Grad Slam Finalists 2016

Congratulations to our 10 Grad Slam Finalists for 2016!

Finalists presented their research on April 6, 2016, to an enthusiastic audience.

First Place was awarded to Michael Nayak, who represented UC Santa Cruz at the University of California system-wide finals on April 22 in San Francisco.

Below are the videos of the First Place Winner Michael Nayak, Second Place Winner Joseph Stewart, and People’s Choice Awardee Damla Ozcelik. 


All 2016 UCSC Grad Slam presentations are viewable on the Division of Graduate Studies YouTube site.
  • First Place: Michael Nayak, Earth Sciences: Planetary Dynamics Around Cramped Exoplanet Star Systems
  • Second Place: Joseph Stewart, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Wildlife and Plant Conservation in the Era of Rapid Climate Change

  • People's Choice: Damla Ozcelik, Electrical Engineering, Accessible Diagnosis: Multiple Virus Identification on an Optofluidic Chip

Sarah Beganskas, Eric Crosbie

Bryan Holbrook, Andrew Marsh

Michael Nayak, Marc Francis Newman

Juliet Oshiro, Damla Ozcelik

Joseph Stewart, Jackson Tolins