Leveraging the Influence of California’s Premier Institutions to Diversify The Mathematical, Physical Sciences and Engineering
The California Alliance is a collaboration between four premier doctoral degree-granting institutions in California, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Los Angeles, Stanford University, and California Institute of Technology. Additionally, the California Alliance has partnered with national labs including: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The California Alliance is building a robust network of scientists who are dedicated to the goal of achieving diversity at the highest levels of the scientific workforce. The scholars in this alliance aspire to and are preparing for the most sought-after positions in academia and the research enterprise in mathematical, physical, and computer sciences; and engineering (MPCS&E).
For the first time, the California Alliance has engaged four of the nation’s most prominent universities for joint mentorship, scientific collaboration, career development and guidance of advanced PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. The goal of the California Alliance is to increase the advancement of PhD students and postdoctoral fellows from these top tier institutions into the most competitive research and teaching careers. To achieve this, The California Alliance is matching students and postdocs with mentors in their area of research. The California Alliance will provide funding for students and postdocs to visit their mentor for a short period to learn new techniques engage in collaborative discussion for innovative problem solving and face-to-face interaction between the mentor and mentee and scientific peers of the mentee from the mentor’s department. Visits may last approximately one week. To support these visits, applicants may be awarded up to $1000.
The mentor-matching program will support URM students from each of the four schools in the California Alliance to visit research groups at any of the partner schools. The goal of this program (which is being supported by the NSF) is to identify collaborators or potential mentors among the faculty across the alliance institutions. Our expectation for this program is that this kind of cross-insitutional sharing of students and faculty will aid students in their search for postdoctoral mentors, encourage them to reach their research aspirations, and contribute to their enthusiasm about staying at top tier places (including our campuses) as they step forward in their careers.
The California Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate is a NSF Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP-T.) NSF-AGEP-T supports strategic alliances of institutions and organizations to develop, implement, and study innovative evidence-based models and standards for STEM graduate education, postdoctoral training, and academic STEM career preparation that eliminate or mitigate negative factors and promote positive practices for URMs.
Apply to be matched with a faculty mentor in your area of research at any of the four California Alliance Institutions (UC Berkeley, Caltech, Stanford and UC Los Angeles) or a partnering National Laboratory (LBNL, LLNL, SLAC, JPL, and Sandia) please complete and submit the request below. Applications are accepted and reviewed throughout the year:
-For Spring, the deadline to apply is February 17th, 2015.
-For Summer, the deadline to apply is May 15th, 2015.
-For Fall, the deadline to apply is September 17th, 2015.
Eligible individuals include advanced Ph.D. graduate students and postdocs in the Mathematical, Physical and Computer Science and Engineering (MPCS&E) fields who belong to an underrepresented minority group (African American, Chicano/Latino, Native American/Alaskan Native) and are US citizens.