Engineering Ph.D. Students Named Professors for the Future Fellows
Four College of Engineering Ph.D. candidates are among the 20 University of California, Davis graduate students and postdoctoral scholars named as 2023-24 fellows in the Professors for the Future program, or PFTF.
The college is represented by Alice Dien, biological systems engineering; Doreen Joseph, computer science; Alyson Kim, civil and environmental engineering; and Sophie Orr, Biomedical Engineering Graduate Group.
"A primary goal of PFTF is to demystify careers in academia and diversify the professoriate," said Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor, associate dean for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars and director of PFTF. "Being able to accept a greater number of diverse candidates into the program, we will not only help provide important professional development opportunities to those students, but they will also enrich the program as well with their perspectives on the graduate student experience."
Founded in the 1992-93 academic year, Professors for the Future is a competitive fellowship program housed within GradPathways Institute for Professional Development — an important unit within Graduate Studies.
PFTF’s goal is to prepare participants to face the future challenges of graduate education, postdoctoral training and the academy. During the year-long fellowship graduate students and postdoctoral scholars participate in monthly seminars, an annual retreat and a course on teaching pedagogy. Fellows also receive a stipend in recognition of their selection to this highly competitive program.
A key component of the program is the academic service project that each fellow undertakes. The ideas for these projects originate from the graduate students and postdoctoral scholars themselves based on their graduate student experiences. This year’s projects range from tips on mentorship and job hunting, to empowering for marginalized scholars and coaching on how to protect one’s time during graduate school.