The Graduate Research Awards Committee, which oversees the awards, consists of senior faculty members from all of the five disciplinary areas of research at UC Riverside. The committee selected the award recipients from a pool of about 50 candidates. The Office of Research Affairs, the Office of Alumni and Constituent Relations, and the Graduate Student Association at UC Riverside and the Office of the Chancellor support the Graduate Research Awards Program.
UCR Chancellor France A. Córdova pointed to the graduate student experience as the pivotal time in young scholars' lives, calling those years "one of the most important, freest times of thinking and creativity about your disciplines. It's a time of focus, a time to let your minds evolve."
The awards program recognizes excellence in graduate student research at UC Riverside and exhibits the excellent quality of research carried out by graduate students. The program provides an atmosphere of incentive for all graduate students to excel in their field and in their professional development.
"The range of excellence here is very broad," she said. "To evolve new knowledge is all about asking the right questions, but not only that, it's about taking a new approach to answering those questions."
The award recipients received a certificate of recognition for their work, each received a cash award of $1,000.00 and gave a 10-minute introduction to his or her research.