Closing cancer’s escape routes. Writing a new script for Alzheimer’s disease. Reimagining solutions to the climate crisis. Graduate students at the University of California are tackling some of the world’s greatest challenges.
On April 22, 10 of them brought that work to the systemwide Grad Slam competition, delivering rapid-fire, three-minute talks that distilled years of research into compelling stories for a broad audience.
In the end, the coveted “Slammy” trophy went to Tahirah Williams, a Ph.D. student in quantitative and systems biology in the Nobile Lab at UC Merced. In a first for the competition, Williams also captured the People’s Choice award by vote of audiences watching online and in person at the UC Student and Policy Center in Sacramento. In total, Williams netted $10,000 in prize money.
Williams studies how mucus in the human body interacts with the fungus that causes Valley Fever, a disease that disproportionately affects California’s Central Valley. Spread through airborne spores in disturbed soil — such as when dust is kicked up by construction, farming or windstorms — Valley Fever can be life-threatening. By examining how the body’s natural defenses respond to the infection, Williams’ work could help researchers better understand, and ultimately disrupt, how the disease takes hold.
Also taking home prizes were Carla Bassil of UC Berkeley, who placed second for her talk on a machine learning–assisted gas sensor chip designed to improve food safety, and Brandon Courteau of UC San Francisco, who earned third place with a talk comparing protein interactions in cancer therapeutics to the dynamics of the reality dating show, “Love Island.”
Honing essential communication skills
Kaylee Laub, a graduate student in education at UC Santa Barbara, giving her talk, "Reimagining climate solutions through speculative designs."
The 10 contestants on the stage in Sacramento had already won their campus competitions as part of UC’s systemwide Grad Slam program. Now in its 11th year, Grad Slam highlights the breadth and impact of UC research while offering the public a window into graduate education and the ideas shaping our future.
The program challenges participants to distill years of work into three-minute, TED-style talks that inform and entertain. Participants spend months preparing — refining their storytelling, developing relatable metaphors and sharpening public speaking skills to bring complex ideas down to earth.
The goal of the program goes far beyond the competition: to equip graduate students with the communication skills necessary to secure funding, advance careers and demystify research for a general audience.
Grad Slam audience members from UC Merced
For Williams, making the work easier for the public to digest was a key motivator to join the program. “One of the major challenges with Valley Fever is the lack of awareness and information about the disease — that’s one of the reasons it is such a huge problem,” she said. “I was a little nervous to do Grad Slam, but I took on the challenge because I believe it’s critical to reach a broad audience with this information.”
Research that powers California and shapes the world
While the competition spotlights 10 finalists, it reflects on the work of more than 63,426 graduate students across the UC system. Their groundbreaking research spans every field, driving innovation in California and shaping solutions to the most pressing problems facing communities here and around the globe. Grad Slam gives audiences a glimpse of how that work stands to affect our daily lives and why it matters.
UC Berkeley second-place winner Carla Bassil (center) with Lisa García Bedolla, UC Berkeley vice provost for graduate studies and Hitchcock Dean of the Graduate Division (left), and Grad Slam emcee Yvette Gullatt, UC vice president for Graduate and Undergraduate Affairs and vice provost for equity, diversity and inclusion.
“UC’s role in training the next generation of researchers is a centerpiece of our academic mission,” said UC Provost Katherine Newman, who bestowed prizes at the event. “We produce highly skilled, analytic, extraordinarily insightful professionals, and they help to drive the modern economy of California and help to shape the whole world in countless ways.”
Grad Slam talks are judged according to six criteria, including clarity, delivery and engagement. This year’s judges included Partho Ghosh, professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at UC San Diego; Hayes Raffle, a product innovator and principal designer at Google; UC Board of Regents Chair Janet Reilly; Livia Shmavonian, deputy cabinet secretary and senior advisor for economic and workforce development in the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom; and Kya Young, a neuroscience student at Sacramento Community College. The event was sponsored by Google Gemini.
In addition to the graduate student presentations, this year’s event also included a keynote on protecting research funding by California State Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón.
As the event wrapped up, Tahirah Williams had a message for graduate students considering next year’s competition: “I would say, do the thing that scares you. It is worth taking the risk for the things you will learn, the connections you’ll make, and the skills you’ll develop along the way. And you never know, you might just win.”
Top photo: The 2026 Grad Slam contestants: Front row, left to right: Brandon Courteau, UC San Francisco; Tahirah Williams, UC Merced; Carla Bassil, UC Berkeley. Back row, left to right: Maya McElfish, UC Santa Cruz; Kaylee Laub, UC Santa Barbara; Christian Gerard Capuno, UCLA; Cameron Geller, UC Irvine; David Nikom, UC Riverside; Jack Goon, UC Davis; Joanna Eckhardt, UC San Diego. Photo: Robert Durell/University of California
