Iris Tien

2012 Fellows Reception

By Dick Corten, slideshow by Peg Skorpinksi  |  March 21, 2012

It was not hard for a good time to be had by all. The atmosphere was convivial, the mood was celebratory, there were plenty of people to talk to, and — always a priority for grad students — there was food. And not only that, the food was good.

The occasion was the Berkeley Distinguished Graduate Fellows Reception, an annual event, held this year in the banner-festooned auditorium of International House (well known as one of the largest, most diverse, residential global communities in the world).

The event was held February 29 — Leap Day, which only exists every four years to correct drift in our imperfect calendars. (Eleven days later we would adjust our timepieces for Daylight Savings Time, removing an hour instead of adding a day.)

Anthropology professor Rosemary Joyce, acting in her role as associate dean of the Graduate Division, welcomed a throng of several hundred — students, faculty, donors, and a smattering of staff — congratulating the fellowship recipients for being the culmination of a highly rigorous selection process that began with the 38,000 applications Berkeley’s graduate programs receive each year (15,000 to the doctoral programs), for fewer than 3,000 openings. Of these, hundreds are nominated for fellowships, and a far smaller number are actually chosen to receive awards. “As someone who’s familiar with the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which are extremely selective,” said Joyce, “I can say this is one of the most selective processes you will ever have gone through in your lives.”

Along with the competitive privately-funded fellowships, she noted, “Berkeley has the nation’s largest number of National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows, the largest number of Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellows, and outstanding numbers of recipients in many other categories,” which reflects well on the institution as well as the students. “Berkeley itself remains at the top as a research university,”  she continued. “The National Research Council recently concluded a study that again showed that Berkeley has the highest number of highly ranked programs in the country. When a Berkeley department talks about its distinction, we can say that’s true across all the fields — the sciences, the arts, and the humanities, and physical sciences. In fact, the 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities rated UC Berkeley fourth of all universities in the world, and the top public university worldwide.”

All smiles: civil systems engineering student Iris Tien, integrative biology professor and Berkeley alumnus Tyrone Hayes (Ph.D. ’95), and his student Xuan Luong. Both students are recipients of the Chancellor’s Fellowship for Graduate Study.