This April, the Division of Graduate Studies held its 17th annual Graduate Student Research Symposium, an event to highlight the impressive research that graduate students are conducting across campus. In past years, the event has been held in McHenry Library and consisted of live presentations with or without slides and other visual accompaniments. This year, to accommodate for Covid health restrictions, the 33 graduate student participants submitted video presentations that were then posted to the Division of Graduate Studies YouTube channel for viewers and judges to watch on their own time. On April 23, Interim Vice Provost and Dean of the Division of Graduate Studies Quentin Williams announced the winners during a live Zoom event.

Colleen Murphy, a graduate student in Earth and Planetary Sciences, won the grand prize of $1000 for her video, “Sluggish Slides: Why Some Landslides Never Pick Up the Pace.” Another Science Division student, Lourdes “Lulu” Martinez Estevez, won “Best of the Physical and Biological Sciences Division” for her presentation, “Spatial ecology of hawksbill sea turtles in the Gulf of California.”

An announcement of all symposium winners, along with links to their presentations, can be found on the Division of Graduate Studies website.

Watch Murphy’s winning video here: