs and the Thayer School of Engineering present their research to the event’s attendees. In addition, a panel of judges—comprised of faculty members, college administrators, and graduate alumni—listen to each graduate student present their research, and then give the four best presenters an award for their research.

This year, the Thayer School of Engineering produced a video that highlights the research of two engineering PhD students—Austin Boesch and Kelly Michaelsen—both of whom present at this year’s poster session.

Congratulations, Austin and Kelly!

For more on the annual Graduate Poster Session, view the press release for the 2012 Graduate Appreciation Week coordinated by the Graduate Studies Office, and read about this year’s four Poster Session Award winners—Lola Thompson, Nadia Penrod, Chris Audu, and Margaret Gullick—on The Graduate Forum.

A month into their organizational life, the Graduate Veterans Association (GVA) has already started to coordinate community-service initiatives.

The GVA is running a food drive to support the Claremont Soup Kitchen, which is located only a few exits south of Hanover on Interstate 91. With the hope of bolstering the Kitchen’s low supply, the group has worked with MALS Departmental Representative, Keely Badger, to get the word out to the graduate community. The GVA is taking food and household items to Claremont once a week, bringing the Kitchen donations made by Dartmouth students. The groups are now reaching out to all of the graduate departments.

“It’s an easy way to make a big difference in someone’s life,” says the GVA’s President, Ron Bucca. “And it’s right in Dartmouth’s backyard.”

Claremont, New Hampshire, was once a manufacturing town, but as the industry in the area declined, the town’s economic composition changed. The Kitchen opened up in 1983, started by Jan Bunnell and an early group of volunteers. Over 25 years later, Jan’s still there.

When you meet Jan, you know that she truly cares about helping people. “We have a lot of homelessness in Claremont,” she says. “People couch-cruise, going house to house every week or so. It’s not that they want to live this way – trust me they don’t want to live like that.”

The Kitchen runs four different programs: an evening meal, a food pantry to provide groceries to help during the lean times, home delivery for housebound seniors, and a BackPack program, which is designed to make sure children and teens have enough food to eat over the weekend. But as government grants and private donations fall off sharply, the Kitchen is finding it tough to meet the growing need.

“When I started here two years ago, these stacks went to the ceiling,” says David Lacoy, a Kitchen volunteer. We’re in the basement of a building on Central Street in Claremont – the ceilings are about eight feet high. Now the stacks of donations rise to about the knee.

In response, the GVA and GSC have organized a drive to help the Kitchen in their mission to help the people of Claremont, and they’re calling on all graduate students to continue to donate through the spring. Right now, there is a box for donations located in the MALS office on the ground floor in Wentworth Hall. As other departmental representatives are notified, look for boxes in other spaces – until then, the box in Wentworth is open to all. The Soup Kitchen accepts all kinds of food, basic kitchen appliances and utensils, clothing, and furniture. While all donations are welcome, items like peanut butter, cereal, fresh fruits and vegetables and healthy sources of protein are especially appreciated. If you’d like to donate any fresh, time-sensitive items, you can contact GVA members Ron Bucca or Mike Rodriguez.

The GVA and the GSC thanks the Dartmouth students who have already contributed and is appreciative of whatever students can give in the future. With the summer months coming up, children who rely heavily on school lunches will need other options. Jan and the staff of the Kitchen asked that we say thanks for them, too.

By Zachary Williams

Michael Hopkins, winner of the 2009 Graduate Community award, and his advisor, David Bucci

Exercise clears the mind. It gets the blood pumping and more oxygen is delivered to the brain. This is familiar territory, but Dartmouth’s David Bucci thinks there is much more going on.

“In the last several years there have been data suggesting that neurobiological changes are happening—[there are] very brain-specific mechanisms at work here,” says Bucci, an associate professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

From his studies, Bucci and his collaborators have revealed important new findings:

• The effects of exercise are different on memory as well as on the brain, depending on whether the exerciser is an adolescent or an adult.
• A gene has been identified which seems to mediate the degree to which exercise has a beneficial effect. This has implications for the potential use of exercise as an intervention for mental illness.

For more about the research being conducted by both graduate and undergraduate students in Bucci’s lab, visit the Dartmouth Now.

A first year student in Darmouth’s Digital Musics master’s program, Phillip Hermans’ graduate research focuses on the compositional structure of music and the auditory elements of computer programing. While this research is a slight departure from the undergraduate work that Phil conducted on voice-controlled synthesizers at Tulane, all of his work at Dartmouth blends elements of traditional music theory with concepts from the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines. Also, during his year as a member of the Dartmouth community, Phil has planned and hosted a number of musical events through his involvement with Green Orpheus, a GSC-recognized student group that started as a music and philosophy reading group.

