Biological Systems Engineering Ph.D. student Alice Dien was this year’s winner of the UC Davis Grad Slam, a Public Scholarship and Engagement (PSE) co-sponsored event that occurred on April 6. Dien’s winning research presentation “Cooling Down with the New Hot Air: The Future of Drying in Agriculture” earned her a $2,500 prize for first place, as well as the PSE’s Public Impact Prize.

Dien is the first engineer and first non-native English speaker to win UC Davis Grad Slam, which challenges M.S. and Ph.D. students to explain their research in an engaging way for a general audience. She also is part of the inaugural Public Scholars for the Future cohort, where she’s learning how to engage communities, find common goals and build mutually-beneficial relationships through research.

“The importance of science communications is something that kind of goes both ways. I’m very interested in community-based research and public scholarship,” Dien said. “Not only telling farmers this is how it can be done to work, but also having farmers tell me what they need, and being able to conduct research with that state of mind.”

Read the full story     Watch Alice Dien’s winning presentation