Graduate research takes center stage at UC Grad Slam
May 5, 2026 •
UC Grad Slam contest featuring grad students from 10 campus at UC Center Sacramento in Sacramento, Calif., April 22, 2026. (Photo by Robert Durell)
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.
Watch the video of Tahirah below, then read the whole story from the UC Newsroom!
Tags: grad slam, research, Tahirah Williams