“All of the events that I plan with Green Orpheus help introduce students to different musical styles and different types of performance. While some of these events are designed to just be plain-old musical fun, many of our performances expose graduate and undergraduate students to new compositional structures in a formal setting,” explains Phil. “For example, some of our events mirror the chamber performances that were in vogue in Europe through the 19^th century, except that ours’ blend digital technologies with scores composed for traditional instruments. It’s a lot of fun.”

Examples of events hosted by Green Orpheus include this spring’s “Sustainable, Civic-Minded Minstreling”—an event hosted at Tom Dent cabin where participants engaged in musical games, collaborative compositions, and rhythmic music making—and this fall’s “Night of Noise”—a concert held in Collis that showcased Avant-garde pieces composed by Digital Musics graduate students that featured static, feedback, and free-form structures.

“If I had to categorize the music we played at ‘Night of Noise,’ I guess I would call it ‘Noise Rock,’” says Phil. “Most of the composers I’ve talked to find it powerful and dynamic, but I could see how the casual listener might be confused by its loose structure.”

Phil is currently composing a series of pieces on a digital platform that are intended to be played on traditional instruments. While, for the Digital Musics department, writing compositions that do not incorporate digital technologies in their performance is a bit of an abnormality, Phil is particularly excited about this body of compositions. While the body of work remains untitled, these compositions are written for a quartet comprised of a piano, cello, violin, and viola.

“Right now I’m having a lot of fun using digital interfaces for compositional purposes, but using instruments for actual performance. In using technology as a tool for writing, I think that I’m able to pen pieces that are a little different than what I would compose if I was writing with an instrument.”

Phil began song writing around the age of twelve, and by the time he was fourteen or fifteen he was composing his own music. Throughout high school, Phil played in both Temple’s concert and jazz band, and in his free time, wrote progressive compositions on the guitar.

“In high school I was listening to a lot of Frank Zappa and Duke Ellington, and when I wasn’t writing music of my own, I was playing with different Jazz combos. In addition to the show I played with both of my high school’s bands, I also played at a few jazz festivals in Texas with these combos.”

Phil’s current graduate research combines musical composition with multi-agent networks and dynamical systems. In addition to the required courses that he takes with the other Digital Musics master’s students, Phil also takes graduate courses at the Thayer School of Engineering; most recently, Phil took Networked, Multi Agent Systems with Reza Olfati-Saber, an Assistant Professor at Dartmouth who was awarded a Presidential Early-Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by President Obama 2010. While Phil has not yet proposed his thesis topic, he expects that it will examine the role of music within video games design.

“Right now, there are a number of music-based video games—like Guitar Hero and Rock Band—but I think there is more that can be done with the auditory elements of electronic games. The design firms that create most of today’s high budget releases are primarily interested in high-resolution graphics and the game’s playability. While both of these elements are important, I think more can be done with the audio components of these games. In the future, I hope that my graduate research allows for a degree of user interactivity with the auditory streams of these games.”

If you’d like to hear some of the compositions of Phil and other members of Green Orpheus, Digital Musics plans on hosting an outdoor concert this spring that will sync the department’s digital compositions with an original score that will be played on the bells of Baker Berry.

by Wesley Whitaker

On Tuesday, May 1^st at 5:00 PM, elections for the Executive Board for the Graduate Student Council (GSC) were held in Dartmouth Hall. Moderated by the lively Executive Board, each candidate delivered a two-minute speech to the election’s eligible voters, and answered three questions asked by the voters. Votes were cast by secret ballot and were tallied by volunteers from the outgoing Executive Board.

While all graduate students are welcome to run in Executive Board elections, votes are cast by Departmental Representatives who have fulfilled both the attendance and volunteer requirements outlined in the GSC constitution: to vote, Departmental Representatives must attend all council meetings (two absences allowed), and volunteer at two GSC events.

Thank you all Departmental Representatives who voted in the 2012 Executive Board Elections!

Without further ado, the members of the 2012-13 Executive Board of the Graduate Student Council are:

President: Julia Bradley-Cook, former Academic Chair of the GSC and a third year PhD candidate in Evolutionary and Ecological Biology (EEB)

Vice President: Justin Richardson, first year PhD candidate Earth Sciences and former Departmental Representative

Finance Chair: Adrienne Perkins, second year PhD candidate in Biological Sciences and former Departmental Representative

Social Co-Chair: Lisa Jackson, first year master’s student at The Dartmouth Institute (TDI) and former Departmental Representative

Social Co-Chair: Gilbert Rahme, second year PhD candidate in Genetics and former Departmental Representative

Secretary: Yash Patankar, second year PhD candidate in Microbiology and Immunology and former Departmental Representative

Student Life: Ron Bucca, first year student in Dartmouth’s Master of Arts in Liberal Studies (MALS) program

Academic Chair: Rich Lopez, first year PhD candidate in Psychological and Brain Sciences (PBS) and former Departmental Representative

North Park GA: Regina Salvat, a second year PhD candidate at Thayer and member of the 2011-12 Executive Board, is a member of the newly-elected Executive Board